A case study on housing problem in Bangkan slum, Bangkok

Thai Project: Fumiaki Saito, Tetsuya Umemoto, Nozomi Sagane, Satsuki Sugino, Yuan Hanwei, Le Bao Ngoc

About Thailand

• One of the developing countries in Southeast Asia

• Tourism

• Face with slum problem

• Better relationship with Japan

31.7%

Slum in Thailand

• The percentage of slum population: 31.7% in 2006 (Arai, 1998 Endo, 2011)

• The number of slum people has been increasing sharply

• Located at public and private area

• Almost all slums located there illegally

Slum Relocation

• To remove a slum to another areaWhat

• The slum is located at public or private area illegallyWhy

• Dwellers can live more secure houses

• It is better for their health etc.Advantages

Background information - CODI

• CODI = Community Organizations Development Institute

• Support & assist community organizations

• Build cooperation among community organizations & their networks

(local, provincial & national level)

• “Demand-driven” rather than “Supply driven”

• Make more efficient use of state resources for the poor

Background information – Bangkan Slum

• Big population (>1000 households)

• Dwellers with various backgrounds

(different cities, countries, single, married, etc.)

• Located near the biggest market and university in the area

• Are illegal settlements on public land

• Build houses along a polluted canal

Current issues

Government plan to clean the canal

Slum dwellers have to leave

Government build flats for relocation Slum dwellers cannot

afford flat price

CODI encourages them to save money and promise to give loans

Slum dwellers still hesitate in making decision

Purpose

• To find out the reasons why relocation in Bangkan slum is not working well

Significance

Literature

Reviews

• Slum population in Bangkok is increasing

• Housing policies are critiqued by many researchers

Gap in LR

• Most LR focused on comparison and policy’s analyzation

• Non had looked deeply into 1 slum from different perspectives

Significance

Relocation processes of Bangkan slum will be good example for others slum to study

Methodology used

For government side

•Narratives from Government authorities

(CODI, Bangkan authority, architect)

• Literature Reviews

For dwellers side

•Semi-structured interview (n=2)

•Structured Questionnaire survey (n=47)

(Female:32, Male:15; Mean of age:48.24 years old, Median of family members per household:6)

MAIN FINDINGS – GOVERNMENT SIDE

Main findings – Government perspective

BangkanAuthority

CODI

Flat Design Team

Government

• Relocation plan

• Plan to build flats for slum dwellers (5 floors flat)

• Ask slum dwellers to move out within 90 days since June 2015 (lastest

announcement)

• Flats design has not finished yet -> Nowhere for slum dwellers to go

• Did the same for years -> Postpone in taking actions

-> Slum dwellers will end up feel no pressure and take no action too

Flat Design Team

• Try hard to design flat suitable with slum dwellers interests and pockets

• Gather slum dwellers and introduce the plan (flat design)

• Change design based on slum dwellers requirements and come back again

• Unfortunately the price of a unit (in flat) increases everytime

-> Some slum dwellers might misunderstand the design team intention

-> Decrease the trust of slum dwellers toward government

CODI

• Advice Bangkan Slum dwellers to form communities based on their

district with leaders

• Advice them to save money

• Promise to give loans if they can save a certain amount of money

• Provide assistances if slum communities ask for

-> Discipline slum dwellers & build network

Bangkan Slum Dwellers

• Do not want to move

• Do not have enough money to buy a unit in flat

• Wait until the flat is finished to make final decision

• Feel unfair with the different in saving fund

-> Save little money to buy time

Dwellers perspective

(1) Attitudes toward government housing

• Prefer house

About 91% cannot stand living in the flat

• “Narrow”, “crowded”, “no elevator”

n=42

(1) Attitudes toward government housing

• Prefer place near the market to live(figure 2)

• Most of the respondents do not like government housing(figure 3)

Figure 2:The Most Important Thing (aside from price)in Choosing Accommodation

n=33

(1) Attitudes toward government housing

5

37

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Yes No

Figure 3: Whether dwellers like government housing or not

n=42

(1) Attitudes toward government housing

•Do not really care about the design of the flat

•Not really dweller-oriented(Housing is not aligned to dwellers’ needs)

(2) Attitudes toward the CODI

• Only 44.4% of the households interviewed kept saving money(n=45, M=645.56 THB, SD=1473.13)

• “Unfair”: inner-slum wealth gap (n=41, Mean of monthly income = 3065.68 THB, SD=3257.73)

(3)Another problem: distrust from inconsistency

“Government workers are making profit from us”• Raise price

“Eviction will be put off”• Twenty eight percent (28%) of the respondents(n=47)

• “The flat has not been constructed yet”

• “The plan has been put off for many times”

Conclusion

• The lack of dweller-oriented housing and distrust from announcement inconsistency are relocation problems in Bangkanslum.

• To relocate slums more effectively

1. Government should be consistent in releasing policies.

2. CODI’s policies should be more flexible depending on each slum condition.

References and Bibliography• Boonyabancha, S. (2003). A Decade of Change: From UCDO to CODI in Thailand. IIED.

London.

• CODI (2015). Retrieved December 4 from https://www.dropbox.com/s/tswywakeq7q8vrs/Presentation24April15%20fromCODI.pptx?dl=0

• Hitomi, Y. (2013) The cuurent situation and problem of city slum in BKK: Case study of khlongtoey slum NagoyaGakuin University 49(3), 95-106. Retrieved December 4 from http://www2.ngu.ac.jp/uri/syakai/pdf/syakai_vol4903_07.pdf#search='%E3%82%BF%E3%82%A4+%E3%82%B9%E3%83%A9%E3%83%A0'

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan（2007）. Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Retrieved December 4 from http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/fta/j_asean/thailand/pdfs/gaiyo.pdf

• Pornchokchai, S. (2008). Housing Finance Mechanism in Thailand. UN HABITAT.

• Toshio, T. (1998). A Big City of Asia, Nihonhyoronsya, P99.

• Habitat, U. N., (2002), Slums as expressions of social exclusion: explaining the prevalence of slums in African countries, p. 21.

• Habitat, U. N. (2003). Global Report on Human Settlements 2003: The Challenge of Slums.

Thank you for your listening!