REVIEWS

Affordable Housing

— Paul Yakubu

A cure for the epidemic of abandoned buildings in Lagos

It’s the middle of the rainy season. The cool weather welcomes Lagos back to life as the city opens up after months of lockdown. Covid-19 had forced everyone into their homes for safety reasons, but given the over-populated urban fabric,many were left in search of shelter. Abandoned buildings in the city became a safe haven for people like Mr Seun—a local hairdresser who sets up his shop and narrates the horror stories of what he has called home for the last few months. The loneliness, poor standard of living, constant fear of eviction and high informal taxes were the summary of his account. His story is just one out of a possible 2.5 million, which is the number of people in Lagos suffering from housing challenges (Bloomberg, 2019).

Over the years, the government and other stakeholders have built structures that they term affordable housing. These houses fail in the economic context, as low-income earners can’t afford them. New buildings in the city increase, but its housing crisis is still buoyant. Architecture has now become a tool for economic inequality in Lagos and contributes to the plethora of abandoned buildings growing in the city. 

A large number of these abandoned structures are institutional buildings that defined the city when it was Nigeria’s capital in the late twentieth century. By 1991, Abuja, the current capital, was completed. Federal institutions migrated to the new capital city leaving the buildings that housed them vacant. Lagos, the old capital city, is now home to nostalgic high-rises that rule the skyline with no functional relevance. These buildings amount to up to 60 structures in the central business district (CBD); they have between 5 and 25 floors and han average area of 600m2 per floor (Guardian, 2019).

An exemplary case study is the Independence House, Lagos. This was the first high-rise in Nigeria—a gift from the British crown to honour the country’s independence. Completed in 1961, Independence House rises 24 storeys. The building’s first occupant was the federal secretariat, housing various ministries. It suffered the same fate as other federal secretariat complexes and state liaison offices when the city was decapitalized. Its institutions were moved to the new capital city, leaving the building void of purpose.

Independence House, amongst other abandoned governmental structures, has suffered from poor policies and managerial strategies. The ownership and control of these buildings has been an area of contention between the federal and state governments. This dispute has gone on for years leaving these buildings idle. Until recently, the federal government ceded control of some of these buildings to the state. The government has also placed the redevelopment of these buildings under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, which has provided failed proposals for the structure’s new roles. In 2004, they planned to transform Independence House into a World Trade and International Business Centre. The plan never took off as private investors didn’t consider it a sustainable idea.

Furthermore, the government turns a blind eye to the city’s housing crisis as it searches for new functions for these buildings. The irony is that the homeless population now takes refuge in these buildings,turning spaces in these buildings into informal homes and living in them at risk of eviction. 

In 2017, the Nation news reported a case of an affordable housing scheme born out of an abandoned secretariat building. The Ministry of Works director repurposed the abandoned secretariat building for personal use. He divided the structure into 50 dwellings, where each unit paid ₦3500 per month. He also rented the spaces on the ground floor of the building as commercial shops to interact with the urban space. This abandoned structure was transformed into a mixed-use building with affordable housing fit for its economic context. The project lasted for five years and met its expected end as the government claimed all tenants were illegal.

Affordable housing is the best option if these buildings are to achieve a sustainable purpose. Capable of reducing the city’s 2.5 million housing deficit by 15%, they should be rehabilitated, redesigned, and fitted with units that cater to the low-income population. The government should further transfer the control and management of these buildings to the Ministry of Housing. Policies and strategies for the redesign of these buildings should include commerce, especially on the ground floors that relate directly to the street, which would reflect the buildings’ location in the CBD and create housing based on the principles of the circular economy.

Low-income earners make up the homeless population and the informal economy, which is the bedrock of the CBD in Lagos. Retrofitting the abandoned buildings into mixed-used towers provides affordable housing and spaces for informal commerce to thrive. Mr Seun’s story changes when these buildings can both support his local trade and provide him with a suitable place for living. He then contributes to the informal economy, has a home he can afford, and, more importantly, a legal tenure for the space. Thus, these buildings would come back to life not only as affordable homes but also as citizens that contribute to the economy.

Paul Yakubu is a designer and writer pursuing research interests in culture, social boundaries of space, housing and the stories behind a city's morphology. He participated in the 2021 WriteON workshop series, Amend.

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