THE CHALLENGE OF PROPERTY MANAGEMENT IN SLUM AREAS (A Case Study of Lagos State)

THE CHALLENGE OF PROPERTY MANAGEMENT IN SLUM AREAS (A Case Study of Lagos State)

                                                               By

                                       GABRIEL KUYE OLUSEGUN

SYNOPSIS

Slum is an environment where physical and social image have been devalued and this tends to be the main factors that pervades our urban resettlements throughout the world. Slums can be defined as a group of building or an area characterized by overcrowding, unsanitary condition or absence of facilities or amenities (such as portable water, drainage system, school, health facilities, recreational ground, post office, etc) and which because of these conditions endangers the health, safety or moral of its inhabitants or the community as a whole. It often emanates as a result of the fact that governments of the various countries cannot provide enough housing accommodation for its citizens so in a bid to solve this housing problem, they developed their own housing schemes. This study seeks to objectively looking at life in the slum area and the challenges it poses on housing management using Lagos State as a reference point. The research methodology is mainly through reconnaissance survey, observations, interviews and the use of secondary data sources. However, the personal experience of the Author as regards the slum neighbourhoods of Lagos Metropolis played a major part in this study. The objectives of the study included the appraisal of both the positive and the negative aspects of slum life, impact of slum on housing management and ways of minimizing the effect of slum on residential neighbourhoods.

1.0       INTRODUCTION

The reduction in value or the dilapidating state of many areas in the country leading to squatter settlement is becoming a menace in the society. Slum areas are the resultant effect of poor maintenance and inadequate supply of basic amenities. Slums is characterized by poor sanitary surrounding caused by indiscriminate litter of refuse and poor sewage dilapidated structures – high occupancy ratio inadequate provision of public facilities, ownership by nonchalant house- owners who do not maintain their buildings, poor landscaping, low rent and general features of vandalism (Thorncroft, 1974).

In order words, slum can be defined as a group of buildings or an area characterized by overcrowding, deterioration, unsanitary conditions, and the absence of facilities or amenities that enhances good living condition, which therefore endangers the health, safety or moral of the inhabitants of the community.   It can also be described as an environment in which a set of forces interacts to give rise to a devalued physical and social image of an area by a larger community. A slum area has proved to be physically, socially and emotionally harmful to the residents.

Two schools of thought have contrasting views to the causes of slums. One school of thought believes that the dirty living habits of slum dwellers and the neglects of building constitute a slum. The other school of thought is of the view that physical deterioration encourages slum habits in people. Whatever be the case, slum areas are generally not prestigious areas but are usually areas resided without proper planning.

The word “slum” is a catchall for poor housing of every kind as well as a label for the environment. The same word denotes a mansion turned into furnished rooms or tenement and a cardboard carton sheltering a human being. Blighted area as defined by George (1999) “is any area in which large majority of the building are old and in which fundamental repairs are no longer being made”. Two criteria are: employed for the above definition namely:-

a. The social image of the area

b. Its physical condition

Slum can be said to be a dilapidated and overcrowded area inhabited by an inferior social class of people. They include cabins, shanties, dens, dugouts, sheds, stalls and other manifestation or poverty.   For examples in Lagos, there are some areas, which can be termed as slum. Examples of slum areas in Lagos include Makoko, some parts of Iwaya – Okoagbon, Igbehinadun, Pedro, etc, (where the houses were made of bamboo sticks and on swampy land area), Mushin and Ajegunle among others.

2.0       CLASSIFICATION OF SLUM

Slums dwelling is not always a symbol of retrogressiveness, it could be the first advancement from being homeless to finding temporary shelter. For example a young man sleeping under the Obalende bridge who suddenly got a room in the then Maroko would definitely rejoice for him, it is a step forward unlike a man who has just bee ejected from his 3 – Bedroom flat and now show as a room with a friend will be feeling depressed. The people living in slum area are there become the economy of the city needs them without them; life in the city will come to a stand still. It is the home for traders, craftsmen, stewards, and civil servants etc. In essence, slum can be of two categories:

1. Districts of which had been slums right from its inception; unsanitary and wretched housing condition exists here because of the original arrangement, construction and types of building materials used in the area; and
2. Squalid: Housing results from misuse of dwelling units originally planned for less intensive uses.

Slum may be open-end, dead –end slum or new and old slum

• Open-end slum is derived from the nature of the slum, the kind of people the slum These areas such as Mushin, Oshodi, are often referred to as “transit camp” because they are inhabited by immigrants who would move out immediately they make their money. Some facilities are here but not adequate and are substandard.
• Close-end/dead slum is a totally rejected area, the inhabitants have no choice, as they do not have hope to leave the areas. No money, no jobs. The areas lack all facilities e.g. former Maroko.
• New or old slum: areas which are not really slums, but they lack some essential facilities e.g. Ojota, Ketu and some parts of Lagos metropolis.

