By Desmond Tunde Coker
The Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre on Tuesday, September 13, 2022, held a conference with policymakers, experts and communities to tackle urban housing inequalities in Sierra Leone at the New Brookfields Hotel in Freetown.
The studies conducted by SLURC over the years focused on land and housing, urban health, vulnerability and resilience, livelihoods and city economy, mobility and transport, and urban services and infrastructure.
The event which is themed “Tackling Urban Inequalities: Building Pathways to Housing”, is aimed at exploring policies and action of government and other organizations pertaining to housing and tackling urban inequality through the provision of decent and affordable housing.
The Executive Director of SLURC, Dr. Joseph Macarthy said that Sierra Leone has one of the fastest growing urban populations in Africa, adding that urbanization is more acute in Western Area, adding that the government is increasingly under pressure to close gap between housing need and supply.
He added that in Freetown, housing inequality could be observed broadly across the landscape where formal and informal housing arrangement coexist and are deeply intertwined.
Dr. Macarthy noted that the housing condition especially in low-income households is likely to worsen if urgent steps are not taken to deal with the growing housing challenge, adding that such could be attributed to the recent disasters in Freetown following heavy rains that has caused the collapse of hillslopes and walls leading to death and destruction of property.
He stated that the housing sector had undergone significant shifts over the decades from one of formal provision of housing stock by the state to one of the enablement which involved promoting private sector role in housing development. He said that it is expected that the outcomes of the conference would be used to unravel the understanding to identify practical solutions to the key development challenges.
The Minister of Land, Housing and Infrastructure, Dr. Turad Senesie said that housing situation in Sierra Leone is troubling as the country is grappling with a huge housing deficit estimated at 509,063 housing units, which he said is one of the highest in the sub-region.
He attributed the housing deficit to rapid increase in population, particularly in the major cities, which is driven primarily by rapid urbanization. He said that the available housing facilities are either of poor quality, unsafe or unaffordable.
“Where you find such homes in the communities, you will agree with me that those communities lack the full range of needs including place of worship, schools, healthcare facilities,” Dr. Senesie said.
He said that the lack of affordable and social housing has caused huge urban inequalities and insecurity with an upsurge of a large number of slums/informal settlements, where people are forced to live in cramped/overcrowded communities without basic services and facilities, and characterized by poor sanitary conditions particularly in Western Area.
Minister of Western Region, Nabeela Tunis said that the outcomes of the conference would address the challenges of urban settlements, adding that SLURC have been consistent in their work to address the housing challenges in the country.
The Mayor of Makeni, Madam Sunkarie Kabia Kamara said that, often in developing countries like Sierra Leone there is a presumption that some cities offer better opportunities than rural areas, adding that this has led to increase in rural-to-urban migration.
She added that urban planning is a process that entails development of designs of urban areas or cities to meet the needs of community, drawing from different disciplines including Architecture, Engineering, Public Health, and Climate Change to name but a few.