Housing Policy In Kenya

2.1.1 BRUNEI HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Macro economy, demographics and income level

Brunei is situated in the South East Asia on the North West coast of the island of Borneo. It has common border with Sarawak to the South West and Sabah in the North East, South China Sea to the North. The remaining south is Kalimantan, part of Indonesia’s territory. Having a small nation with total area of 2,226 square miles (5,699 square kilometers), the capital of Brunei is Bandar Seri Begawan, situated in the Brunei Muara District which is the most populated among the four districts as most of the population concentrates in this district, where the capital is and the main business center and government offices are affluent. The state consists of two unequal

One of the objectives of the policy is to meet the housing needs of citizens who do not have land. Its aim is to supply quality housing and within the reach of the public at all levels of income earners (Sani and Rahman, 2012). However, color of identity of those holding permanent resident status seems to be the stumbling block for them to be eligible in the public housing neither for land nor homeownership. Over the years, the housing policy has evolved from outbreaks of infectious diseases from spreading, to unhealthy settlements by its physical scenes which might lead to fire hazards. Even to the extent that the public sector should be limiting itself as a facilitating role as it has a limiting resource so the housing problems and its inadequate issue must be solved by the private sector and the civil society (Gilbert, 2014). But the private sector provides housing in the open market which is often unaffordable to the low and middle income earners. In terms of housing, housing policy for specified agency is under the jurisdiction of individual ministry. In various countries, agency that has specific thrust to provide public housing differs. There are various forms of housing in different geographical contexts and other descriptive terms sometimes used such as social housing, state-housing, state-sponsored housing, welfare housing, non-profit housing, low-cost housing, affordable housing or mass housing (Ilesanmi, 2012). In the US, public housing is a form of federally subsidized housing that is owned by local public housing authorities that provides affordable housings for low income families, elderly households and disabled. Another category - assisted housing, refers to privately owned, affordable rental housing that is subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development (RD)