HOUSING AND SLUMP DEVELOPMENT IN PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA

The study investigated Housing and Slump Development in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. It focuses on the spread of substandard housing, building types, and dwellers’ income with environment in the metropolis. These were with a view to tracing/ascertaining the trend of slum development, the categories of people living in such area, the type of house and the conditions that warrant such individual to living in slum area in Port-Harcourt city because slump area brings negative issues to humans’ live. Total enumeration sampling technique was used to identify twenty-five (25) slums area, out of which 4 have been demolished by the Government and the remaining twenty-one (21) areas were grouped into 10 zones in Port-Harcourt metropolis. Data were obtained through both primary and secondary sources. The primary methods of data collection include observations/survey, interview and questionnaire. The secondary sources of data comes from already documented information which include internet materials, journals etc. Data collected was analysed using frequency counts, percentage and t-test. The results of the study indicated that, there is high level of illiteracy, poorly built building with sub-standard materials like nylon, used roofing sheet, low income level, poor structural condition of building, high occupancy ratio and unsanitary environmental condition. It was noted that most residents choose to live in those substandard settlement due to high cost of rent and their income level is low. The result showed that most people residing in the slum area are youth within the age of 19 to 36years (43.39%), and others are married (39.21%). It was revealed from the study that most unmarried people co-habits (39.21%), the highest educational level of most was secondary school (40.05%), with majority earning not more than #5000 monthly (38.44%) and the cost of rentage was mostly between #1000 to #1500 per month (40.05%). The result also showed that most respondents (38.00%) dispose their waste on water channel. The study revealed that the drainage condition in slum area was in bad state, most residents do not have drainage facilities at all. The poor drainage system exposes the area to regular flooding and overflowing of water in rainy season. Morealso, a significant different existed between income and type of house in slum area (t=-1.0429, α < 2.31). (This is because the t calculated (-1.0429) is less than the t-table (2.31).