City life in the Village of Ghosts

HABITAT INTL. Vol. 20, No. 2. pp. 175-190, 1996 Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Lid Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0197-3975/96 $15.00 + 0.00

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0197-3975(95)00048-8

City Life in the Village of Ghosts: A Case Study of Popular Housing in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam NGUYEN QUANG VINH* and MICHAEL LEAFt

*Institute for Social Sciences, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; tUniversity of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

ABSTRACT The cities of Vietnam have been undergoing tremendous change since the introduction of doi moi (economic reform) policies in the late 1980s. One significant outcome has been the growth of 'informal' or 'popular' housing settlements. Popular housing can be looked upon as intrinsically a doi moi phenomenon as it arises from such policy changes as the loss of housing subsidy, the relaxation of controls on population movement and the institutionalisation of land markets to stimulate urban development. This paper reports on research on one recently established popular settlement in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest city. The experiences of this settlement Xom Ma, or the 'Village of Ghosts' - - illustrate the socio-economic and physical effects of these changes and give a picture of an important component of Vietnam's urban future.

POPULAR HOUSING IN HO CHI MINH CITY The existence of 'informal' or 'popular' housing 1 in the cities of developing countries has provoked considerable study and debate over the last few decades. As an urban social phenomenon, popular housing is seen by some to be quintessentiaUy a failure of the market economy in meeting the demand for housing under adverse conditions. Adverse conditions here may include: low 'effective demand' due to extensive poverty; restrictions on the supply of inputs (particularly land and infrastructure) under conditions of rapid urbanisation; or restrictive regulatory practices which place the cost of 'formal' housing beyond the means of large numbers of urban inhabitants. 2 Alternative interpretations commonly employ the argument that because the residents of popular housing are either poor or otherwise disadvantaged, popular housing should be seen as an inherent structural characteristic which delimits a 'marginalised' portion of the urban population. 3 Underlying both schools of thought m and alternatively seen as being either the solution or the problem itself m is the existence of the market economy as the principal mechanism for the allocation of urban space.

Correspondence to: M. Leaf, UBC Centre for Human Settlements, The University of British Columbia, 2206 East Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z3.

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In theory, popular housing should not be a problem in a socialist economy, as housing is looked upon as a social good and is allocated through the state according to the needs of the citizenry, rather than through a market economy. In a fully developed socialist system, therefore, urban spatial segregation by class would cease to exist and the social marginality of slum dwellers would be eliminated. 4 In Vietnam, the partial reintroduction of the market economy after a period of state socialism 5 now raises the question of the social meaning of popular housing. As the Vietnamese economy becomes increasingly reliant upon market forces for the allocation of goods and services, there is growing concern that social segmentation is arising due to differential access to market c o m m o d i t i e s - - including housing. This is particularly salient in the current policy context of sharply reduced state housing subsidies. The growth of popular housing has become a readily observed although under-documented trend in the major cities of Vietnam, either in the form of infill construction in pre-existing villages on the urban edge, or as wholly new settlements on previously under-utilised lands. In this paper, we present the findings from a study 6 of one particular popular housing settlement in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Vietnam's largest city and principal economic centre. This settlement - - known locally as Xom Ma (the 'Village of Ghosts') - - was chosen for study not because it is representative of Ho Chi Minh City's popular settlements, but because of the recent date of its settlement. Unlike the majority of the city's popular settlements, which were created and even consolidated before the end of the war in 1975, the formation of Xom Ma can be seen as indicative of a new trend of urbanisation. Current patterns of urban growth and change (in spatial, demographic, economic and investment terms) have arisen since the late 1980s as a result of a national policy of economic reform (referred to in Vietnamese as doi moi, or 'renovation'). 7 The demographic and social patterns which we observe at Xom Ma are therefore useful for the analysis of ongoing and future urbanisation processes in Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City has had a long history of popular housing, particularly during the 1960s and early 1970s as large numbers of rural dwellers relocated to the city, either pushed by the devastation of war in the countryside, or pulled by the wealth of the bloated war-time economy of Saigon. 8 Following national re-unification in 1975, many of the city's slum and squatter residents were resettled into what are termed New Economic Zones (NEZs) as part of a systematic effort to decrease the city's population. 9 The total number of squatters, therefore, has been reduced greatly since its war-time high, yet it is estimated that there are still over 67,000 squatter houses in the whole of Ho Chi Minh City, accommodating approximately 300,000 inhabitants, or roughly 7% of the total urban population. 10 More than one third of these - - about 24,000 units - - are built along heavily polluted canals and are now targeted by the city government for removal. Until recently, the policy response has been one of non-intervention, and many of the older settlements have been able to consolidate and improve over the years. This approach is now under reconsideration and may change in coming years, again as an outcome of the cycles of urban change which were initiated with the market reforms of doi moi. In the following sections of this paper, we will describe our research methodology and the social, economic and physical aspects of the settlement and then discuss the potential for further change in both the specific community which was studied and in general within the popular-housing sector of Ho Chi Minh City. In particular, we will consider how the lessons learned from the micro-study of the Xom Ma settlement can give us insights into macro-level changes as they influence housing and urbanisation in Ho Chi Minh City.

