Next Level Rental Housing: the solution for housing the Urban Poor? An understanding of the self-help private rental sector in Libis, Metro Manila, Philippines.

Abstract

Housing is an important asset of the urban poor, since they can use it as a strategy to improve their livelihood. Therefore this research examines the characteristics and experiences of the self-help private rental sector as a strategy to provide more affordable and decent housing options for the urban poor and improve the economic situation of the landlord. By collecting data via 70 household surveys and 14 in-depth interviews from landlords and tenants residing in an urban poor settlement called Libis, in Metro Manila, the bottlenecks were identified. Results show that the self-help private rental sector is a flourishing method created by the urban poor themselves to provide more affordable housing options and to improve the economic situation of the landlord. Unfortunately the poor quality of housing and services is still problematic and leads to unresilient and hazardous rental spaces. Furthermore, the focus will be on next level rental housing to see if it offers as a solution to house the urban poor more sustainably. Building upwards instead of incrementally or outwards could offer as a solution to in-house crowding and road encroachments. However even though next level housing would provide more affordable housing options for the urban poor without these negative consequences, it would lead to increased population density within urban poor settlements and therefore strain the infrastructure and services within the community. A solution to these problematic consequences is to support this sector inclusively and for this to happen it is necessary for institutions in the Philippines to shift the focus towards housing development and away from homeownership. This solution could possibly diminish the most important negative experiences of this sector while upholding affordability which is the main driving force of this market in urban poor settlements.