Assessment of Post-Occupancy Satisfaction in Public Housing Estates in Port Harcourt, Rivers State

Public housing provision in Nigeria has historically produced estates that fail to meet residents' actual spatial, social, and functional needs, resulting in low satisfaction, poor maintenance, and eventual abandonment of units. This study assesses post-occupancy satisfaction in two public housing estates in Port Harcourt, specifically the Mile 1 Housing Estate and the Rumuola Road Government Residential Estate, examining resident perceptions of spatial adequacy, environmental quality, communal facilities, and estate management. A structured questionnaire was administered to one hundred and eighty resident households, supplemented by focused group discussions with ten community association leaders. Physical observation checklists documented the condition of communal infrastructure including roads, drainage, landscaping, and recreational spaces. Satisfaction was rated on a five-point Likert scale across eight functional dimensions. Results indicate low overall satisfaction, with spatial adequacy and estate management ranked lowest. Seventy-four percent of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the size of living rooms relative to household size, while sixty-eight percent cited the poor state of drainage infrastructure as a primary complaint. Communal open spaces were observed to have been informally appropriated for commercial and agricultural uses in both estates. Residents in the Rumuola Road Estate reported higher satisfaction with location and accessibility compared to the Mile 1 estate. The study argues that public housing design in Rivers State has consistently failed to integrate community participation in the planning process, and recommends a post-occupancy evaluation framework as a mandatory component of Rivers State Housing Corporation design protocols. Keywords: post-occupancy evaluation, public housing, resident satisfaction, Port Harcourt, housing design.