Abstract:
Getting a decent place to live is one of those basic necessities for a dignified human existence.
However, access to housing is a great problem in Ethiopia. Due to this reason, this study
aimed at assessing access to housing in Teji town, South West Shewa zone, Oromia National
Regional State, Ethiopia. Besides, the specific objectives were to describe the present day
status of accessing to house, to identify the challenges in the process of accessing to own
house and to investigate the impacts of lack of accessing to own house in Teji town. To
achieve these objectives mixed method research design typically explanatory sequential
design was employed. Among the target population 337 sample houseless households were
selected by using simple random sampling method to fill questionnaire and 13 respondents
were selected by using purposive sampling method for interview. Both primary and secondary
data sources were used. In order to analyze the collected data descriptive statistical tools such
as percentage and frequency were used and were presented using tables, pie-chart and bar
graphs. As the findings indicated there was shortage of alternative housing services in the
study area. As a result, 93% of the respondents were residing in house rented from private
owners, which was inappropriate in terms of monthly payment of rent house as compared to
respondents’ monthly income. The challenges in the process of accessing to own house was
identified as low income, absence of saving, absence of loan, lack of housing land and high
monthly payment of rent house. As it was assessed the impacts of lack of access to own house
ranges up to undignified harassments and violation of fundamental rights of the tenants. On
the basis of analysis the study recommends that developing the saving habit of the society by
providing continuous capacity building programs, the municipality should facilitate the
involvement of private sector in the construction and provision of housing at affordable price,
the government should provide housing finance for those low income earners, the municipality
should facilitate mechanism for low income earners to access to plot of land for house
construction without bidding and the government should be involved and design the common
binding rule for house renters and tenants.
