Improving Housing Quality of the Bajo Tribe through a Self-Help Approach: A Case Study in Muna Regency, Indonesia

Abstract

This study explains the living conditions of the coastal Bajo tribe in Muna Regency, Indonesia, and examines their potential for improving housing quality through a community-led self-help approach. Adopting a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, fieldwork was conducted across three purposively selected vulnerable settlements: Tapitapi, Lagasa, and Pasikuta villages (N = 259). Quantitative housing evaluation against PUPR/BPS standards reveals severe structural and environmental deprivation. Inadequate daylighting emerges as the most pervasive deficit (80.31%), followed by substandard roofs (55.98%) and walls (54.44%). Tapitapi Village exhibits the most acute vulnerability, where 40.17% of homes violate the minimum spatial allowance (<7.2 m²/capita). Economically, while 28.95% of households face severe housing deprivation under a lower income bracket (≤ IDR 4,000,000), a dominant majority (56%) maintain a baseline daily saving capacity of IDR 40,000. Qualitatively, the study identifies that the operationalization of four maritime social capital pillars—Sikamaseang, Situlu’, Sipalele, and Sipagina’a—effectively eliminates external labor costs and reduces market dependency. However, this organic mechanism is constrained by seasonal physical burnout, economic strains, and macro-technical limits like pile erosion. The study concludes that the self-help approach should not be viewed as an autonomous solution, but as a localized coping mechanism requiring macro-institutional reinforcement. To achieve sustainable scaling, this study recommends a formalized collaboration (Modified Quadruple Helix Model) combining the Bajo community and customary institutions, local government, academics, and NGOs to integrate regulatory flexibility, eco-engineering blueprints, and disaster-resilient housing policies.