Housing Poverty In Kenya

Fighting for families in slums & vulnerable communities

998,590 people served in FY19
Projects: housing microfinance, housing for vulnerable families, advocacy

Our Kenyan office helps communities in need to build homes and build hope to alleviate housing poverty in Kenya.

This began in 1982 by building complete houses for communities in need. We have since grown and now provide housing microfinance, advocacy, market development, community development & support, and volunteer engagement.

The Proliferation of Slums

The housing deficit in Kenya stood at 2 million in 2012 and continues to grow at the rate of over 200,000 units a year. There is a proliferation of informal settlements in urban areas with 60% of the population living in informal settlements. Families live in overcrowded homes typically with one room and no adequate ventilation.

These families are at high risk of diseases such as malaria, respiratory infections or jigger (worm) infestation.

Limited Access To Land

The poor, especially children and women, elderly and persons with disabilities are the most at risk. Under the newly developed government system, housing delivery is the responsibility of county governments who often lack the resources and know-how to deal with the situation.

On top of that, limited access to land (68% of Kenyans are without land documentation or tenure security), insufficient income, lack of affordable housing options are as many hurdles to the goal of providing a decent home for everyone.

We have assisted over 19,000 families in more that 250 communities across Kenya.

How We Help Alleviate Housing Poverty In Kenya

Through crafting and testing viable, scalable and innovative housing solutions, we work with vulnerable groups such as: Orphans and vulnerable…

Through crafting and testing viable, scalable and innovative housing solutions, we work with vulnerable groups such as:

Orphans and vulnerable children
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
Female-headed households
The elderly and persons with disability (PWD)

This allows us to address extreme poverty in Kenya and health issues through partnerships with NGOs, government and private sector players.

Volunteer engagement

Volunteering is at the heart of our community building activities. It promotes trust and reciprocity. It encourages good citizenship and provides people with an environment where they can learn the responsibilities of community and civic involvement. We offer structured volunteer programmes that build on our culture of readiness to engage and help each other.

Affordable housing solutions

Our local team positions itself to be one of the leading experts on affordable housing solutions by providing information, knowledge and skills on various affordable building technologies and housing solutions.

The role of our “Affordable Housing Solutions Hub” is to collect, organize, preserve, publish and disseminate information and knowledge of both affordable building technologies and housing delivery models.

Key facts & figures

Population – circa 55.86 million
Urbanisation – 29%
Life expectancy – 69.69 years
Unemployment – 40%
Poverty line- 36.1%

Developing The Housing Market

We contribute to improved housing conditions by making markets function more effectively for low-income households. This is through access to appropriate services, products and financing that is responsive to their needs and capabilities.

The services include market research and product development; pilot product implementation; institutional assessments, governance, financial modeling and projections; direct land tenure processing, construction assistance, and linkages to material suppliers, capacity building and certification of local builders.

Lobbying The Government

We promote pro-poor housing related laws and regulations by adding our voice and expertise in critical legislation such as land tenure (e.g. lobbying for women's right to own land), housing quality standards and construction building permits at county level.

We participate in housing forums and contributing ideas, research findings and innovative models that address affordable housing problems.

Technical Assistance

Our lending programme is now offering technical support to self-help groups working on improving savings mobilisation and loans with minimal funding from our local office. The objective behind this is to build sustainable groups that can access our micro-loans services and manage their own mobilised savings towards improving their homes.

Through this technical service, we are training on:
- Group formation
- Financial education
- Savings and credit management
- Housing support services