5) Description of housing product/service offering: There are basically three major services that Habitat Technology Group (Habitat) provided to the tsunami hit community of Veerabagupathy- designing, building and acting as a bridge between the community and an international funding agency to assist them build their houses. With the cash they received as immediate relief, the members of this community could only buy land but could not afford to construct houses. Habitat brought this village which was so far been neglected by the administration to the notice of A&D, an NGO founded in Paris, and approached it to help raise funds for the actual construction of houses. A&D in turn approached a partner agency and arranged Rs. 90 lakhs (US$ 0.2 million) for the reconstruction of houses in Veerabagupathy.

While part of the finance was taken care of by the French NGO, Habitat designed cost effective and disaster resistant houses and took complete charge of the construction. Habitat used two low cost building techniques namely rat trap bond in masonry and filler slab technology for roofing which lowered the cost of construction considerably. This made it possible for the community, even the low-income and marginalized section, to complete their houses for less than Rs.85,000/- (US$ 1900). The cost of the housing options are cost effective to extent of 40% as against the conventional and contemporary building technology applications.

The two aspects of housing interventions, Habitat addressed, were technological and financial. The primary beneficiaries of this project were the 58 families of Veerapagupathy. Habitat has been completely involved in this project and the services rendered covered the whole gamut from the initial stages of design development through participative process with beneficary families to construction, supervision and provision of basic amenities.

6) Description of innovation: Our approach was to provide houses that are strong, durable (sturdy), disaster resistant, aesthetically pleasing, eco friendly as well as affordable. As against million other houses built for the tsunami victims which were constructed without any reference to the culture and needs of the specific communities, we designed houses in consultation with the concerned families, taking into account their needs and requirements. We were also particular about using cost effective and eco friendly materials and technologies. Community participation was sought and ensured at every stage of the work. Habitat took initiatives to help this community and ensured participation and their willingness to contribute unlike other victims who completely depended on external funding, technologies and delivery options for reconstructing their houses.

The 58 families of Veerabagupathy, first bought land with savings and the money they received as immediate relief. Subsequently they approached Habitat to assist them to build their houses and in turn Habitat approached A&D to fund the project. This became a three way partnership of public-private-peoples partnership (PPPP), where all the three stakeholder agencies contributed either financially or in terms of technical advice and backup services. The beneficiaries were involved and consulted at every step and were present during construction of houses by providing support services to construction workers and contribution of their labour. This ensured personal stake and involvement through-out the project cycle, unlike other disaster rehabilitation projects where they were evacuated forcefully and construction done by external agencies. This provided a balming effect which helped them rebuild their lives forgetting the scars that tsunami left on them.

Due to the personal involvement of the community, trauma of rehabilitation and resettlement was much less compared to other tsunami rehab projects.

7) Benefits to clients: We have a very simple mechanism to reach out to the low- income and marginalized population. Our set up is such that anybody can come and approach us and ask for our services provided that the building will be constructed solely with environment sensitive technologies. Our organization has been working in the field of sustainable architecture for the last 20 odd years. Its philosophy and ideology needs no publicity as it is evident in the form of thousands of houses for the low income group through out Kerala and different parts of the country and abroad. Apart from our passion for providing affortable and acceptable housing solutions, we are deeply concerned about the issue of rehabilitation and resettlement issues. Habitat has always been one of the first few to arrive at natural disaster hit places and offer its expertise services in the housing sector to rehabilitate the victims. In this particular case also, after tsunami hit the coastal areas of Kerala and Tamilnadu, Habitat was there to provide assistance for their rehabilitation. Thus, the community came to know about Habitat and the services it offers and approached it later when its family members decided to reconstruct their houses. It is also of importance to note that the poor, marginalized and low income families are the worst affected in any natural calamities and they have the least access to good professional advice. Their financial resources being limited, it is of ulmost importance that the limited financial resources pooled in from various sources (personal savings, contribution of Governments, NGO, AID agencies, loans etc) are used most effectively, efficiently and economically to produce affordable yet durable solutions. This is where Habitat has reached out to the marginalized community.

