A Relief for the Urban Poor: Providing a Pattern for Homelessness Housing Planning in Tehran Metropolis

Subject Areas : Regional Planning

Abolfazl Meshkini ¹ , Elaheh ShakeriMansour ²

1 - Associate professor in Department of Geography & Urban Planning, Tarbiat Modares
2 - Postdoctoral Researcher in City and Regional Planning, Allame Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.

Received: 2021-07-27 Accepted : 2021-09-11 Published : 2023-11-22

Keywords: confirmatory factor analysis, Tehran metropolis, Housing Planning, Homelessness,

Abstract :

Housing planning and policy-making is one of the main concerns of urban planners due to its wide dimensions, especially for the homeless and appropriate pattern for its residents. Homelessness is a type of housing that does not meet the basic housing standards of that community. The purpose of this research is to provide a pattern for the homeless housing planning based on the pattern of right to adequate housing. The present paper is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive - analytical in terms of method and content analysis. The adequate housing pattern was provided by theoretical literature in 6 indicators (Security of tenure, availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure, habitability, affordability, accessible housing and cultural adequacy). An electronic questionnaire was prepared and sent to university professors, managers and experts in the field of housing and urban planning and also PhD and MSc students that were chosen by available judgmental sampling. To provide a pattern for the homeless housing planning in Tehran metropolis,   confirmatory factor analysis by Amos software was implemented. The results indicate that the security of tenure index with 0.83 factor loading, availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure with 0.80 and affordability with 0.63 have the highest factor loading and importance in providing a pattern for housing planning, respectively. The results show that the developed factor model has a good fit with the data and there is a significant relationship between adequate housing indices in Tehran metropolis. To solve the housing problem of the homeless, it is necessary to use a housing planning pattern based on the right to adequate housing in the country's housing policies and planning in accordance with the nature of the constitution.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Homelessness is living in a housing severely inadequate due to lack of access to adequate housing in security, physical and social areas. Different definitions of the homelessness and the adoption of each of these definitions will have their own strategies and policies, so the issue of housing planning and policy-making due to its broad dimensions, especially for the homeless and proper models for its residents is one of the main concerns of urban planners. A review of the policies in the country's housing planning system also shows that the housing situation of the low-income groups is not well organized and these policies are influenced by factors such as political economy and resources allocation and have led to spread the homelessness from the relative to the absolute one. In the absence of a systematic view in the planning and policy-making of Tehran metropolitan area and ignoring the social importance of housing in the market mechanism, the access of members of the community to housing decreases and makes the housing system of Tehran metropolitan unequal. Changing these conditions requires the application of approaches in planning and policy making. The urban planning approach has no choice, but to create a different way, the way that best passes through thinking about how to realize the right to the city. The right to the city is more necessary than ever for the Iranian city, especially Tehran metropolis. Now Tehran is devouring a large part of the national capital, but in the end it is unable to provide even a favorable living environment for the inhabitants of its cities. Therefore, policy-making based on the right-to-city approach can be a strong paradigm for compensating for the undesirable political-economic damages caused by capitalist relations in the urban space, especially the housing of our homeless groups.
The right to adequate housing is one of the basic principles of the right to the city, and this right is in accordance with the nature of the Iranian constitution. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic explicitly states that housing is a universal right and obliges the government to provide it with justice for all people. Considering that housing is not just a simple shelter, but it is necessary to have special characteristics that are appropriate to human dignity, this study has used the word homelessness for its subject and this raises the first question that how the housing planning model is explained in Tehran metropolis?
Methodology
This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical according to the nature and method and content analysis. Using the theoretical literature of the research to identify the appropriate housing model using the definitions and indicators of the right-to-city and right-to-housing approach, six indicators of security of tenure, affordability, availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure, habitability (physical health guarantee), and cultural adequacy were studied and then its experimental model is presented through Delphi method and confirmatory factor analysis using Amos software. Due to the fact that the problem of the present study is inherently expert and the desired results cannot be achieved through conventional methods of polling people, the statistical population of the research consists of experts in the field of research, which includes three groups of university professors with housing as specialized fields, experts and managers in the field of housing and urban planning, and students and graduates of doctoral and master's programs in the fields of geography and urban planning, whose theses and dissertations were in the field of housing low-income groups in recent years and were selected through the available judgmental sampling method. The questionnaires were then sent electronically.
Results and Discussion
Since it is statistically suggested that factors with regression weight (factor load) greater than 0.33 are considered significant and acceptable, so all regression weights of the six indicators in the case model have values greater than 0.33 and all critical ratios (t-value) are significant at the level of P <0.001. Therefore, all the considered factors have been confirmed and the overall fit indicates a good fit of the measured measurement model with the observed data. The results of confirmatory factor analysis of the table show that the security of tenure index with 0.83 factor loading, availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure with 0.80, affordability index with a factor of 0.63, habitability with factor loading rate of 0.60, accessible housing with factor loading rate of 0.55 and cultural adequacy with factor loading rate of 0.41 have respectively the highest to lowest importance in explaining the housing planning pattern of the homeless in Tehran metropolis.
Conclusion
Adequate housing for low-income and homeless groups is more than just shelter; it includes the right to access other spaces, resources and urban services. According to theoretical and empirical analyzes, the proposed framework based on the right-to-city approach (right to adequate housing) has provided a suitable framework for presenting the housing planning model in the metropolis of Tehran. Homelessness is a type of housing that does not meet the basic housing standards of that community. Adopting a clear strategic policy based on the justice of right to the city (the right to adequate housing, the factors and elements of which were studied in this study) can lead the homeless to affordable housing in a gradual plan. The absence of such a thing will certainly be effective in increasing and moving from relative to absolute homelessness. In line with the results of the research, the following suggestions are presented in the development of housing planning for the homeless:
Regular identification of low-income households eligible for affordable housing; Proportion of housing rent to the income of the homeless; Appropriate facility conditions over time; Housing financing commensurate with the housing needs of the homeless; Management and supervision of structures and determining the legal status of land; Appropriate size and shape of land plots; Strengthening and equipping popular institutions in official plans; Paying attention to cultural and indigenous identity in building housing for the homeless; appropriate size of residential units; Separation of public and private areas in housing construction.

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