Aziabah Akanvose, A B (2018) Better public housing management in Ghana: An approach to improve maintenance and housing quality. PhD thesis, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.
Abstract
In Ghana, public housing which is provided mainly for government employees plays an important role in socio-economic development. For instance, civil servants are more likely to accept transfers to areas where their services are most needed. Unfortunately, attention to public housing in Ghana has diminished over the years largely due to shift in policy focus towards the enablement approach. That is, private-sector-led housing production. The result is that, public housing conditions and quality continuous to deteriorate due largely to lack of maintenance. This is evident in many research and news publications, and the visible signs of deterioration such as leaking roofs, rotten ceilings, cracked walls, faded paint, and dysfunctional electrical and plumbing systems. Therefore, this thesis proposes an approach to management by local authorities that may bring about maintenance and lead to better conditions/quality of public housing. The approach proposes a defined structure with roles, responsibilities and relationships for the district assembly, the district coordinating director, the housing unit of the local authority, the works department, and tenants. It outlines a defined protocol for addressing repairs and maintenance including mechanisms to receive and respond to everyday repairs from tenants. Furthermore, it proposes that district assemblies should be fully responsible for determining and collecting rents so as to ensure reliable and secure finance for maintenance. It recommends the participation of tenants in management through mechanisms such as regular meetings or tenant representatives. Finally, it recommends mechanisms such as planning, budgeting, and submission of annual accounts to monitor and ensure that rents are spent on maintenance.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Gruis, V H; Elsinga, M G and van der Flier, C L |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | public housing; housing management; maintenance; ghana; housing quality; facility management; local authorities |
| Index terms: | Ghana, public housing, plumbing, roof, deterioration, economic development, tenant, housing management, local authority, budgeting, repair, publication, housing |
| Subjects: | real estate economics, material degradation and durability, mechanical systems, sociology, financial management, design practice, research dissemination and communication, construction type, practitioner, economic development, maintenance engineering, Geography |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Geographical Context, Urban Studies, Design Practice, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Construction Technology, Business Strategy, Information Management, Construction Materials |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here