PM
18,4
230
Property Management,
Vol. 18 No. 4, 2000, pp. 230-242.
# MCB University Press, 0263-7472
Satisfaction level with
neighbourhoods in low-income
public housing in Yemen
Ramdane Djebarni
CPRU, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK, and
Abdullah Al-Abed
University of Sana'a, Sana'a, Yemen
Keywords Housing, Yemen, Schemes, Data collection
Abstract For the last 20 years, the Yemeni government has been providing housing schemes for
low-income groups. These low-income housing schemes have not, however, been evaluated. Based
on a post-occupancy evaluation of three low-income public housing schemes in Sana'a, Yemen, the
paper describes the residents' judgement and assessment of the environment in which they are
living. Interviews with 180 occupants revealed that they attach great importance to the level of
satisfaction with their neighbourhoods. The most important factor associated with neighbourhood
satisfaction was privacy, a reflection of the cultural background in Yemeni society.
Introduction
Research on satisfaction of residents with public housing is limited. Yet, even
that limited research has not paid heed to the variation within such housing
and how they influence housing satisfaction (Varady, 1998).
Housing satisfaction refers to the degree of contentment experienced by an
individual or family with regard to the current housing situation (McCray and
Day, 1977). Morris (1978) pointed out that housing satisfaction is an index of
the level of contentment with current housing conditions. He added that the
term refers to an entire continuum of satisfaction from ``very dissatisfied'' to
``very satisfied'' rather than just a state of being ``satisfied''.
To this effect, the concept has been used, among other uses, as:
.
a key predictor of an individual's perceptions of general ``quality of life'',
e.g. Campbell et al. (1976);
.
an indicator of incipient residential mobility, and hence has altered
housing demands and affected neighbourhood change, e.g. Speare
(1974); Varady (1983);
.
an ad hoc evaluative measure for judging the success of housing
developments constructed by the private sector, e.g. Lansing et al.,
(1970); Zehner (1977) and by the public sector, e.g. Marans and Rodgers
(1975); Rent (1975); Cooper, (1975);
.
an assessment tool of residents' perceptions of ``inadequacies'' in their
current housing environment in order to improve the status quo, e.g.
Sanoff and Sawhney (1971); Craik and Zube (1975); Michelson (1977);
Bohland and Davies (1979); Anderson et al. (1983).
The research register for this journal is available at
http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers/jpif.asp
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
http://www.emerald-library.com