While State measures to provide housing for the vulnerable are underway, the numbers of those without adequate housing is growing.
Access to safe and adequate housing is an issue affecting Sri Lankan society, especially due to lagging development of vulnerable households which continue to live in poverty in substandard housing.
While self-financing is not an option due to a lack of disposable income, there are various State-sponsored measures underway to address the issue. However, concerning statistics have been revealed by the ministry on the lack of housing.
Housing concerns
State Minister of Urban Development and Housing Thenuka Vidanagamage, speaking in Parliament on 23 November 2023, said that there were 789,242 families without permanent houses in Sri Lanka, while 486,426 houses used temporary roofs.
He noted that such houses were primarily present in Puttalam, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Kurunegala, Nuwara Eliya, Ratnapura, Kandy, and Badulla.
Breaking down the category of families without a permanent house, he revealed that the number of families living in temporary houses was 278,192, while 44,419 families lived in coconut thatched houses, 216,197 families did not have any land or a house, and 166,841 families did have land but no house.
Ministry of Urban Development and Housing Additional Secretary (Housing and Construction) W.M. Ananda noted that the figures would be based on the last Housing Needs Survey conducted in 2016, adding that these numbers could likely have changed at present. “It takes years for the housing situation to change, so we cannot expect a significant difference from the 2016 numbers, although there can be some difference either upward or downward.”
Ministry stance
Minister of Urban Development and Housing Prasanna Ranatunga, addressing the recent data, said that the ministry was taking action to expedite the process of providing housing to those in need.
“The ministry is following several processes to expedite the provision of housing, with several projects being carried out under the ministry. For instance, there is the recently-initiated ‘Gamata Geyak,’ ‘Mihindu Sevana,’ etc.. All these projects are for assisting those without housing to secure a house.
“There are several categories of those without housing: there are some who can build a house but require assistance, such as in the form of a loan, while others will also need land. The ministry’s primary task is to recognise this need and facilitate support. While the housing loan process has suffered a setback due to Covid and the economic crisis, it has now been updated and is ongoing. For instance, there are several apartment complex projects underway in Colombo. Moreover, the project to build 1,996 houses with the assistance of the Government of China will commence in March.”
He noted that around 11 housing projects had been temporarily suspended due to the prevailing economic situation, adding that instructions had been given for these projects to recommence this year.
Commenting on the project to build 10,000 houses around Colombo, he noted that 6,500 of these houses would be used to resettle the low-income people living in Colombo, while 3,500 would be for middle-income people, and that they planned to build these houses within this year.
“We are also planning to initiate a programme to connect foreign donors to Sri Lankans without the monetary resources to build their houses, with the National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) coordinating the process.”
He noted that several other housing projects were under discussion, with a programme to provide housing title deeds also underway.
Critical need to improve quality
As observed in the Sri Lanka Sustainable Housing and Construction Roadmap – 2020-2050 published by the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing, the Housing Needs Assessment of 2016 identified a critical need to improve the quality of existing housing.
According to Government criteria, a house with concrete or masonry foundation, masonry external walls, and a permanent roof is considered a permanent house. As of 2016, more than 275,000 of the existing housing units were temporary constructions and about 40,000 of these were in a highly undesirable (impoverished) state. There were over 800,000 families without a house and there were about 216,000 homeless and landless families.
According to the UN Habitat Sri Lanka Country Report for 2023, urban poor, conflict-affected, and plantation communities lack access to safe and adequate housing and secure land tenure, with 800,000 housing units being required.
There have been various Government-led housing projects historically in Sri Lanka in urban, rural, and estate sectors, with the Urban Development Authority’s (UDA) Middle Income Housing Programme and Low-income Housing Projects being some examples.
While some of these schemes were targeted at providing housing for landless-homeless people, some were ‘urban regeneration programmes’ where families were evicted from the informal and unauthorised buildings and relocated to multi-storey housing schemes. According to the Sustainable Housing and Construction Roadmap, 23 such low-income multi-storey housing schemes (12,771 housing units) have been built in Colombo metropolitan region
Worsening situation
Speaking to The Sunday Morning, former Chairman of the Housing Development Authority (NHDA) Lakvijaya Sagara Palansuriya, who has worked in the field for around 30 years, said that the issue of a lack of adequate housing has noticeably worsened following the economic crisis.
“You can’t compare the current situation with the earlier periods, since everything has changed after the economic crisis. Earlier, it was the poorest of the poor and the low income people who faced a housing situation.
