Determinants of Squatter Settlement Expansion in Hosanna Town, SNNPR: The Case of Gofer-Meda Sub-Town

Abstract

Currently, Hosanna town is expanding at an increasingly rapid rate. The rapid horizontal growth of the town has created the emergence of an unplanned corner in the town. This resulted for the rapid proliferation of squatter settlements at the margin of the town. But, factors and theories underpinning this rapid and frequent dynamic of squatter settlements are regularly confined to the descriptive segment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of squatter settlement expansion and its impact on urban development in Gofer -Meda sub-city of Hosanna Town. Mixed methodology composed of qualitative and quantitative was used in this study. There are1213 squatter household settlers in the study area. Among these households 301 households are selected as sample of the study. Besides this, 15 officials were purposefully selected from three kebele administrators, sub-town and municipal officials. In addition to this, key informant were employed in the study i.e. 12 Hosanna town farmers and inhabitants were purposefully selected. Major findings of the study indicate that emergence of squatter settlements in the study area is a recent phenomenon that has occurred since 1994 and it is assumed that they were out of control after the end of 1998 E.C. Some of the causes of squatting in the study area that are identified by respondents include high housing rents in the centre of the town, delayed responses and procedural problems of the legal land provision and the practice of land sale by land speculators as a means of making profit. For that reason, land within the area is wastefully exploited and the situation has greatly contributed to the unplanned and speedy horizontal growth of the built -up place of the subtown. Some of the challenges of that faced in the study area are unemployment, sanitation problem, low access in terms of infrastructures and facility.