Community Participation in Urban Housing Improvement for Low-Income People in Vietnam's Inner Cities: Case Studies from Hanoi and Hai Duong City

Rapid urbanization and population growth in the cities of Vietnam in recent decades have put tremendous pressure on urban housing development, especially in major cities like Hanoi and Hai Duong City. To meet the basic housing demands of the public, the city authorities have implemented several policies to increase the housing supply. However, it is difficult to meet all the housing needs and to improve housing quality for the urban poor and the lower-income people. As the state's financial sources for upgrading urban housing projects targeted at the low-income communities are very limited, community participation in terms of self-solving housing issues is highly needed. Therefore, this paper aims to study the mechanism of the community participation process to improve urban housing quality for low-income groups. Through two case studies selected from Hanoi and Hai Duong as a large city and medium-size city, respectively, in the same region, the paper explores the characteristics of community participation and the capacity of the community, the mechanism of collaboration among the stakeholders, and the obstacles to overcome in the implementation process. The paper also proposes a number of solutions regarding changes in policies, including mechanisms to support low-income earners in housing improvement and strengthening the role of local authorities and consultant experts in supporting and promoting community participation toward sustainable development.