Residents’ Satisfaction with Neighbourhood Socio-economic Environment of the Public Sector Employee Housing Schemes in Lagos State, Nigeria

One of the major strategies implemented by both the private and public sectors in the provision of mass housing for their workers in Nigeria is the employee housing scheme. However, not much is known about the occupants’ satisfaction with neighborhood Socio-economic environment of housing provided through this scheme in a large metropolitan area such as Lagos State, where several housing estates have been developed under this scheme. Satisfaction with neighborhood socio-economic environment in nine public-sector employee housing estates in Lagos State, Nigeria was explored. A cross-sectional survey research design involving quantitative research approach was adopted. The survey was carried out between September, 2020 and March, 2021. Using Stratified Sampling, the estates/locations were grouped into Local government areas. Cluster sampling technique was used to select the local governments areas. Also, purposive technique was used to select 688 housing units in the nine purposively selected housing estates. Out of 688 questionnaires administered, about 500 copies of the administered questionnaire were correctly filled and returned by the participants and the information were subjected to descriptive statistics. Statistical package for Social Science(SPSS) was used to analyze the data. The results pointed out that the key respondents were most pleased with the extent of safe keeping of lives and property in the estate, outdoor air quality in the estate, extent of religious activities in the estate and least pleased with extent of collective activities in the estate, extent of noise in the housing estates and price of services and goods within and around the estate. Therefore, to improve neighborhood socio-economic environment satisfaction, residents in public sector employee housing schemes should give priority attention to the key features that ensure residents’ satisfaction in existing and future housing projects.


Introduction
One of the cardinal responsibilities of government is to provide housing for its citizens.However, in carrying out this responsibility, emphasis is often placed on providing housing for direct employees.The public sector employee housing scheme is a product of the attempt by the three tiers of government (local, state and federal) in Nigeria to comply with the provisions of the employee housing (special provision decree 1979) in providing adequate housing for their workers.It is a sub-set of public housing which is delivered by the government, for those who do not have the required means of acquiring decent housing at the prevailing market conditions.However, of all the components of public housing, neighborhood, environment plays a crucial part due to its influence on how people live, relate to each other, work and play together.This could probably be the reason why the term neighborhood has generated a lot of research interest.Even though the term community has often been used interchangeably to refer to neighborhood, a study pointed out that the two terms are different with respect to description and content [1].The study went further to describe the term 'neighborhood' as a geographical location and defined community as social interaction and dynamics that take place within a geographical location.Another study also stated that in understanding the concept of the neighborhood, the planning approach and the ecological approach are the major interest points [2].In terms of the planning approach, neighborhood relates to how the physical environments influence inhabitants in their daily activities.However, when a neighborhood is analyzed through the ecological approach, it describes the neighborhood as a unit that is purposely designed as a unit to link physical aspects of a community to the pattern which social clusters are scattered into numerous neighborhood settings.It is against this backdrop that further studies explained the neighborhood as the direct social and physical environment around housing units [3].This implies that the adjoining social, physical and economic location where housing units are found is a neighborhood environment.Also the concept of neighborhood can further be characterized into two aspects namely; the neighborhood physical environment and the neighborhood socio-economic environment.The purpose of this study and its main focus is on the socio-economic environmental aspect of the neighborhood.This aspect of the neighborhood is focused mainly with the relationship and connection of the social factors, the safety factors as well as the economic factors in the neighborhood environment.
Also, current research on neighborhood satisfaction strives to understand who is satisfied and who is not satisfied, what parts of the neighborhoods that the residents are satisfied or dissatisfied with and the parameters that influence neighborhood satisfaction.While numerous studies associated with neighborhood satisfaction have concentrated on overall residential satisfaction [4; 5], a few others have focused on satisfaction with neighbourhood environment alone [6;7].Others have concentrated on satisfaction with a specific neighborhood domain like satisfaction with the physical environment or with the socio economic environment.Very few studies have investigated satisfaction with neighborhood socio-economic environment.For instance, [8] surveyed the impact of mobility-centered air as well as noise pollution on activity satisfaction.[9] looked at the perceived measures of neighborhood-level features to pinpoint the contributing factor of neighborhood satisfaction within the North Camden neighborhood, New jersey ,U.S.A. [10] verified a model of the impact of diverse predictors on persons' extents of fright of criminality in Dallas neighborhoods.However, much less is known about satisfaction with socio-economic environment in public sector employee housing schemes in Lagos state, Nigeria.It is in this regard that this study considered to look at the residents Satisfaction with Neighborhood socio-economic Environment of the Public Sector Employee Housing Schemes in Lagos State, Nigeria.This was in order to make submissions on those features of neighborhood Socio-economic Environment that should be strengthened to improve the satisfaction of inhabitants in public sector employee housing schemes.

