Life after eviction
Hundreds of families are rebuilding their lives after being evicted from their homes in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Alongside supporting these families during their resettlement, we have been working with a UK housing association to explore how an innovative social housing scheme could benefit other poor families in the area.
In 2007, hundreds of families in the Kurasini slum in Dar es Salaam were evicted and had their homes demolished as part of plans to redevelop the nearby harbour. Although compensation was given to house owners, the majority of residents were tenants of private landlords and did not receive any compensation: they were left without homes and moving away from the area would mean leaving their jobs behind.
With support from our Tanzanian partner, the Centre for Community Initiatives (CCI), 300 evicted families worked together to build their collective savings and to find land on which to build new houses. In 2008, the group found a suitable plot of land in a peri-urban area called Chamazi. They used their own savings to
buy the land and formed a housing cooperative to plan and manage the development, allowing all families to have an equal say in the scheme.
The land will house all 300 families from Kurasini and will also include 200 rental housing units. An architect helped the group to produce a site layout and design affordable houses, which are built using low-cost construction techniques, with the community providing labour. Through workshops, small industries and a market to be built at the site, residents will be able to earn their own incomes.
In preparation for house- building, Homeless International provided support for the community to drill a borehole to bring water to the site. During
the year, work on the site has progressed well and the first residents have moved into their new homes (see Constansia’s story, opposite).
Homeless International is supporting the Chamazi project through a four- year grant for technical assistance.
Piloting social rental housing In addition to the houses being built for the 300 families from Kurasini, the Chamazi site will include 200 rental housing units. We have been working with Paradigm Housing in the UK and CCI in Tanzania to develop this innovative scheme. Based on the model of UK housing associations, the initiative is an opportunity for CCI to pilot social rental housing in Tanzania, demonstrating alternative solutions to housing the urban poor and preventing evictions. The promises of this project have already helped to prevent the eviction of another community living nearby. Paradigm Housing will support the scheme through an initial investment in a newly- created local ‘housing association’.
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annual review 2011
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