Patterns for Providing Low Income Groups with Housing (Case Study: Karaj City)

Introduction
The policy of inexpensive housing is new in Iran though some kinds of houses including free houses, supported housing, social housing, renting providing ownership, and Mehr housing are developed in the recent years. Karaj Metropolis as a host for immigrants and a center for industry and workforce in Tehran is in need for housing for low income groups. The main problem of the research is the pattern of providing houses for low income groups in this city. Therefore, the purpose of the present research is to examine the patterns to provide housing for the low income groups. 
 
Methodology
This is a fundamental-developmental research by a descriptive-analytical method. The study area of this research is Karaj City as center of Alborz Province in the vicinity of Tehran, capital of Iran. The variables included in the research are deciles, foundation surface, family dimension, percentage of ownership, percentage of tenants and occupants, cost of house, and bank accommodations. The data have been obtained from Iran Statistical Center. The methods used include statistical techniques of population tenths. In order to estimate financial states of the groups, the indirect function method has been used. In order to define the opportunities, threats, power points and weak points of the low-income groups, quantitative analyses have been performed through indirect method functions and Stone-Garry Function. To estimate and calculate the absolute line of poverty and for the relative line of poverty, SPSS and Excel software have been employed in this study.
Results and discussion
Based on the last census, 2011, there were 485565 residential units in Karaj. According to this census data, density of residential houses was 27.8 per hectare, number of family were 487043, ratio of family in house was 1.003, people per house was 3.32, density in house was 1.78, and people per room was 1.82. As the difference between the number of the houses and the families is called shortage of the residential unit, the shortage ratio is 0.3. However, house ownership is low and the percentage of lessees is high. This has indicated the need to increase housing for low income groups. In 2011, the houses in the city were mainly made of metal (39.8%), concrete (42.7%), and other kinds of materials (17.5%).  Now most of the houses are small in area, i.e., the houses are mainly 51-75 square meter (30%) and less than 50 square meter (5.5%). Half the houses are less than 100 square meters often for the poor and low income groups. The results have indicated that the housing cost of the vulnerable and poor people is 26.2% and 26%, respectively. The costs for 3^rd, 6^th, 5^th, and 4^th deciles of the community are 24.9%, 25.8%, 25.8%, and 26.08%, respectively. The housing cost of rich families in Karaj is higher than those of the poor. The cost was 29.3% in average in 2011. Thus, the low income families pay 26% of their income for renting a house or other housing costs. The lands in old textures and marginal suburbs can be used for developing houses for the low income groups.
 
Conclusion
The Karaj metropolis has experienced rapid physical and population growth due to migration of the low income groups into the city. Thus, housing development must be highly considered in planning.  About 44.2% of the residents rented the houses. The tenure of the houses is as 50% of ownership. Half the houses are less than 100 square meters in area, 23% of the rental houses are occupied by poor families and 43.4% for low income groups. According to the results of the research, the city needs 65647, 47878, and 33637 new houses until 2012, 2016, and 2020. The groups of citizens are in need for government aids from low interest rate loans or housing subsides. However, the poor financial condition of the government for these payments makes it essential to focus on urban lands for these aids. Therefore, the pattern of supplying the houses for the low income groups is presented. This pattern is that the lands in urban old textures and marginal urban lots must be prepared by municipality for housing and the investments should be received by the loans with low interest rate and also by the investment by the groups. The municipal services must also be supplied by the Supreme Council of Architecture.