Institutional Potential of Housing Cooperatives for Low Income Households: The Case of India
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Date
1999
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AESOP
Abstract
Several countries have often considered Housing Cooperatives as a third sector alternative to the public and private sector for low-income housing (1). They emphasize different roles of the cooperative; for example, as tenant management organizations that replace public housing management (2); as community based and self-help organizations (3); or as vehicles for group credit (4). The cooperative organizations have also obtained preferential treatment (e.g. subsidies, land allocation, etc.) based on the rationale that they benefit low-income households (5). However, there is scarce literature on the institutional capacity of the cooperatives to serve low-income households and the conditions under which they do serve such households. As the experience of the housing cooperatives in New York, Sweden, Turkey, and India indicate, they serve a range of income groups, and they may or may not reach the lower income strata.
This paper examines the organizational potential of the cooperatives to indeed provide housing to low-income households, and the institutional conditions under which the potential is achieved. The examination is based on the Indian context, using the three cities of Bombay, New Delhi, and Madras as empirical basis. Although the study is based in India, it offers broader lessons for housing policy on the role of collective organizations like cooperatives for low-income housing. The study is especially germane in the present context when international agencies are emphasizing an enabling approach to housing (6).
The examination is done by a comparative institutional analysis of the Housing Cooperatives in the three cities. There are two dimensions affecting the functioning of the cooperatives: (i) the internal governance features of the cooperative (e.g. management), and (ii) the external institutional framework (e.g. laws, policies). As a collective organization, the cooperative has several features that potentially aid low-income households.
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Book of abstracts : AESOP PhD workshop 1999, Finse, Depertment of Geography Univeristy of Bergen, Norway
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