Publication

Abstract : The paper assesses whether different types of housing assistance–owner-driven in situ or donor-assisted resettlement housing programs—influence perceptions of household recovery by tsunami-affected households. Utilizing data gathered in India 3½ years after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, we compared the perceptions of households provided with either in situ housing assistance or resettlement/relocation housing assistance. The extent to which households have recovered from the disaster was also examined to gauge the importance of housing arrangements in household recovery. We found that the beneficiaries of the resettlement programs generally experienced improvements in basic household amenities, while households provided with financial and material assistance for in situ housing repairs and rebuilding reported better access to essential services. When assessed in terms of perceptions of overall household recovery, the beneficiaries of in situ housing assistance programs fared better than beneficiaries of the resettlement programs despite the former receiving lower monetary assistance. These findings offer new insights to architects, designers, and public officials on what types of housing assistance arrangements expedite the overall recovery process and can help to evaluate and refocus funding towards specific housing recovery programs. The analysis thereby makes it easier to gauge the successes and failures of post disaster housing recovery programs.