“The Government of the ’70s paid attention to public housing for these communities for the first time; prior to this, they were more concerned about the middle income and upper class people. The ‘Million Houses’ programme was begun in the ’80s, which is a participatory housing project, where the Government would give a small loan/grant to the people, while the people would have to find the other resources and participate in the construction of the house. This gave rise to the use of low-cost material in building the houses, enabling the Government to build many houses with a smaller use of resources.”
He also noted that rent purchase programmes had been underway in parallel for housing schemes.
He then contrasted this with the present situation, noting that it was no longer possible for the Government to fund such projects: “At present, 60% of new housing construction has stopped, owing to material costs. Even the repairing/rebuilding of old houses has dropped to 50%.”
Noting that the urban sector was facing increased issues, he pointed out unauthorised rental housing as the most pressing concern: “People have a problem with affordability. A significant issue in townships and villages is that there is an increased usage of unauthorised rental housing among the middle-class. With the economic crisis, they have had to downsize to small rooms.”
“The biggest problem people face is the cash issue; they can’t invest in a house. They can’t get a loan from the bank, since it is no longer easy to get housing loans. Further, the housing industry, especially construction, has completely collapsed.
“As per an official survey conducted at the NHDA, it was found that in 2018, Sri Lanka’s housing requirement was around 500,000. Now, it has increased significantly, although there has been no official survey on this.”
“At present, there is a shortage of around 800,000 houses in the country. Previously, apart from the backlog of 500,000, there was additional demand for housing every year, with the new generation attempting to build houses, which added around 100,000 annually to the existing requirement. However, at the time, we were able to build around 100,000-200,000 new houses each year. The NHDA had a national plan to fulfil this requirement as well as yearly demand completely by 2025.
“However, at present, no houses are being built to fulfil the housing requirement, while the annual demand of 100,000 has also increased. Without a survey, we can’t tell the precise figures, but my estimate is that the present requirement is around 800,000 for the entire nation.”
Palansuriya elucidated on the problems that this situation would create in the future, expressing strong doubts that any future government would be able to alleviate the housing problem given the fiscal constraints: “Henceforth, I don’t believe that any government will be able to invest in housing given the other demands on the Treasury; it will have to be done via either foreign investment or Public-Private Partnerships.”
He noted that the State used to spend extensively on housing loans in earlier years: “From 2015 to 2019, Rs. 350 million was given by the Treasury for the Housing Ministry programme – an average of Rs. 10 million annually. Around 365,000 families were helped through this.”
Challenges
Meanwhile, University of Moratuwa Department of Town and Country Planning Head Prof. Jagath Munasinghe said that official figures did not reveal the full extent of the problem given the lack of proper surveys.
“We don’t have confirmed figures, but as per the available information, in Colombo, we have a backlog of approximately 50,000 low-income families in need of housing. The UDA has launched the urban regeneration project, through which 15,000 houses have been handed over while another 15,000 are being constructed. In addition, there may be a similar number, about 15,000 families, in the other urban areas in Sri Lanka in need of housing.”
“The real problem,” he stressed, “is with the middle income, low middle income people.” He noted that the numbers of those facing this problem could be greater than revealed through official statistics, and highlighted that this was the most pressing issue afflicting housing: “Young people especially, who start families and enter the workplace, have to live close to their workplaces as travelling is a costly affair. Therefore, they have to live close to cities because most jobs are located in the urban areas, and they need houses within a close proximity to their workplace. However, due to housing prices, the costs of both renting and constructing are unbearable given the limited income they get.”
“What they will be able to afford is land at a very low cost located in very rural areas, sometimes in environmentally sensitive areas, which will lead to both environmental and economic issues,” he noted, adding that this requires Government intervention as it is unlikely that the private sector will invest in what was not a very profitable venture.
He further pointed out that the UDA projects purportedly being undertaken under the category of affordable housing for middle income people were not actually affordable for the middle class.
Prof. Munasinghe outlined the reasons behind the challenges in building a house at present.
Firstly, land being a scarce resource means that finding land suitable for housing is a challenge, as supply is low. Secondly, infrastructure such as transportation, water supply, and electricity is expensive and requires investment.
Thirdly, the lack of qualified individuals in the construction sector possessing the required technical know-how leads to lapses in the building process, given that not many are able to afford the services of chartered architects.
Fourthly, since most construction materials are imported, the impact of import restrictions, taxes, dollar fluctuations, etc. renders the material cost unaffordable. Finally, the financing of the process of building houses is difficult, with banks being reluctant to provide housing loans to many.