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A SURVEY OF A SLUM IN HO CHI MINH CITY

From our initial research, we can describe popular housing in Vietnam as having the following characteristics: (1) First, the term 'popular housing' is not restricted only to slum and squatter areas, although as the term is commonly used, all slum and squatter areas in Ho Chi Minh City may be considered to be popular housing. In general popular housing is used by low-income residents to satisfy their dwelling needs, although there is a range of income levels among the households who occupy popular housing. (2) Dwellings are constructed by individual households with their own money (without funds from the State or through formal private developers). However, there is often a commercial element to the development of popular housing, as a significant portion is sold and resold or is reserved for rental. (3) With respect to the land regime, popular housing is usually built on previously undeveloped public lands. Occupation of these lands may have resulted from either gradual trespassing or sudden occupation. (4) In terms of physical quality, popular housing in Ho Chi Minh City is often quite crude - - most dwellings are at best of semi-permanent construction - and erected by the owners themselves with some help from family members or neighbours in the community. Residents primarily use cheap, discarded or reprocessed materials. Only after settlement conditions have become relatively stable and standards of living have improved do we find higher value materials being used. In general, such amenities as running water, electricity, sanitation, refuse disposal and drainage are at low or very low levels of quality. (5) Popular housing tends to be concentrated in specific areas of the city. These are areas which have been undergoing continuous evolution and, hence, are relatively unstable. New developments in these areas arise from the following conditions: changing migration patterns; changes in the legal status of residents; the shifting geographical boundaries of popular housing areas; and changes of owners or occupiers. Popular housing settlements are thus usually viewed as transitional in character. In order to examine the socio-economic aspects of popular housing in greater depth, in February and March of 1994 we carried out case-study research in Ward 12 of Ho Chi Minh City's Binh Thanh District (see Fig. 1).11 We began by interviewing administrative cadres and knowledgeable people in the district in order to collect general information about Ward 12 and the Xom Ma settlement. General statistical information regarding the socio-economic circumstances of the residents and their housing conditions was gathered from local government officials. In the next phase, the research team conducted in-depth interviews with members of 22 households in the settlement, including seven very poor households, 10 households at the poor to moderate earnings level and five households with reasonably high living standards for people in this community. This small sample was selected not for purposes of statistical analysis, but rather to elicit detailed information on the range of conditions found among the households who are resident in Xom Ma. The study received the wholehearted support and assistance of Ward 12's People's Committee, the chiefs of Street Committees ~2 and the residents themselves. In the following analysis of data obtained from the study, we have included comparisons with other popular housing settlements in Ho Chi Minh City, particularly that of Xom Ruong (Ward 12 of District 8) and the Hiep Thanh community (Ward 6 of District 4). General figures on housing at the city level are also referred to in order to examine particular aspects of Xom Ma's situation. Binh Thanh, where Xom Ma is located, is an inner-city district in the northeast

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Fig. 1. The 12 urban districts of rio Chi Minh City and the location of Xom Ma.

of Ho Chi Minh City. Its population is the second largest of the 12 inner city districts. Compared to other urban districts, however, the population density of Binh Thanh is low (with 183 persons per ha), 13 since the district lies outside of the most densely settled part of the inner city. In terms of the local economy, the district is below the city's average, as its industrial and handicraft activities are underdeveloped compared to those of other inner-city districts. In addition, a few of its residents are still engaged in agriculture as their primary occupation. Ward 12 is a poor ward of Binh Thanh District, with a population of 22,873 persons (approximately 4,700 households with an average size of five persons). The population density for the ward is 212 persons per ha. The whole ward has more than 90 enterprises specialising in small industry and handicrafts, including dressmaking, bicycle-tyre manufacturing, pottery, knitwear, and the production of domestic wooden articles. A number of relatively large state and private enterprises under city management are also located within Ward 12, producing such items as electronic goods, processed foodstuffs and plywood. The ward is divided into four Block Committees which are further subdivided into 70 Street Committees. Of these Street Committees, five in particular are composed of newcomers to the ward who have settled over the past 6 years in an area that was once the Binh Hoa cemetery - - hence the name 'Xom Ma' D where we carried out our survey. Xom Ma is by no means the only popular housing settlement in Ward 12, however, as nearby in Block 4 there is a rapidly growing community of approximately 100 households who have built dwellings along the canal. The majority of these households have arrived from neighbouring provinces or have recently returned from NEZs.

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THE PEOPLE OF XOM MA

Xom Ma was only recently created as a residential settlement. In 1988, Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Thanh District authorities made the decision to clear the Binh Hoa cemetery in order to use the land for the construction of new projects. These projects, however, lacked sufficient funding for development. Meanwhile, the cemetery had already been cleared, leaving a 'no man's land' and creating an opportunity for the construction of popular housing. The settlement of Xom Ma developed gradually. In the beginning, there were only a few shanties which were put up surreptitiously at night, but the number of people who came to set up accommodation continued to increase. The area also attracted a criminal element as a number of 'adventurers' and hooligans came from other nearby places for the purposes of finding secretive shelters or to quickly occupy land for constructing dwellings. These plots of land and dwellings were later sold to poor homeless people who had real need of a place to live. In addition, quite a few households who needed shelter also came to squat and put up huts which have been improved gradually into living quarters. As settlers have become more numerous in recent years, the community has been organised according to normal governmental regulations. This recognition and legitimation has led to the strong intervention of the State to turn back social evils, forcing most of the criminal element to withdraw from Xom Ma. At first, all dwellings were of a provisional nature - - giving only superficial protection from rain and sun. What was important to the settlers was to have land to build on. This area is hilly, high and dry, and water is drained easily, thus providing a favourable setting for house building. Nevertheless, in many places large cavities have eroded from the old graves, often making it dangerous to erect walls and foundations. Yet due to the needs of the people to satisfy their housing requirements, even these unsafe plots are being used. This area of public land can be viewed as a social safety valve, as it acts to release pressure from the disequilibrium between supply and demand for housing by poor urban people, especially that segment of Ho Chi Minh City's population which has returned from Vietnam's NEZs after failing to establish new lives for themselves. By January 1994, after 6 years of spontaneous formation, the settlement of Xom Ma had become overcrowded, with 1789 persons in 337 households (averaging more than 5.3 persons per household). With more than 595 people per ha, Xom Ma's population density is nearly three times that of the ward average. A dense and lively human community has truly come into being. Since 1993, the pace of in-migration to Xom Ma has begun to slacken. Nevertheless, from December 1992 to January 1994 the number of residents in the settlement still increased by 15%. Despite this increase, only a few more houses have been built. The essential feature of this later period is that a number of the original households have begun subdividing one third or one half of their land areas and houses to sell to late-comers, in order to obtain money for upgrading their houses or to cover emergency expenses. The people who have settled in Xom Ma are those who have an interest or need to live in the city, but who are not able to find accommodation elsewhere. According to our research, the range of residents interviewed may be grouped into three basic categories, based upon their reasons for settling in Xom Ma: (1) Returnees. Fifteen of the 22 households under study were those who had, at various times in the past, left Ho Chi Minh City to go to NEZs - - in some cases for as long as 10 years - - but who have returned to live here. 14 Even if we look exclusively at those people in the community who are enjoying a moderately good standard of living, nearly half are families which have returned