3.0              CAUSES OF SLUM

Slums are not only caused by deterioration of buildings but also by inadequacy of space standard resulting in congestion of various uses and inadequacy of circulation space. Low capital formation of the less privileged group where the income they generate is only enough for sustenance while low capital is left to utilize in improving their homes or to keep their environment healthy for human habitation. The poor financial position of such residents is the main reason why 6-10 persons would live in a room. In addition, there is a sense of negligent among the rural dwellers and this perception encourages rural-urban migrants to the urban centres in search of white-collar jobs, which are not always available. They find solace in cheap but poor quality housing in filthy environment.

The major causes of slum, according to George (1999), are outlined below:

• Inadequate urban planning: Based on the problem of instability, no meaningful planning schemes could be carried out by the government. Despite the high rate of urbanization and population growth of many Nigerian cities, housing and planning are not receiving adequate The Planning Authorities are not adequately equipped to carry out its functions.
• Economic factors: This contributing factor is economic hardship, though it’s a universal problem at present in the African sub region. Abject poverty has become major obstacles to achieve the desire of everyman for good This in turn has resulted in low environmental condition, which thereby resulted in the slum being talked about.
• The nature of traditional cities: There are two identified causes of slum under this sub heading and they are:
  • Physical characteristics: Most city cores in Africa, especially Nigeria are characterized by overcrowding notorious rural landscape, substandard and obsolete building structures, lack of planning which resembles the picture of a slum
  • Socio-economic characteristics: Since slums do not occur by themselves but by the socio-economic activities of the inhabitants. That is why their residential areas, which are usually located in the city, demonstrate the image of an unkempt village, shantytown, and unhealthy, squalid environment. This also includes poor sanitation, environmental neglect, and lack of adherence to basic hygiene codes.

• Demographic problems: Population growth of city cores is very dynamic and The demographic multiplication is of two causes-high birth rate of the inhabitant on one hand and high rate of rural-urban migration on the other. They increase in population is highly not in proportion with the housing social facilities and employment opportunity provisions. Majority of the population are under-aged, which results in high dependency ratio. This in turn contributes immensely to vicious circle of poverty, which keeps per capital income so low for any meaningful provision for housing.

Others causes of slum are:

• Deterioration of building due to poor architectural design, poor construction materials, non-conformity with town planning rules and regulations.
• Inadequacy of space standard resulting in congestion of various uses.
• Break down of infrastructural facilities, which include pipe borne water supply system, lack of maintenance of drains and roads resulting in stagnant pools breeding mosquitoes.
• Land tenure system, which encourages the subdivision of land to each member of the family resulting in small plots that cannot accommodate a good living standard.
• Overpopulation due to rural-urban drift
• Change in the use of building g. the change of a single household unit into two, three or sometimes four household units encourages slum development.

4.0       FEATURES OF A SLUM NEIGHBOURHOOD

The prevalent features of a slum area are outlined below:

• There are serious accessibility and circulation problems: This is as a result of extremely narrow road, potholes on roads etc. There is always traffic congestion of both human and traffic at most hours of each day; an example is Boundary road in Ajegunle. Sometimes people even need to go through other people’s compound to access their own house.
• Poor buildings: Houses here are characterized with obsolescence (physical, functional and economical) the houses are substandard, deteriorating, etc.
• Overcrowding: The affliction of slum living is further intensified by overcrowding and lack of privacy. “Crowding” in these instances means that the houses are crowded onto available space; it also refers to crowding within the house itself. In Lagos, where the number of people per room have increase drastically, some 10 person per room, others may be more e.g. Mushin, Ajegunle, Oshodi etc.
• Poor or complete absence of waste disposal: One of the most troublesome aspects of slum life continues to be the simple disposal of human excrement which may be discharged into a ditch shared by dozens of families, some discharge directly on nearby canal, pond, etc, refuse are littered every where, one might mistaken a house for a refuse; the only path to a house is by stepping on refuse dumps e.g. some areas in Makoko – Abiodun Street, Apollo Street, etc some parts of Mushin.
• Poor or complete absence of public infrastructural facilities: Facilities such pipe-borne water (this is replaced by shallow well-water which sometime sucks polluted, stagnant water, open drains in the area).
• Epidemic outbreak: It includes tuberculosis, dysentery, typhoid, and cholera among In Lagos, out of 4,759 school children whose stools were examined, 85% were infested with parasites, roundworm and hookworm being most common, dysentery and diarrhea accounted for 10.1% (George, 1999).
• Poor drainage system: Some areas do not have good drainage system; such areas include Okobaba, Okoagbon, Makoko, Pedro at Iwaya and some areas in Bariga, all in Lagos State. There is inherent of sudden deaths, due to malnutrition diseases etc.
• Drug addiction: The slum area can be a fertile ground for breading drug addicts who uses drug to ease their suffering.
• Lack of recreational space and change use of residential building is prevalent.
• Over-population: It is a general phenomenon to find more people occupying a given space – this in essence means that the residential density in slum neighbourhoods is very high.

