SURVEY OF ACCESS TO HOUSING: THE CASE OF TEJI TOWN, ILU WOREDA, SOUTH WEST SHEWA ZONE, OROMIA NATIONAL REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

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.