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from the NEZs. Of those interviewed, 60% of returnees now have the status of temporary residents.iS What is noteworthy is the variety of patterns by which this reverse migration occurred. There are a few cases in which a single member of the family returned first to squat and set up a hut (or to buy land and a hut), and then waited for the rest of the family to follow. There are also those who came with the greater part of their families back to Ho Chi Minh City to settle at this location while other family members remained behind in the NEZ. Some families prepared for their return to the city by buying wood at cheap prices in the N E Z to transport here to build dwellings. (2) Displaced residents. A n o t h e r segment of Xom Ma settlers were originally poor residents of inner-city districts who have been driven by hardships in life and heavy debts to sell their old houses. After paying their debts, they have come to Xom Ma to find cheaper housing. In such cases, household registration for permanent residence has not been changed. The case of Mrs N., 72-years old, is representative of this. Her family has seven members who came originally from Quang Ngai and arrived in Ho Chi Minh City a very long time ago, before 1975. They first settled on T. Street (in District 5). Owing to dire poverty, they sold their dwelling in 1993 and moved here to purchase from earlier settlers a structurally semi-solid house for 2 taels of gold. 16 The average floor area per head is only 2.5 m 2. The purchase agreement is a hand-written receipt without certification by local authorities. The interior of the house is bare, with only one table to set glasses and bowls on. There is no electricity; for light they use oil lamps. The category of displaced inner-city residents is not made up of only the elderly. One case which illustrates another set of circumstances which led people to move here is that of Mr D., 39-years old, a lacquerware manufacturer, married, with a 9-year old child. In the past, the family rented a house in Ward 6 of Binh Thanh District, but it was destroyed by fire. They then moved to Xom Ma and bought a hut at the price of 0.1 tael of gold, secured with a hand-written receipt (this price is equivalent to 4-months rent of their former house). The couple has gradually put up a small house with an earthen floor, woven bamboo walls, a roof of coconut leaves, and a total floor area of 30 m 2 (an average of 10 m 2 per head). (3) Young families. A n u m b e r of adventurous young married couples, having left their immediate families, have come to X o m Ma seeking a place of residence and a means of livelihood. An example of this is the case of Mr P., 35-years old, a dressmaker who works at home, married, with a 5-year old son. This family arrived in Ho Chi Minh City from Quy Nhon (Binh Dinh Province) in 1990 and shared the house of his sister on D. Street. After 3 years, the couple succeeded in saving a little money from their dressmaking activities, enabling them to buy a hut at the price of 1.2 taels of gold, using only a hand-written agreement to secure the sale. They spent another 0.6 tael of gold to put up a house on cemented planks, with walls of plywood and bamboo, a roof of coconut leaves and a floor area of 17.8 m 2 (an average of 5.8 m 2 per person). This family obtains enough electricity from a neighbour's meter to light just one bulb at night to enable the wife and husband to operate their sewing machine. A comparison between the processes of settlement at X o m Ma and that of X o m Ruong (a poor settlement in a working class ward in District 8), illustrates both differences and similarities. In contrast to the recent settlement of Xom Ma, we find at Xom Ruong a much older settlement, with the majority of its first residents having their origins in Ho Chi Minh City. Most of the original residents who came from outside the city arrived in Xom Ruong before 1965. Despite these different histories of settlement, both localities have been greatly affected by the abrupt arrival of newcomers in the late 1980s. This corresponded

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with changes in the housing market and the rampant rise of land and house prices in the inner city. According to a research study of Xom Ruong: the rapid immigration of people with origins in Ho Chi Minh City after 1988 is a characteristic of this area. The majority of these people are laboring people, who earlier lived in rented houses in Districts 5 and 11 or in close-by places. They came to Xom Ruong to purchase houses because it is a low-lying, water-logged area, with houses that are passably fit to live in but are not beyond their means.17 This study also revealed that of all the households which have moved into Xom Ruong over the past 18 years (1975-1992), 60% arrived in the most recent years (1985-1992). In the representative popular housing areas which we have studied, the impetus for settlement has come from poor people (generally of urban origins) who have unobtrusively found plots of public land which may be of poor quality (polluted, muddy or flood-prone), but on which they can afford to put up structurally crude or semi-solid houses. Considering the life circumstances of the settlers, one might summarily categorise these settlements as transitional and, indeed, we could say that the residents whom we interviewed in Xom Ma were all in stages of either declining (such as the residents displaced from the inner city) or attempting to advance (the young families) their positions in society. Nonetheless, as ongoing settlements in the city, many of the popular housing areas have shown remarkable persistence. It is not uncommon to meet second and third generation residents in some of the canal-bank settlements, or to find houses in the city's squatter areas which were first built in the 1940s. Yet the sense of transition remains, perhaps intensified in recent years by the accelerated pace of change in Ho Chi Minh City. Thus, an appreciable percentage of settlers in these places have not yet obtained their official status of permanent residence. In long-existing communities like that of Xom Ruong, this percentage is lower (only about 15% of the total households have the status of temporary residence). In newly-formed communities, however, the percentage of officially registered permanent residents is rather low (at Xom Ma, 77% of the total of new households are only registered as temporary residents). The status of temporary residence creates many problems with regard to seeking employment or commercial opportunities, as well as the full enjoyment of such services as health care and education. Fortunately, local authorities of Ward 12 of Binh Thanh district have shown some flexibility and have found solutions which enable citizens who are registered only as temporary residents to obtain access to schools for their children and to receive vaccinations and medical care. Credit is here due to the positive role of the Street Committees. These organisations have been concerned with the daily interests of the people, especially those from very poor households who need relief or special assistance, regardless of their residence status.

