Housing policy in Libya: study of public housing projects in Tripoli City

Rapid urbanisation and housing policies have become major issues in the agenda of developing countries. Rapid population growth and huge rural-urban differentials have led to unprecedented urbanisation in developing countries, in the form of new towns and expansion of existing cities. This has brought about a demand for houses in cities and towns and implementation of new housing programmes. In Libya, rural-urban migration was intensified by the discovery of oil and brought the emergence of shanty housing around the big cities such as Tripoli. To resolve the housing problems, the Libyan government introduced a new policy which recognised housing as a basic human need and provision of housing as the government's fundamental responsibility. This study analysed Libyan housing policies and programmes and their impact on the housing sector. The aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of the public housing policy in Tripoli, the capital city of Libya. To achieve this aim both secondary and primary data were used. Three public housing projects were examined, and the required data was obtained through a questionnaire survey of households living in the three projects. Interviews were also conducted amongst government officials concerned with housing policy and implementation. The study shows that the Libyan housing policy has benefited large groups of people, particularly those on low incomes. However, it also suggests that the adopted policy has not resolved the housing problems both in terms of quantity and quality. In particular, the dwellings provided have not met the needs of many Libyan families. This is due to lack of prior consultation with the target groups. Furthermore, the study found that there is a lack of housing management. This is evident from some households living in the dwellings without permission. In addition, the rate of sharing and occupancy shows that there is still a housing shortage. Although, the physical infrastructure provided to the public housing projects is in many respects satisfactory, water supply, refuse collection and storm-water drainage are inadequate. Social services received high satisfaction from the residents, except for outdoor space, with which many residents were highly dissatisfied. The study also shows that the dwelling and building construction types affect the residents' attitudes to dwellings. In this regard, most of the households prefer houses to flats and traditional building to prefabricated building systems. Consequently, nearly half of the residents would like to move out of the dwellings currently occupied. The study also shows that, most of the residents prefer new dwellings. The majority of them prefer to a plot of land to build their dwellings under their own supervision than to have a complete dwelling (public housing).