- What could be done to increase affordable housing in Egypt and the Middle East?
- Leading Architects in the Middle East are currently focusing more on the development of luxurious apartments, leaving the middle and poor families to struggle for affordable housing. In Egypt, for example, more than 500,000 families in Cairo share house with relatives since they cannot afford the expensive housing in the nation’s capital. There is a great need for change to ensure that the middle and low-income classes do not suffer any more support (Retsinas & Belsky, 2008).
After I earn my MBA, I plan to take an active role in the issue of increasing affordable housing as both a developer and an architect. The first step, I will arrange a meeting between the governments, social service organizations like Habitat for Humanity, and architecture and development stakeholders to discuss the definition of affordable housing and the best practices to achieve it. These meetings could be modeled on such European and North American collaborative as the United States Housing First model which focuses on the partnership between the government and private developers for the ultimate goal of providing independent housing to the underprivileged (Flaherty, 2010).
As a developer, I plan to start by negotiating for a better support plan for the private sector in Egypt. By encouraging the government to develop a national housing policy and development programs that can attract developers, the private sector will get support from the government. The support can be in the form of land allocation and accessibility. Moreover, I will work with the ministries associated with the housing and development sector to come up with policies that could allow several partnerships between international organizations in order to provide funding, and local private developers (Schmitz, 2005).
As an architect, I plan to address the lack of knowledge many architectural stakeholders in the housing industry lack in terms of modern building techniques and efficiency. Currently most methods used are outdated, expensive and have high running costs. By encouraging government industry officials and local development experts to attend international forums that focus on the building and the development of the housing industry, such as the World housing forum, those associated with the housing industry can better modernize and reduce the cost of the building process (Retsinas & Belsky, 2008).
Another issue that citizens in Egypt and the Middle East have failed to resolve is the issue of finance; even if an affordable housing project has been developed with government support, most under privileged families have little to no means of financing. I plan to address this issue by creating better payment plans that can suit many families where housing costs will not exceed thirty percent of a household’s income. Moreover, since the private sector will be more involved, the government will have the resources to provide better loans and rent support (Information and Research Service, 2006). - References
- Downs, A. (2005). Growth management and affordable housing: do they conflict? New York: Brookings Institution Press.
- Flaherty, B. O. (2010). How to House the Homeless. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
- Library Information and Research Service. (2006).The Middle East: Abstracts and index, Part 1. New York: Library Information and Research Service.
- Retsinas, N. P & Belsky, E. S. (2008). Revisiting rental housing: policies, programs, and priorities. New York: Brookings Institution Press.
- Schmitz, A. (2005). Affordable housing: designing an American asset. New York: Urban Land Institute.
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