Suitability of vertical Low -Income housing for urban poor in Colombo:

Abstract

Housing is a key human requirement. However, many in the modern world people are living in unsuitable houses. Recently, it has become a global problem and as a result many countries are paying attention to it and various housing strategies have emerged as solutions to low-income unsuitable settlements. According to Sri Lankan census, there are 68,812 families were living in temporary house with poor facilities within the Colombo city area (Sri Lanka’s Urban Regeneration Project continues unabated, 2020). To address this, issue the Sri Lankan Government has begun several housing programs and introduced housing policies during last decade. Out of those strategies vertical housing development became the main feature for unsuitable housing in Colombo city. Currently, more than 15,000 high rise housing units have been built for low-income people. Through the introduction of high rise buildings, another question arose on its suitability for human settlement. This has become one of the most popular topics among policy makers and professionals all around the world. In this study, an attempt was made investigate factors affection to the failure and success of vertical low-income housing in Sri Lanka by selecting low-income housing apartments in Colombo. With the independence in 1948, housing policies have been applied to the housing sector in Sri Lanka. Condominium Property Act No. 12 of 1970 is the first legislation related to vertical housing developments in Sri Lanka. With the introduction of the Apartment Ownership Law No. 11 of 1973, the creation of huge scale tall buildings in Sri Lanka commenced. This rule made an opportunity to convert a multi-storied apartment into a number of individual residential units which would then continue to be under a single ownership. The apartment ownership law was applied through the Condominium Act No. 45 of 1982 (Samaratunga & O'Hare, 2013). However, settlements provided to the public in accordance with these policies do not possess better living environments for them as expected while creating numerous social problems. Hence, the management needs efficient and experienced professionals for relevant institution and authorities. This research recommends professionals and policy makers on what to concentrate on when proving settlements to low-income receiving people.