EMPLOYMENT AND INCOME IN XOM MA

In the five Street Committees at Xom Ma, the number of people of working age (from 16 to 60 years) account for 56.5% of the community's total population (1010/1786). Of this group of people, 57% of them now have regular employment, 24.8% have irregular employment and 18.3% are unemployed. Compared to the 13.3% of Ho Chi Minh City's total labour force who found no work in 1993, this percentage of unemployed in the popular housing area is considerably higher. If measured against the situation of employment at Xom Ruong (a community I~B20:2-C

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which may be considered to be relatively more stable), the percentage of unemployed is similar, but a greater proportion of the working population at Xom Ruong have regular employment. Occupational activities pursued by Xom Ma residents are diverse, although vocational training remains very limited. The majority are involved in businesses in the informal sector of the economy. Occupations range from very simple trades (such as driving trishaws, being assistant cooks for food caterers, sharpening knives, selling pickles, carrying water for hire, packaging fermented minced meat) to trades which require some skill (such as bricklaying, dressmaking, being carpenters, car drivers, or producing lacquerware). Also present among the residents here are some professionals (engineers) and some who are State functionaries, both retired and still working. The range of income groups in Xom Ma is summarised in Table 1, which groups the residents into three groups based on average monthly household incomes. We can see from this, first of all, that households in the settlement have a wide range of incomes; the difference between the highest and lowest incomes in the sample is a ratio of more than 17 : 1, giving some indication of the extraordinary diversity of the settlement.

Table 1. Income groups in Xom Ma, based on average monthly household incomes in VN Dong (US$1 = VND 10,500)

Income group

Average income

Bottom of range

Top of range

Lowest Low to medium Moderately high

72,700 158,100 412,100

43,000 120,000 210,000

100,000 200,000 750,000

The residents in the lowest-income group of the community usually carry on simple trades requiring few acquired skills. About 57% of the households in this group are in debt. The group with low-to-medium earnings in the community are engaged in more 'technical' occupations, such as dressmaking, carpentry, car driving, peeling shrimps for export and making noodles. Only 20% of households in this group have been forced to borrow money. The group with relatively high incomes have occupations which hold the potential for making good money, such as construction engineers; producers of lacquerware or artificial flowers and trees; highly-skilled carpenters; or owners of a small cafe in the settlement. It is noteworthy that up to 40% of the households in this group incur debts, but their objective for borrowing money is not the same as that of very poor households. The very poor usually borrow in order to cover costs of emergencies, while those with relatively high incomes take out loans in order to try to pull off business 'coups', i.e. short-term, profitable investments which can only be attained with relatively large pools of capital. One household, for example, borrowed at one time 10 million VND at an interest rate of 20% per month to produce lacquerware, artificial flowers and plastic trees for the Lunar New Year (Tdt). The goods sold well at a profit and this household was able to settle its debt quickly. Another example is a household which borrowed 700,000 VND to buy incense sticks for sale at pagodas on T~t days. This household soon paid off what it owed and was able to make a good profit. One should be careful, however, not to make a direct extrapolation from the level of income to an over-all appraisal of the residents' standards of living. If the figure of average monthly earning per head (computed in cash) is taken into consideration, then this community does not appear to be too poorly off

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when compared to statistical indices used for Ho Chi Minh City. But if we take into account all living conditions, including the quality of the environment, the stability of means of earning a living, the enjoyment of services and so forth, we see that the standard of living in popular housing areas such as Xom Ma should be considered low or very low.

THE SETTLEMENT OF XOM MA

Figures available from four of the five Street Committees at Xom Ma indicate that only 65.4% of houses are served by domestic electricity, with most of them lit by just one or two bulbs and with the overwhelming majority not having separate electricity meters installed. None of the very low-income households have access to electricity and must use kerosene lamps instead. Running water is connected to only about 7.4% of households. For drinking water, the rest must buy and carry it in buckets (or pay for the carrying) at the price of 700-800 VND for a pair of 20-1itre buckets. For bathing and laundry, nearly 95% of the households depend on wells, the water of which is of very bad quality. Households which use electricity and hire people for carrying water for domestic use must spend from 70,000 VND to 150,000 VND each month on electricity and water alone. The organised collection of solid waste using vehicles has been introduced in this area, requiring a monthly fee of 5,000 VND for each household. Households which cannot afford this charge dump their refuse into the river at nearby Bang Ky bridge. For public health services, residents can visit a public health station in nearby Ward 12, which is staffed by four paramedics and nurses. If stricken by a serious illness, people can go for treatment to the Nguyen Van Hoc Hospital, which is also located in Binh Thanh District. However, due to the quality of treatment at the public facilities, residents generally prefer to treat themselves, using medicines obtained from pharmacists at the local drug stores. Table 2 presents a summary of the types of dwellings found at Xom Ma and Xom Ruong. The common characteristic of the majority of dwellings at Xom Ma is that they are built with crude and re-used materials (such as chipped or broken coloured tiles that can be acquired very cheaply or for free), or with old or re-processed materials (such as iron sheets, old wood and plywood, or recycled packing crates).

