In FY 1997-98, the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (GoB) formed Grihayan Tahobil (Housing Fund) with the initial seed money of Tk. 500 million through budget allocation for the purpose of providing low-cost housing to the poor, distressed and homeless people of the society. The central objective of the study is two-fold: (i) evaluation of social program of Grihayan Tahobil (Housing Fund), and (ii) evaluation of the economic and social status of the beneficiaries of Grihayan Tahobil (Housing Fund).

To capture the impact of the program 1700 households were selected systematically from those households who received housing fund loan between 2014 and 2017 for structured questionnaire survey. To understand the real impact of the program 300 non-program households were also selected from the same districts.

Around 87 percent of the borrowers of HF loan agreed that current amount of loan (Tk. 70,000) is insufficient to construct a standard house. Encouragingly, 93 percent of the program beneficiary households have experienced an upward change in social status during the last 5 years as against 49 percent of the non-beneficiary households. On average 97 percent of the program beneficiary households see improvement in healthy environment, children’s education, peace of mind, and social status because of the new house financed by housing fund loan. The threats that can make the sustainability of HF loan program questionable include: a smaller amount of loan, lack of monitoring, the problem in the design of the house, slow loan processing etc. Finally, the economic and social benefits accruing from the Housing Fund greatly outweigh its negative externalities.

Dr. Md. Harunur Rashid Bhuyan (Study Director), Dr. Abdul Hye Mondal, Dr. Zabid Iqbal, Mr. Maruf Ahmed