Housing for low income households (Delhi)
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Property Rights: Identity, Dignity & Opportunity for All competition.
Facilitate access to safe & quality shelter/housing through affordable finance, technical design & bankable documents. Poor & low income households resettled by government post slum evictions are given tiny empty plots of land in suburbs with unclear titles. Unable to mortgage documents, they lack access to home loans or technical inputs resulting in unsafe structures and poor living standards.
About You
Section 1: About You
Section 2: About Your Organization
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Organization Name
micro Home Solutions
Organization Website
Organization Phone
41435165
Organization Address
New Delhi
Organization Country
India
How long has this organization been operating?
Less than a year
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Your idea
Name your project.
Housing for low income households (Delhi)
Describe Your Idea
Facilitate access to safe & quality shelter/housing through affordable finance, technical design & bankable documents. Poor & low income households resettled by government post slum evictions are given tiny empty plots of land in suburbs with unclear titles. Unable to mortgage documents, they lack access to home loans or technical inputs resulting in unsafe structures and poor living standards.
Country your work focuses on
India, DL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
Our idea is unique in that it does not focus on attaining property rights for slum households, but on security of tenure that makes safe & quality shelter and housing accessible to poor and low income households.
Our project in home improvement is aimed at innovative product design making current documentation on housing i.e ' possession slips', acceptable for bankable loans so people can invest in home improvements and construct safer structures, bathrooms, roofs, kitchens & ventilated spaces etc. The 40 million+ housing deficit in India can not be addressed giving free housing ownership & titles. Households have varied shelter needs based on livelihood,family status, mobility, income and require security of shelter- be it for rental housing, homeless shelters, home-improvement opportunities; or ownership. Fighting for ownership for eligible slum households, unfortunately provides free & unequal benefit to too few based on arbitrary selection criteria set by policy makers.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
The social impact we aim to achieve is to see urban low-income households with access to security of tenure- safe housing and shelter. The concept has the potential to reach over 1 million households in Delhi itself that require large amounts of finance and technical assistance. One of our customers is Laxmi, a microfinance client who 20 years ago got alloted a 220 sqf plot after being evicted from a slum in Delhi. She and her family are still living in temporary structure with a leaking roof and no bathroom. She and her daughter (7 years) have to bathe early in the house, and go to the public bathroom. Leakages, tin roof, no kitchen cause many health concerns. She required Rs 1.25 lakhs (USD 2,800) to strengthen and improve her current structure. She has a utensil business and her husband is a gardener, together they can service the installment loan, but can't meet the usurious rate of the moneylender. Innovatively product design using the possession documents enables her to access loan and technical assistance from micro home solutions.
Problem
Government development resettlement colonies in Delhi are haphazardly built into large low income ghettos. Household are today only able to finance construction through informal money lending sources due to lack of mortgage documents- at rates as high as 10% per month. It results in the circle of debt, many often end up losing possession of the house to the moneylender.
Actions
1. Understanding the current status of housing, documentation and upgradation need
2. Providing technical design assistance to households through appropriate architecture and engineering inputs to design safer housing
3. Dialouging with policy makers on slum rehabiltiation policy- providing home-ownership vis security of shelter/tenure: looking at our shelter options such as rental housing, lease-purchase, homless shelter at affordable user-fee rates
Results
1. Facilitated financial institutions to accept possession documents for housing loans upto USD 7,000 (Rs 3 lakhs) for home construction and improvement- currently 20 units of 250 square feet each are under construction.
How many people will your project serve annually?
Fewer than 100
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If so, how?
Through our work, project and dialogue with local and central government, we aim to influence the Slum Free India by 2014 policy of the Indian government which focuses on free home-ownership to elgibile slum dwellers and providing 5-15 year license agreements (to avoid selling). Unfortunately these licenses don't give the poor household ability to leverage their assets for accessing other services- for e.g education loans, housing finance etc. As a result an informal gray market develops, where the licenses are traded/sold on para-legal documentation and government in unable to monitor or revoke licenses.
By allowing for rightly priced fees/charges from low income groups (at 30% of income) and desiging innovative solutions; households can either become rightful owners of property overtime or at the very least, get security of tenure through formal rental housing options that are non existent in cities.
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for less than a year
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your innovation.
Partnerships are critical for our work on urban housing and designing the initiatives. We work closely with local NGOs on community mobilization and participation. We're partnership with material suppliers on construction methodology that can be adopted by labour intensive construction processes; and partnership with local government and muncipalities on home-improvement, legality of settlements, provision of basic services. We also partner with like minded institution on issue of slum rehabiltation meeasure and debate on property rights.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
At optimum capacity, our revenue model is a fee for service model paid by the end customer (household) and the partnership fee paid by the financiing institution. However since this requires large number to break-even, we've recently received an assignment from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation to support the next 8 months of pilot research & development & Ford Foundation supported mHS in our initial travel costs.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
We work in areas of social housing grappling with question of demand and supply of low income housing in cities and access to finance. During our field visits with different local NGOs to informal settlements, we saw lots of construction activity taking place, households were growing vertically. Through interviews we learnt that households (earning ~ USD 200), unable to mortgage documents, where borrowing at over 5% per month to finance construction to accomodate either family expansion (son recently married); or for additional income (rental). The house construction was unsafe, not regulated or monitored. We saw an opportunity to influence the construction & quality standards; and provide access to cheaper financing. We see that for additional supply of housing for poor, a large segment will be supplied from these informal settlements that are growing at over 5% a year.
Tell us about the social innovator—the person—behind this idea.
The two co-founders are a husband and wife team (Marco and Rakhi) that set-up micro home solutions as a social enterprise with complementary skill-sets. Marco is an architect graduated in Italy with work experience in Italy, Singapre, Tanzania, USA with passion for sustainable design and architecture.
Rakhi a resident of Delhi (India) has worked in international development for over 7 years, comes with experience in designing low income enterprise solutions ( microfinance, agri-business) has a B.A in economics from St. Stephen's, Oxford University and recently completed her MBA from Harvard Business School.
They believe that inter-dsciplinary skil debate, discussion and projects are required for community based sustainable urban development.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Web Search (e.g., Google or Yahoo)
If through another source, please provide the information.
Working with Ashoka Fellows
Additional
Which (if any) of the following strategies apply to your organization or company (check as many as apply)
Please explain how your work furthers one or many of the above strategies (if you selected “other”, please explain your strategy)
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 | 42 weeks agoanees ahmed said: We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators. We wish you continued ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 59 weeks agoMatt Guttentag said: On February 2, 2011, the judges reviewed entries for the Changemakers Property Rights: Identity, Dignity, and Opportunity for All ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