Table 2. Structural characteristics of dwellings in Xom Ma and Xom Ruong Type of dwelling Structurally solid Semi-solid with brick walls Wooden structure Houses over canals

Xom Ma (%)

Xom Ruong (%)

5.9 23.5 70.6 0.0

0.0 43.3 46.7 10.0

For the poorest households, the characteristic physical structure of the house is usually a hardened earthen floor, walls made of knit bamboo or reeds, used sheet metal or tar paper. One house, for example, has been described as being "in reality a hut with a small garret", with an area per person of only 2 m 2. Construction materials are patched up and provisional: walls along two sides are actually the exterior walls of neighbours' houses, while the other two walls are made of tree leaves knit together by the family themselves.The 6 m e on the ground floor are reserved for bathing and dish washing. The mother and children

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share the overhead wooden garret of 6 m 2, covered by a tar paper roof which leaks when it rains hard. There is no toilet in the house, so the family must make a 15-minute walk to a public convenience on the river bank, from which excrement is evacuated directly into the river. This is referred to by residents as the "fish water closet". The dwellings of higher-income households are of much better quality. These houses commonly have the following features: floors of cement or laid with old ceramic tiles, walls made of bricks, a roof covered by iron sheets or coconut leaves, and with a built-in cement water closet. For the majority of households those with low-to-medium incomes - - the structural quality and materials of their houses are of an intermediate type, with a mix of characteristics from houses of wealthy and poor households. Regarding the administrative status of the land, at present virtually all of the households (99%) hold no certificate of authorisation from the State to use their land for habitat (the exceptions are a few cases where permission has been given by the Ward 12 People's Committee to households of cadres, workers and functionaries). Thus, there is at present no possibility of collecting land-use taxes. As for ownership rights, the situation remains rather unclear. U p to 99% of dwellings here house only one family. These are the people who have built houses for themselves or have purchased land and house from previous residents using only a private hand-written deed without State certification. None of the houses at X o m Ma are numbered, and therefore all communication and correspondence must be carried out through an intermediary address on the main street. The rental population is at present very low, with only about 3% of the households renting houses from private landlords. The landlords are generally in residence or live just outside of X o m Ma. The rent of a small hut with earthen floor, b a m b o o walls and a coconut-leaf roof is about 60,000 VND per month. From the processes by which this community formed and from the nascent rental market, we see that a land and housing market is forming at X o m Ma, although it is still very basic. All activities related to land occupation, house building, purchasing, selling, transferring and renting are taking place outside of the regulatory structure of the State. The widespread manner in which this is happening, however, indicates a fairly high degree of tolerance on the part of local authorities.

-

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FUTURE PROSPECTS: COMMUNITY POTENTIAL AND STATE POLICY What we have found at X o m Ma is that residents have been able to make improvements to their accommodation - - sometimes substantial and sometimes only a little - - transforming their initial huts into livable houses. Of the 22 households studied in detail at X o m Ma, seven have significantly upgraded their houses. Households representative of all three income groups are included here. One household, for example, has gone from a hut made out of tree leaves to a house with plywood walls, a sheet metal roof and a floor laid with old ceramic tiles. Although poor, this household has been able to accomplish this much because two of its members are bricklayers. Some households have added wooden garrets, and are sheltered by roofs covered with tar paper or roofs of sheet metal. Nine other households in the sample are saving money for further improvements to their houses, but are reluctant to carry them out as they fear that the area may be cleared soon. Extrapolating from this small sample and reinforced by general observation, we can say that the clear majority of households are planning to or have already taken concrete actions to upgrade their houses and to better their

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living environments in a spirit of complete self-reliance. It is also clear that a greater degree of tenure security would be instrumental for stimulating further investment in upgrading. The general trend in housing improvements here is to try to protect the house from leakage and humidity and to prevent fires. Many household heads have indicated that they will probably obtain loans to expand their homes. Looking at the community as a whole, everyone has admitted that within the last 3 years the physical and social environments here have improved markedly, especially in terms of better sanitation and greater public security. Mention should also be made of the positive contributions of community relationships, although these have been quite basic and are not yet organised in any systematic manner. The head of one household avers that: When I built my house, neighbors came to give a hand. Here relationships are humane in character. Activities of Street Committees have had real effects, making money contributions to buy trees and to put up posts for the purpose of bringing electrical wiring into homes. The head of another household indicates that "within the five years since we arrived here we have witnessed great improvement in sanitation and security; there are no more trouble-makers". In considering the role of community relationships here, we cannot help but make a comparison with the activities of the Hiep Thanh community organisation 18 in Ward 6 of District 4, another one of the poorer districts in the city. There, voluntary community activities are diverse: upgrading of roads in the settlement; opening of more public water taps; expanding and improving the network of domestic electrical wires; and establishing a community credit fund for low interest loans. The board of management of Hiep Thanh community is composed of activists who have risen through their creative efforts at voluntary work. Of the nine members of the board, there are a housewife, two young w o m e n engaged in petty commerce, a trishaw driver, and some employees of export and transport companies. Community activities similar to those found at Hiep Thanh may also be found in other parts of the city, such as at Tan Dinh Ward of District 1 and Ward 9 of District 3. At Xom Ma, conditions for the establishment of community activities at the grass-roots level are already in place. Nevertheless, we should also understand that the further development of community activities is quite constrained by the present social and administrative context of Vietnam. This point was made quite succinctly by the social researchers studying X o m Ruong: the administrative machinery at the grass-roots requires many r e f o r m s . . , the capacity of administrative cadres at this level is hedged by limitations, resulting in very little dynamism and a great reliance on following orders from high above. The citizen is given few real occasions to discuss programs of community development in a spirit of self-help, so that indifference and inactivity are widespread. 19 The potential for settlement upgrading through community organisation can only be achieved in the context of a policy regime which is supportive or at least tolerant of the existence of such popular settlements. As in many other realms of public affairs in Vietnam today, policies concerning processes of urbanisation and housing development are in a dramatic state of flux. Current municipal policies are directed at "creating favorable conditions" for people to solve their own housing problems, 20 an enabling approach which undoubtedly underlies the administrative flexibility of district authorities such as those seen at Xom Ma. There are a n u m b e r of factors, however, which may over time have an enormous influence on the viability of this approach. Three of the most crucial factors bearing upon policy formulation and implementation in this regard are