Literature review Studies on Neighborhood Socio-economic Environment Satisfaction
Neighborhood satisfaction can be explained as the degree to which inhabitants are satisfied or displeased with the adjoining physical, social and economic environs of their dwelling units.Neighborhood satisfaction is a combination of two interdependent aspects: neighborhood physical environment and neighborhood socio economic satisfaction.These two are related because the socio economic environment cannot exist on its own but is situated in neighborhood physical environment.In this research, we concentrated on neighborhood-socio economic satisfaction, founded on the conjecture that neighborhood socio economic environment is what matters utmost for quality of life of inhabitants.The socio-economic environment simply deals with the interplay of the social factors, safety factors and the economic factors in the neighborhood environment [6] With regards to the Social factors, it can be seen as developing solid social ties with other inhabitants and courteous of each other's privacy.For inhabitants who like social interaction and connection at the neighborhood settings, the existence or nonexistence of such bonds significantly impact neighborhood satisfaction [11].With regards to the safety factors, safety of neighborhood is a concern for many inhabitants, and some neighborhood designs assist inhabitants to feel safer than do others.For example, decent illumination of public areas enables feelings of safety.This was probably why [12] pointed out that active street contributes critically to safety of neighborhood.This implies that street activity leads to inhabitants who act as street observers as well as sidewalk guardians.For the economic aspects, it majorly deals with the price of services and goods within and around the estate and the transportation cost of moving in and around the estates.Satisfaction with socio-economic neighborhood features is strongly associated with overall neighborhood satisfaction.The variables of neighborhood satisfaction include satisfaction security of lives and property in the estate, satisfaction with outdoor air quality in the estate, satisfaction religious activities in the estate, satisfaction with friendliness of neighbors in the housing estates, satisfaction with social interactions between residents of your estate and those living in adjoining neighborhoods, satisfaction with socio-cultural activities in the estate [4; 13; 5].Others are satisfaction with residency rules and regulations in the estates, satisfaction with general cleanliness of the estate, satisfaction with communal activities in the estate, satisfaction with uproar in the housing estates, satisfaction with price of services and goods within and around the estate.have all been seen to be vital predictors of satisfaction with the neighborhood IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1342/1/0120284 [13; 11;14].Some studies have evaluated neighborhood-socio economic environment within residential satisfaction [15; 16;17; 13; 18; 19; 20; 21; 22].Other studies have evaluated the neighborhood socio-economic environment satisfaction as part of neighborhood satisfaction [23; 24; 25; 26; 27; 6].For instance, in Hong Kong., [28] investigated neighborhood attachment and satisfaction in three classes of neighborhood.Attachment as well as satisfaction in neighborhoods were exhibited as unconnected phenomena.It was further pointed out that inhabitants were largely attached to and satisfied with their neighborhood.Also, the physical environment and safety were identified as influencing satisfaction.Contrary to popular opinions, support for deeper social bonds was not seen to be an element of satisfaction.The outcomes of the research also indicated that satisfaction may lead to increased attachment.[29] focused on property holders' satisfaction with their neighborhoods, which is a key element linked with a significant sense of community.safety as well as social problems were much more top impacts than physical factors in neighborhood satisfaction in poor areas.[8] considered the effects of movement-based air and sound contamination on activity satisfaction.The outcomes show that activity satisfaction and air and noise pollution vary critically in several small environments.Subjective air and noise pollution are more important parameters of activity satisfaction than objectively measured contamination, and air contamination has a superior impact than sound contamination on activity satisfaction.In Dallas neighborhoods , [10] considered the effects of diverse factors on inhabitants extents of distress of criminality.Availability of police in the neighborhood, support of social systems, neighborhood satisfaction, as well as collective efficacy were recognized as affirmative influences on reducing fear.This study suggested that in high-crime neighborhoods, social capital can be mobilized as a community resource for public safety.
From all the studies collated above, it is glaring that it will be a herculean task to arrive at a common finding on the end results of researches on neighborhood satisfaction with socioeconomic environment in different localities in different nations.This is due to the fact that the influences of certain factors on some studies appears to be inconsequential in other studies, which could be attributed to the various type of analysis done or variables gotten.Another reason for this discrepancies would be that a lot of these studies evaluated the neighborhood as a unit that is made up of both the physical and the social components.

