NATIONAL LOW-COST SHELTER PROGRAMS

The HG will be implemented by CNEL, a GOT lending agency; SNIT, the principal GOT housing agency; and DCPL, a municipal assistance agency. CNEL/SNIT and local governorates jointly will construct 3,500 core housing units (1 sleeping/living room, plus toilet and kitchen within a walled compound). Housing sites will be serviced with water and sanitary facilities, streets and sidewalks, storm drainage, and public lighting. Construction will reflect local preferences and climate. In addition, 1,700 lots will be prepared for sale and provided with land drainage, streets, and electrical and water hook-up. CNEL will offer 900 loans to individual households either for construction on the newly serviced lots or for additions to existing homes. CNEL will also provide loans to 1,300 households for home improvements. DCPL will coordinate a subproject (SP) to upgrade 17 urban neighborhoods. Activities will include site selection, recruitment and training of local management staff, detailed physical and social surveys, and provision of water, sewerage, electricity, and trash collection to the neighborhoods. The GOT will provide community facilities -- elementary schools, dispensaries, post offices, and police stations. U.S. advisors will assist CNEL staff with portfolio management, loan application criteria, and savings promotion and guaranty approaches among low-income citizens. U.S. technicians will assist in the installation and maintenance of passive solar heaters and compost toilets. USAID will also provide management training and funding of socioeconomic services for DCLP"s Integrated Improvement Program for the Urban Poor (IIPUP). The IIPUP will consist of municipal management training for small town officials, and health, education, job training, and credit assistance for low-income residents. Amendment of 7/83 authorizes the use of HG funds under project 6640329 to repair or replace low-income housing damaged or destroyed by floods during later 1992. Amendment of 7/84 increases funding for previously approved activities and provides support for GOT sanitation projects in secondary towns and Greater Tunis. Sewer systems will be upgraded and expanded; flood control and drainage will be provided; and waste treatment and disposal facilities will be developed. (PD-AAP-530) Amendment of 9/24/86: (1) shifts funds from the sanitation upgrading SP of the National Sanitation Office (ONAS) and the Emergency Housing Reconstruction Program (6640239) to finance an extension of the sites and services SP of the Housing Tenure Agency (AFH) to Greater Tunis; and (2) funds a new SP (Savings for Land Development) to provide working capital to land developers and finance long-term loans to below median income persons for the purchase of serviced housing sites; one-third of SP funds will be earmarked for the purchase of sites developed by the private sector. (PD-AAV-206) Amendment of 8/90 authorizes an HG project to help municipalities to tap domestic financial markets to finance capital improvements of deteriorated sewage and other HG-eligible infrastructure projects. Implementation will be via the Housing Bank (formerly CNEL). (Information derived from later amendment, PD-ABG-379) Amendment of 5/13/93 redesigns the 8/90 HG municipal project as a policy-based program, changing the implementing agency to the Municipal Development Agency (CPSCL). The program will have two components. (1) A total of $15 million in HG funds will help municipalities finance shelter-related infrastructure (e.g., sidewalks, sewers) in low-income neighborhoods where services are incomplete or lacking, to the benefit of some 7,500 households in the Greater Tunis area. (2) A policy and institutional development component will comprise four activities: (a) restructuring of the CPSCL as a more effective mechanism for lending to municipalities; (b) policy analyses and pilot projects on ways to improve municipal revenue collection and increase cost recovery from capital investments; (c) pilot efforts to provide municipal infrastructure through the private sector; and (d) establishment of a GOT database on municipal development and decentralization. (PD-ABG-379)