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direct consequences of the State's doi moi policy regime, as they arise from the re-orientation of the macro-economy along principles of market allocation. These are: (1) Loss of subsidy. The adoption of a market system as a strategy for rapid economic development runs contrary to many of the State's previous policies which rationalised high levels of consumer subsidy as part of the 'social wages' of the citizenry. The consequent reduction of subsidy in such areas as foods, consumer goods and, in this instance, housing, has created many policy dilemmas. In the case of housing, one question the State now faces is what to do with the large stock of urban housing which it has rented at nominal rates and which it is no longer able to maintain. 21 An even more pressing issue from the perspective of future urbanisation processes is with regard to the further production of housing at prices affordable to the majority of the urban population. One response has been a delegation of the responsibility for providing housing to lower-level government bodies. Experiments are now being tried whereby suburban lands are allocated to State enterprises and agencies which are expected to build housing for their workers. It has also been proposed that the State should attempt to intervene in the growing private sector in order to increase housing production. Such proposals, favoured in particular by the trade unions, include the use of tax incentives to encourage private citizens to build low-cost rental housing and the establishment of a fund which would provide loans at preferential rates to cadres and workers in order for them to repair and upgrade their dwellings. As another response to the reduced availability of housing subsidies, Ho Chi Minh City authorities are now formulating a policy for constructing houses to be sold on instalments to low-wage workers. 22 During 1991 and 1992, the Land and Housing Service of the city government used housing development funds to erect 1,300 dwellings, to be sold on instalments, in the new suburban residential areas of Bau Cat, Dinh Bo Linh and An Khanh. So far, however, the allocation of these dwellings to the low-income people for whom they were intended has proven to be a problem. Interviews with residents of Xom Ma and elsewhere indicate that very few low-income people believe that at current prices these houses are within their means, even if they are to be paid for by instalments. The upshot of all of these changes is that the previous process of State-led housing production has declined rapidly in recent years and no new mechanism of production has arisen to take its place, especially with regard to fulfilling the housing needs of the city's poorest residents. (2) Valuation of land. It is not surprising that the sudden introduction of market allocation in urban land has resulted in a rapid spiral of land costs, as the still highly constrained system of long-term land leases suffers from the classic 'market failure' which accompanies the poor flow of price information. Even when this initial stage has passed, the long-term effect of a freely operating land market will be the reassignment of space in the city according to residents' income group, as the best locations in the city will undoubtedly also command the highest prices. We are already seeing the beginnings of this with the plans of Ho Chi Minh City authorities to relocate many of the canal-side dwellers in the central city in order to clear space for private commercial development. 23 A similar process can also be seen in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi; in a recently publicised case, residents of over 100 old villas in the colonial quarter of the capital city have been reassigned to housing on the periphery in order to accommodate foreign investors. 24 This may be only the beginning of a trend originating from the market distribution of the city's land. It may also turn out that the expectations for investment - - particularly foreign investment - - which are spurring on the land market may have reached

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unrealistic proportions. Such over-confidence is perhaps to be expected, as the municipal and district level officers who can release lands into the lease market have come to look upon this system as the financial saviour for the city. In the absence of viable taxation methods for maintaining the city's fiscal system, the revenues generated by land rents appear to be the most promising means for financing the much-needed improvements to the city's infrastructure. Further problems arise from the lack of co-ordination on a city-wide basis. District level authorities are given a high degree of a u t o n o m y y creating a situation in which district governments have become very competitive with one another in the pursuit private investment. We have seen an ironic example of this in the case of Xom Ma, for the district authorities had originally intended to create an investment opportunity for the private sector in the form of a newly cleared site (the old cemetery). The fact that the popular sector was able to exploit this opportunity before a private investor was found serves to illustrate the different levels of demand for urban space among the various actors involved in the changing landscape of Ho Chi Minh City. The site, nonetheless, remains a valuable piece of property from the perspective of district officials, adding a distinct degree of tenuousness to the long-term fortunes of Xom Ma's residents. (3) Population mobility. Relative to the other countries of Southeast Asia, Vietnam has a fairly low level of urbanisation; by the end of the 1980s, only one out of five Vietnamese was a city dweller. How this proportion will change over time, however, is a subject of considerable disagreement. The National Urban Data Book of the Ministry of Construction begins with the premise that the natural growth rates in rural areas far outstrip those in urban areas, 26 and thereby arrives at the conclusion that the urban proportion of the national population will actually decline over the next few decades from 19.0% (12.4 million) in 1990 to 17.1% (16.3 million) in 2010. In contrast, estimates from the United Nations which take account of the component of rural to urban migration, arrive at an urban population projection for the year 2010 which is nearly double that of the Ministry of Construction: 34.8% (33.9 million). 27 The impact of a shift of this magnitude of rural residents to Vietnam's cities will have tremendous effects on processes of urban development over the next decades. Of the two scenarios implied by these projections, that of the UN is indeed the more likely, as experience has shown that efforts to accelerate economic growth through the development of manufacturing, as Vietnam is now attempting to do, invariably lead to a growing disparity between urban and rural incomes. When this occurs under conditions of a market economy, a great incentive is created for people to relocate to the cities in search of higher incomes. This process will be even more pronounced if the shift to market allocation is accompanied by the relaxation of population movement restrictions. 28 The findings of our case study of Xom Ma imply that this influx of rural migrants is only now beginning. Indeed, we should expect that it would be those migrants with previous urban experience - - in this case, the returnees from the NEZs - - who would be the pioneers in this demographic transition. All of these factors - - reduced subsidy, rising land prices and increasing rural-urban migration - - will continue to put pressure on Ho Chi Minh City's housing sector for years to come. The reduction in housing subsidy and the subsequent change in the structure of housing production away from the state sector promotes the rise of popularly produced housing, a situation which is common to cities with market economies in developing countries throughout the world. The rapid rise of land prices is further prompting the spatial restructuring of the city, with the resulting displacement of lower-income groups. In this situation, the urban poor will be forced into increasingly

