Living with Quality: Strategies for Transferring Social Housing Development to After-war Syria

Abstract

Obtaining a home in Syria has been an equivalent to a strategic goal around which the life of the Syrian citizen revolves. Housing was one of the problematic crises before the war, which accelerated due to the war. Moreover, this turned into a humanitarian disaster, and the situation has become more urgent and requires immediate treatment. The solution of this demolition is not limited to an easy rebuilding and needs a more sustainable and qualified policy in order to prevent to turn back to the existing crisis before the war. This paper focuses on finding an appropriate strategy to respond to the housing crisis in Syria in the light of successful implementations of social housing. In order to achieve that, after a literature review of the general context of social housing, the Singapore social housing experience has been analyzed. Considering the housing problems and implementations in Syria (before and after the war) in a comparative evaluation with the Singapore experience, some strategies have been suggested, along with discussing the transfer of this experience to the Syrian context. Although applying a social housing system in a country that has had a failed experiment is not an easy task, the study proposes a list of recommendations for developing a social housing strategy based on a clear legal framework which also provides a base for social housing. In addition to defining all the criteria related to social housing, such as the target groups, the type of housing, the available financing methods, and focusing on urban planning and architecture for the importance of their role in creating a peaceful coexistence in the conflicting societies.