TITLE:
Residents Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Social Housing in Liberia
AUTHORS:
Jacob Arku Ziama, Bo Li
KEYWORDS:
Residents’ Perception, Evaluation, Social Housing, Indoor Environmental Quality, Outdoor Environmental Quality, Liberia
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Building Construction and Planning Research,
Vol.6 No.1,
March
31,
2018
ABSTRACT: This paper evaluates the livability and convenience of social housing in Liberia from the residents’ perspectives. Using residents’ appraisal from several social housing projects in the suburb of Monrovia, residents’ satisfaction index with regards to the aesthetic, durability and comfort of their homes were measured. It also assessed their overall living environment which includes access to road and basic service facilities such as hospitals, schools, shopping and recreational centers. How secured and comfortable do they feel within their homes? What are the driving factors that led them to acquire their homes? Data were collected from 662 household heads from three housing estates in the suburb of Monrovia using the stratified systematic sampling method and analyzed using IBM SPSS descriptive statistic. Results show that while occupants of public housing are satisfied with certain aspects of their homes, they are generally unsatisfied with their living environment. This investigation is detailed to inform architects, designers and policymakers’ decisions toward social housing in Liberia. It looks at the underlining challenges affecting the improvement of social housing from the end users’ perspective and how these challenges can be mitigated to meet consumers’ satisfaction and make them part of the design process and policymaking.