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marginalised circumstances. And the enormous pool of potential migrants from the countryside guarantees a sustained high demand for even the most marginal housing in the city for many more years. The situation which we have observed at Xom Ma illustrates one possible outcome of this set of factors. It is certain that the future of Ho Chi Minh City will be markedly different from its past. This examination of one recently created settlement in the city - - Xom Ma m has given us a brief glimpse of what may be one important component of that future.

NOTES 1. The issue of legality is here taken to be the defining characteristic of popular housing; those houses which do not fully comply with legal requirements are to one degree or another within the popular sector. However, this term also implies a number of other characteristics regarding such aspects as processes of construction, building materials and social status of residents. For further elaboration of this point, see: M. Leaf, "Urban Housing in Third World Market Economies: an Overview of the Literature", Asian Urban Research Network Working Paper No. 1 (UBC Centre for Human Settlements, Vancouver, 1993); and M. Leaf, "Legal Authority in an Extralegal Setting: the Case of Land Rights in Jakarta, Indonesia", Journal of Planning Education and Research 14, 1 (1994), pp. 101-107. The specific characteristics of popular housing within the context of Vietnamese urbanism are detailed in the second section of this paper. 2. A concise summary of this line of reasoning is given in S. Mayo, S. Malpezzi and D. Gross, "Shelter Strategies for the Urban Poor in Developing Countries", The World Bank Research Observer 1, 2 (1986), pp. 183-203. 3. There is no single summary of the range of arguments from this position. However, one particularly cogent analysis along these lines is given in A. Gilbert, "The Costs and Benefits of Illegality and Irregularity in the Supply of Land", in P. Baross and J. van der Linden, The Transformation of Land Supply Systems in Third World Cities (Gower, Aldershot, 1990), pp. 17-36; a broader treatment of the implications of this perspective may be found in J. Hardoy and D. Satterthwaite, Squatter Citizen: Life in the Urban Third World (Earthscan, London, 1989). 4. For an overview of the principal problems confronting Third World socialist governments with regard to implementing housing and urban development programmes, see K. Mathey, "Socialist Housing: some Key Issues", in K. Mathey (ed.), Housing Policies in the Socialist Third World (Mansell, London, 1990), pp. 13-17. 5. In the context of Vietnam, the adoption of a 'market economy with a socialist direction' is justified theoretically as an attempt to exploit market forces in order to boost the productive capacity of the nation to the point where it is ready for the transition to true socialism. The adoption of this new orientation is an explicit recognition of the insufficiency of an agrarian economy as the basis for a socialist nation. In practice, however, it has turned out to be a highly adaptive and open-ended process of economic and social change (W. Turley, "Introduction", in W. Turley and M. Selden (eds), Reinventing Vietnamese Socialism: Doi Moi in Comparative Perspective (Westview, Boulder, CO, 1993)). 6. This research is one component of an ongoing project undertaken by Vietnam's National Center for the Social Sciences, working in conjunction with researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada. The team of sociologists involved directly in this case study include Nguyen Quang Vinh, Nguyen Vi Nhuan, Luu Phuong Thao, Ngo Thi Kim Dung and a number of other contributors. 7. The promulgation of doi moi policy in 1986 was the culmination of a variety of economic experiments over the course of the early 1980s. A good overview of the these pre-doi moi reforms is presented in R. Shaplen, Bitter Victory (Harper & Row, New York, 1986). More extensive treatments of the socio-economic effects of doi moi policies are given in Turley and Selden (eds), (1993), see note 5; N. Jamieson, Nguyen Manh Hung and A.T. Rambo (eds), The Challenges of Vietnam's Reconstruction (The Indochina Institute, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 1992); and P. Boothroyd and B. Wiesman (eds), Socio-Economic Policy Reforms: Toward a Multisector Economy in Vietnam, Research Monograph Series No. l, (UBC Centre for Southeast Asian Research, Vancouver, 1993). 8. The billions of dollars of American aid and supplies which were pumped into the South Vietnamese economy through programmes such as the Commercial Import Programme led to highly dependent service economies in the cities of the south, particularly Saigon. One indication of the degree of this imbalance is from trade figures reported by N. Thrift and D. Forbes, The Price of War: Urbanization in Vietnam 1954-1985 (Allen and Unwin, London, 1986), p. 123, which show that by the early 1970s the proportion of imports to exports was more than 60 to 1. 9. The establishment of the NEZs was also promoted as a means of putting more labour into agricultural production in the effort to increase productivity in the Mekong Delta. For various perspectives on the urbanisation implications of the NEZs, see: D. Forbes and N. Thrift, "Territorial Organization, Regional Development and the City in Vietnam", in D. Forbes and N. Thrift (eds), The Socialist Third World (Basil Blackwell, London, 1987), pp. 98-128; Nguyen Duc Nhuan and K. Mathey, "Vietnam", in Mathey (ed.), (1990), see note 4, pp. 275-287; and Dao Van Tap, "On the Transformation and New Distribution of Population Centres in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 4, 4 (1980), pp. 503-515.