Material and Methods
The information used in this survey were gotten from a part of the questionnaire of a larger investigation to assess the outcomes of public sector employee housing scheme in Lagos State, Nigeria.Cross-sectional survey was the research design and it was done between September, 2020 and March, 2021.The Housing estates picked for the inquiry were those under the Lagos State staff housing board.The research population is made up of residents in 1148 dwelling units in 48 housing estates/locations under the Lagos Staff Housing Board with household heads as respondents.Using stratified sampling, the public sector employee housing units were grouped into local governments area of Lagos state (Agege, Ifako-Ijaiye, Oshodi-Isolo, Amowo-Odofin, Ikeja, Ikorodu, Mainland, Island, Surulere, Kosofe Local Government, Badagry).Cluster sampling procedure was used to select six (6) local government areas out of the listed eleven (11) local government areas that have the public sector employee housing units.These local government areas were selected due to the high concentration of civil servants in these location and the high population of Lagos citizens within the local [28].The local government selected include Agege, Ifako-Ijaiye, Oshodi-Isolo, Amowo-Odofin, Ikeja, Ikorodu local government areas.Also purposive sampling procedure was used in picking the housing unit within these local governments due to the limitation of access to some of these housing estates (see Table 1).The purposive sampling technique was then adopted in picking the housing units, and this provided the researchers the opportunity to pick all available housing units in the nine selected residential estates/locations that is representative of the research population.Therefore, the total sample size calculated for the study was 688 units.500(72.6%)copies of the questionnaire were retrieved and used in the analysis Explicitly, neighborhood socio-economic environment features were identified through the literature search on the subject area.and the results gotten was used in framing the questions used in the survey forms.The literature search showed that 12 variables for evaluating the satisfaction with physical environment' features.In the investigation, the participants were asked to specify the extent of satisfaction with the parameters based on the 5-point Likert scale with 1= Very dissatisfied, 2= Dissatisfied, 3= Not Sure, 4=Satisfied, and 5= Very Satisfied.The research was associated with the distribution of well-thought-out and pre-tested questionnaire to the family heads or representatives of each dwelling units in the estates surveyed.All 688 copies of questionnaire were disseminated through physical means see Table 1).A total of 500 copies were reverted as well as analyzed.This signified around 72.6% rate of response.With regards to the analysis of data, the 12 parameters were assessed through graphical statistics (descriptive) to show the mean satisfaction scores, representing the average satisfaction score given by all the respondents.Similar studies [31; 32; 33; 34; 35] used this method

