Between Renting and Owning
Intoduction
The inner-city of Addis Ababa covers less than 12 % of the 54,000 ha total area of the city. It is home to about 40% (ORAAMP , 2000) of the population of Addis Ababa, estimated at 3.2 million 3 2 . About 70% of the houses located in the inner city are government owned. These houses, which are commonly known as qäbäle houses are generally single storey č̣ qa (mud and wood) construction. They are occupied by the majority of low-income people. Eighty percent of the neighbourhoods and housing units in the city are considered slum ; and fifty percent of the total estimated 527,800 (2005) housing units should be replaced by the year 2015 if one of the aims of the Millennium Development Goals is to be met (Mathewos, 2005). In the inner city, due to the relatively available trunk infrastructure and utilities, there is a tremendous pressure from both the government and developers to redevelop the qäbäle housing-dominated settlements. However, it has become clear that a blanket solution of urban renewal could not be economically feasible and is in fact detrimental to the livelihood of lowincome people (See for example Ashenafi, 2001). One of the alternatives to renewal is urban upgrading. This paper investigates a single case where upgrading, with a strategy of tenure improvement, was undertaken. The purpose is to draw lessons for possible application in similar programmes. The paper derives from the author’s ongoing PhD project, which analyses cases of settlement upgrading in tenant-dominated inner-city settlements. The data was primarily gathered through qualitative methods supplemented by a quantitative method. It relies on both secondary and primary sources– semi structured in-depth interviews; focus group discussion, individual case histories, informal discussions, observations, and a questionnaire. The names of informants are either abbreviated or are referred in terms of their affiliation to an organization.