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10. This overall figure obscures the effects of concentration of the city's squatter settlements. In the most central districts, the proportion of squatters is therefore much higher. For further information on current development patterns in Ho Chi Minh City, see Nguyen Quang Vinh, "Urban Growth and Restructuring in Ho Chi Minh City", in B. van Horen (ed.), Planning and Governance of the Asian Metropolis, Asian Urban Research Network International Workshop Proceedings (UBC Centre for Human Settlements, Vancouver, 1995). 11. Formally there are three administrative levels in the Ho Chi Minh City municipal government (as in other Vietnamese cities as well): city level, district level (including inner-city districts and suburban districts), and ward level (in the inner city) or commune level (in suburban districts). Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has 18 districts, of which 12 of urban and 6 are in the suburbs. These districts contain 182 wards and i00 communes, for a total of 282 third-level units. 12. In urban districts, there are two further subdivisions below the level of the ward. These are: the Block Committee (Khu Ph6, also translated as 'urban block community') which includes about 20-30 Street Committees, and the Street Committee (T6 D(m Ph6, or 'street household grouping') which comprises about 50-60 households. 13. The population density for the urban districts overall is 232 persons per ha; the most dense district has 607 persons per ha. 14. The problem of returnees from NEZs is of particular concern to Vietnamese authorities. In order to improve living conditions and thereby decrease the number of reverse migrants to the city, the planners of NEZs now place a much greater emphasis on such amenities as the improved provision of social infrastructure and support for the economic initiatives of local residents. An example of this new phase of NEZ development may be seen in the settlement of Tan Hiep, in southeastern Vietnam not far from Ho Chi Minh City. 15. Under current state regulations, there are three main categories of residence status in Vietnamese cities: permanent resident, temporary resident and resident without formal status. Each urban household maintains a formal registration document, on which permanent residents are listed. In contrast, temporary residents are registered with ward-level authorities and are given time-limited permits to stay in the city. Many newcomers do not register with local authorities for either permanent or temporary status and hence are considered residents without formal status. Periodically, city authorities undertake reviews aimed at upgrading the status of non-permanent residents. 16. At current (1994) prices, 1 tael of gold is worth 5,000,000 VND (approximately US$500). In 1994 the exchange rate for Vietnamese dong is approximately 10,000 VND to US$1. 17. This research was carried out by a team of researchers from Ho Chi Minh City's Land and Housing Service and reported on in Tran Ngoc Phuong and Survey Team, "Results of a Sociological Survey of the Xom Ruong Area, Ward 12 of District 8, Ho Chi Minh City," unpublished report in Vietnamese, Ho Chi Minh City Land and Housing Service (1992). 18. For a description of the origins of the Hiep Thanh community project and its relationship to international NGO activities, see M. Hosaka, "Sharing Local Development Experiences Transnationally: Networking in Support of Community and Local Initiatives", Environment and Urbanization 5, 1 (1993), pp. 132-147. 19. Tran Ngoc Phuong and Survey Team (1992), see note 17. 20. The city's Land and Housing Service has set the goal of guaranteeing the provision of basic infrastructure, electricity and water and to ameliorate the conditions of slum dwellers by the year 2000. According to policy (paraphrased from Nguyen Minh Dung, "Objectives, Policies and Programs for Housing in Ho Chi Minh City from 1994-1995 until 2000", unpublished paper in Vietnamese presented at a Symposium on Housing Policy, Ho Chi Minh City, 21-22 March, 1994), the principle mechanism for achieving this goal is to be the activities of the residents themselves, working through community organisations. Only those areas which cannot be tolerated by local residents and city officials are to be demolished. In the majority of cases, these popular settlements are to be accepted as transitional housing areas, serving to accommodate the urban population until such time as the nation's income levels have risen to such a point where the existence of such settlements are no longer in the interest of serving the common good of society. In the meantime it is necessary to provide minimal infrastructure in order to ameliorate the residents' living conditions. 21. According to Nguyen Duc Nhuan and Mathey (1990), see note 9, state-sector housing accounts for as much as 30% of Vietnam's total urban housing stock. Figures given by Trinh Duy Luan, "Urban Development Patterns in Hanoi", in B. van Horen (ed.), Planning and Governance of the Asian Metropolis, Asian Urban Research Network International Workshop Proceedings (UBC Centre for Human Settlements, Vancouver, 1995) show this proportion to be much higher (48%) in the case of Hanoi. 22. Le Van Nam, "'Urban Housing in the Implementation of Ho Chi Minh City's Master Plan", paper presented at the Seminar on Urbanization and Urban Development, Hanoi, May 1993 and published in Vietnamese in Xa Hoi Hoc (Sociological Review), 43, 3 (1993), pp. 32-35. 23. Although many of the redevelopment projects in the city are arranged through district level offices, the larger canal-side projects, which often pass through or border on a number of districts are being developed through municipal level offices. 24. See "Restoration will lead to Evictions", South China Morning Post (6 October, 1993), p. 10. 25. According to Forbes and Thrift (1987), see note 9, decentralisation of much decision-making authority to local levels has been a characteristic of Vietnamese political culture for centuries, even during periods of strong, centralised administrations. 26. The natural growth rate in the countryside was 3.14% p.a. in 1988, while in the cities it was only 1.75% p.a. (National Institute for Urban and Rural Planning, National Urban Data Book (Ministry of Construction, NIURP, Hanoi, 1992). 27. United Nations, Worm Urbanization Prospects 1990 (United Nations, New York, 1991).

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Nguyen Quang Vinh and Michael Leaf An illustration of the probable outcome of a shift to a market system in the context of previously restricted population movement may be seen in the present circumstances of Vietnam's northern neighbour, China. There, the recent rapid expansion of coastal urban economies coupled with the relaxation of rural residence requirements has resulted in an explosion of what is termed the 'floating population' - - unregistered and therefore nominally illegal migrants from the countryside and from China's inland provinces. In many of the southern coastal cities, this floating population now constitutes up to one third or more of total populations. The crucial lesson from the case of China is that market-oriented reforms undermined the continued viability of residence requirements by undercutting household-level subsidies and creating the need from a free labour market.