8) Key operational partnerships: Habitat has worked in partnership with various national and international agencies, local self governments, state government and other NGOs at different points of time to pursue its goal of making housing affordable for the common people. For example, during the housing campaign in Kerala, Habitat built more than one lakh (one hundred thousand) houses for the poor and marginalized sections of the society in partnership with the Kerala Government. Similarly, in partnership with HUDCO (leading national techno-financing institution), it successfully rehabilitated the slum dwellers from the outskirts of Trivandrum. However, we believe that in order to make our model of affordable housing more effective, we have to ensure the participation of the community. In other words, the community becomes an active partner in the project. This has been our approach throughout. This particular project was carried out in partnership with A&D, a France based NGO, the tsunami affected community of Veerabagupathy and Habitat Technoloty Group, where each partner had its particular role in providing affordable housing to the needy. While Habitat stood as a bridge between the community in need of assistance and the part funding agency, we ensured in mobilizing contribution from the community, through cash, kind or labour. Though this has availed grant assistance, due to the economic shock of the beneficiary families, the beneficiaries have paid for the land and also contributed to the labour, wherever possible.

9) Financial model: The alternative technologies we use ensure that our beneficiaries, can afford to build a house of their own. Habitat was started as a positive intervention against mainstream building delivery process. The contemporary models have a heavy dependence on high energy consuming and expensive building materials making housing unaffordable for common people. Habitat always propagated alternative methods in construction using locally available, eco-friendly, sustainable, cost effective and energy efficient building materials / technologies. Though Habitat, does not offer any financial assistance, has assisted communities to obtain assistance from funding agencies. With Habitat’s technology package and expertise, even the poorest of the poor have managed to build houses for themselves.

          • Costs as percentage of income: 20

          • Financing: The Veerabagupathy tsunami rehabilitation project is a project financed by Organisation de France which released the funds through A&D, a Paris based organization. While the part cost of construction is taken care of by the funding agency, the members of the community have contributed according to their capacity for the plot on which the new village is being constructed and also their own personal savings. They have contributed to labour, wherever possible. Skilled, semi skilled and unskilled labour costs account for 35% to 40% of housing costs. Since the houses are completed, it will now be their responsibility to further enhance and maintain the houses. It has been 1½ year since tsunami hit this village and people have already reestablished in the new settlement well.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: The project is completed and handed over to the beneficiaries. Initially there were 76 families interested for housing project . However, a few got financial assistance from other agencies and went for that. There are 58 families who had benefited from the specific project. The funds from Government / other sources are utilized for common utility and social infrastructure like digging a common drinking water well, constructing roads and community hall for the community assets.

          • Number of clients in past year: Habitat assistance has benefited communities in Indian States and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nigeria. Last year, Habitat built houses for tsunami victims for over a thousand Indian families and over five hundred overseas families.

          • Percentage of clients that are poor or marginalized: 50

          • Potential demand: With rising cost of construction due to input costs of building materials, formal housing solutions are beyond the reach of homeless. By the utilization of appropriate and cost effective technologies, we have demonstrated, over the last 2 decades, that affordable and acceptable houses are feasible which are strong, functional, durable and yet aesthetic. Habitat has provided sustainable solutions for over one hundred thousand houses to the disaster victims, slum evicted and other marginalized population. Overseas agencies have approached Habitat to provide expertise for the tsunami victims in Sri Lanka and Maldives. Its services are also given in Bangladesh and Nigeria. Appropriate technologies used by Habitat have universal application. With minimal alteration it can be used to tackle housing needs of the poor, marginalized and low income households, the world over.

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Mature stage.

          • Expansion plan: We are assisting in the construction of housing and community building assets and would include more features for the development of sustainable human settlements. It is proposed to extend our services to cover over fifty thousand families in the next three years in Indian cities and villages and also neighbouring countries.

12) Origin of the initiative: In response to the crying need for cost effective housing options, a major movement for affordable housing came up in the sixties spearheaded by the work of Laurie Baker and followed by organizations like Habitat (HTG), Costford and Building Centres. Habitat, over two decades, emerged as a leading service provider for architectural, engineering and construction services to assist people of all genres to build affordable houses. Soon after tsunami the people of Veerabagupathy came to know about the work of Habitat, working with relief executing organizations. When they decided to buy land and build new houses, the community head approached Habitat for assistance. The money they had received as immediate relief was just enough for buying land but not for constructing houses. Habitat in turn approached A&D/ Fondation de France for financial assistance for the project. The specific project took shape with techno-financing package. As a result, the community could get affordable houses using pooled finance, appropriate design and technologies, which offered cost effective solutions.

Contact Information:
Suresh  Vasudevan
Advisor to Habitat Technology Group
Habitat Technology Group
(NGO)
Mr. G. Shankar, Habitat Technology Group, Poojapura, Trivandrum, Kerala - 695012 or Mr. V. Suresh, Advisor, Habitat Technology Group, P-233/3, Officer's Enclave, Air Force Station, Rajokri, New Delhi – 110 038, India
India
Tel: n/a
Email: habitat@asianetindia.com
Website: n/a