The Evaluation of Rural Housing Policies in Development Plans After the Islamic Revolution of Iran

Policy is a procedure and idea, which is used in different levels to solve the problems of human societies. There may be different organizations in each country, which are bound by certain policies relevant to their procedures in meeting people’s needs and expectations. Housing policies are examples of such courses of actions for solving the residential needs of people. With the growing rate of immigration from countryside to urban regions, it is necessary to pay special attention to rural developments. Since rural housing is the most important need in these habitats and has a direct impact on the city-bound movement of the population, evaluating the relevant policies is of utmost importance. This paper provides an evaluation of the loan-based government policies for rural housing.
Rural housing is more complex than urban housing as it usually has to cope not only with human needs but with the health requirements of livestock as well. There is usually a need for covered space for all sorts of occupations including weaving, basket making, and production of ropes or fishing nets, drying and processing food etc.
Rural housing should provide the physical environment, the necessary services, and the facilities required for the well-being of the family, their in-house occupations, and even their education. All these necessary aspects for an acceptable housing condition are sometimes brought into question by the poor choice of materials and the structural vulnerability of the constructions.
Moreover, rural housing has suffered from the lack of proper development planning and implementation programs. Most of the policies for rural housing have not been successful because of the neglect of these key aspects. The loan-based programs with the target of alleviating the housing problems in rural areas have not met the affordability criteria for such initiatives. In addition, these programs have not taken the basic differences of rural and urban housing into consideration and have therefore been a poor copy of the same agenda for the cities. Therefore, the rural housing remains a grave challenge for governments. There seems to be an urgent need for addressing the scale and dynamic nature of housing issues in a rural setting. It should be seen as an on-going process of improvements in the qualitative and quantitative aspects of residential developments in these regions with special attention to the social, economic, and environmental considerations.
In this study, the present problems of rural housing are reviewed, and subsequently, the government resolutions for these problems are examined. Governmental policies in Iran are formulated in the form of five-year plans. Therefore, the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and weaknesses are examined within the same timeframe using a strategic analysis approach. Results show that in rural housing policies, quantitative aspects of the construction are given more value, while other factors such as the regional climate, the use of local labor and materials, and participation receive less attention.