Affordable housing should meet quality standards

Editor, RE: “Affordable pre-fabricated houses to hit the market” (The New Times, November 24). The house I see in the accompanying photo above is not much different from those we have in our slums such as Nyakabanda or Muhima, except for the roof and the white paint. Just look at that back of the house we are looking at, not a single window at all. Yet, it is possible to build that same house using the same material, same size and at the same price and make it look much more modern. We are building for the future and time will come when we will look at our housing projects such as the one from the article and regret why we didnt take esthetics into account. It will then be too late to do anything. Whereas we need affordable housing, we should not rush and build anything so that we are seen to be seriously trying to tackle our housing problem. We are building a modern city and we also need to think about modernity while designing affordable housing. In todays technological era, it is not even difficult to go on internet and find a good plan for a house if you cant find someone to do one for you cheaply. I think the City of Kigali should take a pause an rethink the criteria for approving affordable housing projects. Kelly

Opinions

Affordable housing should meet quality standards