5.0              THE IMPACT OF SLUM ON HOUSING MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Housing management may be defined as the conscious direction and control of investment in real property with the aim of securing optimum return. Property management is the supervision, and control of interests in landed property with the aim of securing optimum return. Housing management practice can be affected by slum in the following ways:

• The state of slum in the society would however make the original housing management objectives unachievable. Since the features of slums areas characterized by poor state buildings and the entire surroundings together with dilapidated building with high degree of obsolescence.
• Slum results to a reduction in building value, in that the building is in a bad state of repairs, it would definitely not command high rentals as compare to the open market value. If at all the buildings are to be managed by housing managers, the housing managers fees would be based on the rent realizable from such buildings, which of course would be low, and this is not encouraging at all.
• Since, the nonchalant attitude of slum residents does not allow them to keep property in good state of repairs; it is never encouraging for the management authority of the area to regularly carry out repair works.
• Relatively, the impact of these slum areas on housing management is that since it affects basically a neighbourhood and not an isolated building as a result of the fact that buildings are often of the same age, character, therefore a decline is bound to have a corresponding effect on the neighbourhood. This of course affects the values of buildings in the area.
• Slum areas are usually densely populated and so it results to quick/rapid depreciation since available facilities would be over stretched and so, the rentals that such building would accrue would be small.
• Security and regularity of income: This is the ability of a property to yield income regularly. Due to the fact that the slum harbours low-income earners, the situation of default of rent often arises.
• As a result of the social and cultural attachment which the people in slum areas have in common, it becomes difficult for the housing managers and government to embark on slum clearance that would have help to upgrade the areas and thus prevent such area from turning into slum settlement.
• The housing manager, in the course of undergoing routine inspection, is usually insulted by the residents of the area because they lack proper knowledge regarding the management need of the area.
• Hygiene problem is high because of the nature and class of the people inhabiting this area. It will be very difficult for the housing manager to control this class of people as they constantly litter their surroundings indiscriminately, coupled with the poor sewage in the area
• Non-conforming uses: A building that is purely a residential one is often found being used as shop and (other uses in these areas) thereby creating more management problem.
• Reduction in property value: Location is a major factor, which affect property Location in the sense of where the property is situated. Slum, swampy area, highbrow area etc. properties in areas like Mushin, Makoko would command lower value compared with its counterparts in Surulere, Ikoyi etc and since housing management practice (from its definition) has the aim of securing maximum return, in this case, its return is affected negatively.
• Miscellaneous problems: This include solving problems of determination of boundaries e.g. fences or walls, common parts, landlord services, minor nuisances become very tedious and disputes within and among tenants – all these are more in slum areas.

It can be seen from the above that even newly constructed buildings still become obsolete but it varies in relation to old buildings or buildings not properly maintained. Furthermore, slum/squatter settlements definitely reduce the value of properties therefore reducing the amount that the owner can obtain from the property, so also the amount of management fees accruable to the property manager.

6.0    WAYS THROUGH WHICH THE EFFECT OF SLUM COULD BE MINIMIZED

Due to the pressure on urban area as a result of urban growth and urbanization, most places have deteriorated resulting in many dilapidated buildings and structures in such areas. In areas where this happens, it will be very necessary to embark on comprehensive renewal programme to improve this situation. During this process the building may need to be demolished and the street pattern and land use completely redesigned, but if not most of the building will be retained by extensive renovation. The magnitude of the identified problem or renewal process may maintain the form of conservation rehabilitation and upgrading or total redevelopment.

• Conservation: This should be categorized as one that prevents blight/slum by preserving the area from further deterioration that may lead to environment hazard. It is used in neighbourhood of near standard quality but with some deficiencies in environmental infrastructure.
• Rehabilitation: This is the restoration of a deteriorating neighbourhood into a good Rehabilitation is used as a renewal technique in the neighbourhood where the degree of deterioration can be contained. This involves repairs of worn out area or spot clearance. In rehabilitation, people retain ownership of their properties by self-effort and support from government through the provision of facilities and services such as roads, water, electricity and such other facilities that may be lacking in the area.
• Upgrading: This programme involves the provision of basic infrastructural facilities and services as a short-range economic measure of improving the housing situation. It will work in an area where only renovation is required to improve the physical environment.
• Redevelopment: A more advanced case of blight/slum (e.g. Ajegunle) and it usually attracts total clearance and acquisition for redevelopment, and sometimes a change of use may become This planning technique is normally considered where conservation and rehabilitation are unable to bring out a desirable environment. The development process is similar to that of rehabilitation in that survey is made, renewal plan formulated, a public hearing is made and if found viable, approval is given by the local planning authority and project will be ready for execution.

7.0       CONCLUSION

A programme that has been implemented from time past towards eliminating slum is urban renewal. Here, people are displaced from their houses with the promise that they would be re- allocated. However, goal of this implementation is never fully achieved due to inadequate funds, the inconsistencies of government policy and lack of political will to follow through urban renewal programmes. Furthermore, the displaced people are usually not given alternative accommodation and where they are provided at all, it is usually at very high rents, which is usually too expensive for these people to afford. Hence, the problem of slum materialized again and again because these displaced people start another form of settlement and as the new settlement grows, the development of slum will start all over again. This means that the supposed problem meant to be solved will end up to generate another problem and so, the vicious circle of slum development. It is therefore obvious that slum cannot be completely eliminated.

Conclusively, despite all the odds enumerated, slums in the society is inevitable, it is a necessity if economic activities is to continually make functional.

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