Framework for Evaluating the Sustainability of Public Housing Programmes in Developing Countries

This paper presents a framework for the evaluation of sustainability of public housing programmes in developing countries. It is motivated by the gap between theory and application of the concept of sustainability to solving practical problems in the production and consumption of housing in developing countries. It argues that dearth of multi-dimensional evaluation framework for assessing the long term environmental, technological, economic, social and cultural consequences of public housing programmes is partly responsible for this development. The paper proposed an integrated analytical and evaluation framework based on the construct of sustainable development and housing as a social programme. The framework basically hypothesized a direct link between the outcomes and sustainability of public housing programmes; and suggests the adoption of housing and neighbourhood environment quality, housing affordability; quality of life, evidence of preservation of cultural heritage as well as technical feasibility as parameters for assessing key dimensions of sustainability of public housing schemes. Although, the effectiveness of the framework lies more on the use of subjective than objective parameters; it addresses the limitations of environmentally biased evaluation frameworks for sustainable housing. The paper suggests the adoption of this framework as an analytical, research and assessment tool in sustainable housing research.