Focus on: Block 6A, Vietnam

Every week, the CoHabitat Network introduces you to a collaborative housing project documented on the cohabitat.io database.

When the city of Vinh, Vietnam, announced plans to evict and redevelop all the old collective workers’ housing, 29 families decided to propose to rebuild their housing themselves.

The plans they developed, with help from architects, included widening the lane and rebuilding 2-story rowhouses. They used this plan, and the availability of housing loans from ACHR, a member of the CoHabitat Network, to negotiate for permissions with the local authorities, which finally agreed to the people’s proposal. This little project ended up changing housing policy in Vietnamese cities.

"It is totally possible to link community-driven activities with the government system, because we have the same objective: communities want to improve their housing and living conditions, and that is the government's objective also.... This little project has changed the building standards and changed the city's policy for redeveloping old collective housing, from an expensive, contractor-driven model where many families get evicted, to a flexible, people-driven model where everyone stays and rebuilds their housing in the same place." - Mr. Nguyen Van Chinh, Vice Mayor of Vinh

The project at Block 6A in Vinh was presented in detail during our Community-Led Housing on the Spotlight's session: watch the video here.

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