Housing Development and Management
Building local skills and systems to secure land and develop housing.
Step by Step Housing
Income levels are so low in most Sub-Saharan African countries that 90% of urban families cannot afford to buy a house - even when mortgage financing is available. Most families struggle just to secure the land necessary for housing. When land has been acquired, the long building process begins. Existing shelters are renovated or new homes are constructed room-by-room. During this process, families work with their neighbors to access basic essential needs like water, sanitation and electricity.
Rooftops Canada, its Canadian and local housing partners in Africa, have played a vital role in this incremental housing development strategy. Rooftops Canada helps local organizations organize cooperatives and grassroots groups, provides technical support, and most critically, helps coordinate housing microfinance programs. These small loans support the way housing is built progressively and over long periods by families living in poverty.
Mary Mathenge, CEO of the National Cooperative Housing Union of Kenya explains how their incremental housing loan program creates safe places for children to grow up.
Medium and High-Density Housing
In South Africa, Rooftops Canada helped grow the social housing sector which now manages non-profit rental housing for 27,000 families – 50% of which are women-headed. Rooftops Canada also helped launch a program with the City of Cape Town to convert apartheid-era dormitory hostels into family housing. Starting with a 45-unit demonstration project, over 13,000 families now live in new housing units.
Post-disaster Housing
Rooftops Canada also organizes and coordinates professional teams to assess and develop housing strategies for regions devastated by natural disasters. In Banda Aceh, this helped start a large-scale Canadian-funded housing project, and in Haiti, this resulted in support for small community-based projects. In Turkey, Canadian advisors helped break down silos between professionals, academics, municipal officials, construction companies, and trade unions.
