Enforcement of Building Laws in Specialised Housing [analysis]

The surrender of the State Security Service houses which comprises four blocks of 24 flats in Lagos for demolition has suddenly awaken Nigerians to the reality that so many of such buildings still housing people could submerge some day and kill a lot of people.

Before the SSS buildings located in Ikoyi were found to be structurally defective, at least 98 of its personnel with their families were living in the houses. Apart from identifying mega city initiative geared towards ensuring everything is orderly and stem incidence of building collapse, it was expedient to pull the buildings down before they cause havoc.

According to the General Manager of Lagos State Physical planning and Development Authority, Alhaji Toreed Alli, the state government took the decision to avert bigger disaster imminent if the buildings were allowed to collapse.

"The demolition of the defective SSS quarters has cost us N10 million. So it is on that premise we are doing this without taking a kobo from the Federal Government, we are keeping to our words as a people oriented government. The material experts said that the building could come down any time. So, we deemed it fit to save the lives and property in those buildings before they collapse", he said.

The many defects in the nation's specialised buildings apart from the SSS building is a pointer as to how bad things have become in the country.

A visit to most of the specialised housing units will reveal the level of dilapidation in the buildings that are supposed to be status symbol of such institutions.

Whichever way one might choose to look at it, providing houses and other associated essential facilities for people to live a comfortable life is a major concern for this government. For some specific reasons, it is very important to make the housing area suitable for social and economic activities of the people that are expected to live there.

Thus, there is need to establish a specialised housing area either by the government or corporate agencies to satisfy their employees and also to promote their well being.

Specialised housing area could also be a kind of residential quarters built to accommodate a particular set of people with a criminal problem, mental health deficiency and other social related problems.

In the same vein, it may be built to accommodate a particular set of people with a similar deficiency.

It may be built to accommodate academic staff of a college, research institute or a university. It may be building in form of hostels for students. Barracks are built to accommodate police men or military men, just as prison yards is a type of specialised housing area with its own peculiarity.

In Nigeria, for instance, specialised housing are built without reference to profit. In this case they are subsidised, apparently to facilitate maintenance and further expansion. This type of housing has its unique characteristics from the building plan, layout, street road networks to land- scapes which are usually designed in accordance with the socio-economics of the specialised housing estates. Occupants pay house rent that are less than the economic rent obtainable in that environment. Therefore they pay what can be classified as social rent. This is rent a family can pay without foregoing other essential requirements of life.

Be it academic staff quarters, military barracks, hostels, orphanage homes, aged people or destitute, motherless babies, prisoners, they are built on a very large or small acres of land as the case may be.

Ironically, this type of housing provision even though it is said to be managed by the provider suffers neglect as soon as the buildings are completed and commissioned. The management and maintenance system is often centralised. The maintenance problems do occur through administrative deficiencies.

According to Philips Oyewole Fagbohun, a Lecturer at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos , to have a sustainable specialised housing certain factors must be considered at the design stage. The Architect he said must have at the back of his mind the peculiar characteristics of the category of people who will occupy the housing area.

"For instance, life pattern and social behaviour of academics are different from military officers. Therefore to generalise the housing design for them may not work well. An academic staff will like a spacious building and open environment. He will like a residential building with a study room that is flexible enough to accommodate such things like musical instruments, drawing table, computer, shelve and other necessary things".

Another factor to be considered at this stage is the economic status of the occupants. An academic, he explained, would like everything to be as it should be in an ideal environment, like a toilet and bath for each room and a very big dinning room. Whereas in student hostels, toilet, bathroom, dinning and common room are centralised and provided to serve many people.

Fagbohun said maintenance and sustainability of the housing area is yet another factor which the Architect, Planner and Builder must consider when building the structures. It should be understood from the onset that the occupants will not pay economic rent that would sustain and make maintenance easy.

For that reason design specification must specify the kind of building material that will give room for easy maintenance.

"A simple design that will put into consideration future maintenance problem.

Fittings in the house such as toilet and bath should be properly installed with good quality materials. While good quality roofing, ceiling and window materials should be used. Therefore, building strength and stability should be considered paramount.

"If the building materials and other fittings in the house are of low quality, the employer may find it difficult to sustain the building. Slums problems and general housing deterioration is not far from this housing area.

Roofing materials, windows and doors materials should be of good quality, while concrete slabs should be properly constructed.

Fagbohun said regular maintenance remain an essential ingredient of effective housing management, just as its proper care and maximum use bring optimum end benefit to the property owner, tenants or residents in the neighbourhood.

He said regular maintenance means extending the "useful life" of the building to avoid premature capital investment at a time the income of the owner cannot fetch new facilities, adding that housing management requires sound relationship between property owners and occupants with professionals readily available to address problems facing the structures.

According to him, "there are two basic systematic approaches towards management or maintenance of a specialised housing especially those owned by the government or its parastatals. Functional approaches can be used where management functions are divided among different departments. Each management and maintenance problem receives expert attention of a specialist. Thus repairs and maintenance problems will be receiving attention from the architects, engineers, plumbers, while account department is for financial record and rent collection".

Citing Yaba College of Technology and other similar institutions of higher learning, the lecturers said bureaucratic problem is one of the major problems confronting specialised housing in the country, just as there is no smooth tenant/landlord interaction between the quarters or hostel occupants and the works department often saddled with the responsibility of maintenance and management.

He said such system does not give room for emergency and immediate maintenance to be carried out on the structures to avoid serious consequences, saying the only option available for occupants that don't want collapse functional system of his housing facilities would be to personally carry out maintenance problem in his apartment.

Another problem he noted is that, "there is no specific or separate department that is charged with the responsibility of maintaining the staff quarters or the student hostels.

Both of them are just treated as part of a college building. The responsibility of student's affairs unit is too complex to concentrate on hostels maintenance. This situation does not allow for proper handling of maintenance problem of these hostel facilities, adding that since the rent paid by the occupants of the housing is not commercial, it may be impossible to carryout regular maintenance work in order to sustain the housing area.

Countries all over the world are undergoing social and economic reforms. The reason is that governance in the modern society of today is too complex than it was before. Therefore there is need to review some of the government policies that are not in consonance with the governance of today's modern society. This should not be done to make living difficult for the specialised housing occupants but it should be done as a means to generate funds to sustain, maintain and improve on this category of housing.

Fagbohun finally advocated the establishment of a separate department that would be in change of maintenance and management committee that will have representatives of all the stakeholders.

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