Results
The neighborhood socio-economic environment of the residential estates was investigated using twelve (12) items based on the on the 5-point Likert scale with 1= Very dissatisfied, 2= Dissatisfied, 3= Not Sure, 4=satisfied, and 5= Very satisfied.Results of the residents' satisfaction with each of these items are shown in Table 2. From the mean satisfaction scores (MSS) shown in Table 2, which fall between 3.25 and 3.74, it can be understood that the inhabitants were pleased with all the 12 parameters investigated.Specifically, the residents were most pleased three aspects of neighborhood socio-economic environs of the residential estates: the extent of safekeeping of lives and possessions in the estates( MSS=3.74),outdoor air quality in the estates(MSS=3.70) and the extent of religious activities in the estates( MSS=3.59),respectively but were least pleased with the extent of collective activities in the estates( MSS=3.36);extent of uproar in the housing estates( MSS=3.34) and "price of services and goods within and around the estates( MSS=3.25).
Outdoor air quality in the estate Regarding residents' overall satisfaction with the 12 items used to investigate neighborhood socio-economic environment of the residential estates, the results show that he highest proportion (46.4%) of the residents expressed satisfaction with the neighborhood socioeconomic environment, 35.2% were not sure about this, while 5.6% expressed dissatisfaction with this aspect of their housing estates (Figure 1).This result indicates that less than one-half of the respondents expressed satisfaction with neighborhood socio-economic environment of their housing estates in the study area.

Discussion
With regards to the physical neighborhood environments of the housing estates, the study also showed that a large number of the respondents in the investigation were pleased with neighborhood socio-economic environment of the estates.This finding is similar to that by [13] showing that most of the occupants in public housing in Hulhumale, Maldavies, were pleased with social environments of the estates and the study by [11], which reported that in low-cost housing estate in Ikorodu, State, Nigeria, the inhabitants were fairly pleased with the behavioural and the economic aspects of the estates.To further buttress this results, the respondents were most pleased with the extent of safe keeping of lives and property; outdoor air standard; levels of religious activities, friendliness of neighbors and social interactions between residents of the estates and those in adjoining neighborhoods.They were however least pleased with the extent of socio-cultural happenings, residency rules and regulations, general cleanliness, extent of collective activities and noise in the housing estates as well as costs of goods and services within and around the estates.From these results, it can be seen that security concern is top on the issues concerned in the satisfaction with the social environment of the housing estates.This is not surprising because security is one of the items in Maslow's hierarchy of human needs and the findings presented earlier in the study showed that security of live and property was given priority in the creation of the housing units and in the modification made to the housing units by the occupants.This finding can further be explained based on the submission by [14] that social relations within a community make inhabitants feel safe; and hence prove to have an influence on the reduction of criminality and anti-social activities.Therefore, it can be inferred the level of satisfaction with friendliness of neighbors and social interactions in the neighborhoods where the residential estates are located could be a contributing factor to their satisfaction with security within their current residence.However, the residents' low satisfaction with socio-cultural activities, residency rules and guidelines in the estates, general sanitation of the estate, extent of collective activities, extent of noise in the housing estates, price of services and good is an indication that these constituents of their housing environment are not meeting their requirements and anticipations and need to be improved for better performance.

Conclusion and Recommendation
The research investigated the Satisfaction with Neighborhood Socio-economic environment of the Public Sector Employee Housing Schemes in Lagos State, Nigeria.On the basis of these, the outcomes pointed out that the respondents were most pleased with the extent of safe keeping of lives and possessions in the estate, outdoor air quality in the estate, extent of religious happenings in the estate and least pleased with extent of collective activities in the estate, extent of uproar in the housing estates and price of services and goods within and around the estate.Therefore, to ensure that neighborhood socio economic environment contribute maximally to public sector employee housing scheme, housing stake holders should pay satisfactory consideration to the features recognized in this investigation.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Residents' Overall Satisfaction with Neighborhood Socio-economic Environment