Housing location choices of the poor: does access to jobs matter?

Abstract

This research investigates whether access to jobs affects poor households’ residential location choices using data from individual households in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. Our results, based on discrete choice models, show that the effects of job accessibility on household location choices are contingent upon households’ automobile ownership and employment status. Places with higher job accessibility by public transit mode are more likely to attract poor households that do not own cars but have at least one employed worker or one labour force participant, while job accessibility by automobile travel mode has no positive effect on the location choices of poor households who own automobiles. The results stress the importance of job accessibility for those poor households with limited transportation mobility but strong needs for access to jobs.     

Tracking mobility in the housing choice voucher program: a household level examination in Florida,USA

Previous research on the housing choice voucher (HCV) program has focused on neighbourhoods where voucher holders reside at one point of time. Little is known about mobility of voucher households during their tenure in the program. Using an administrative dataset that spans 11 years for the state of Florida, this study evaluates how often voucher households move and their mobility outcomes, measured by the change of neighbourhood poverty. Findings reveal that HCV households moved frequently beginning in the early years of program participation. Between 2007 and 2013 there was a notable decrease of voucher presence in high-poverty areas. Regression analysis further suggests that rental housing market conditions are significantly associated with mobility outcomes. White, non-Hispanic households and those with higher incomes were more likely to move to lower poverty neighbourhoods, whereas disabled and formerly homeless households moved more frequently and were not as successful in accessing lower poverty areas.     

Starters in the housing market in an urban region: The case of the Randstad Holland,a diversified housing‐shortage area

The access of newly formed households to their first independent dwelling is a useful indicator of the provision of housing for households with a weak position in the housing market. This is particularly the case in a densely populated urban region, where the housing market is tight. However, starters in the housing market do not form a homogeneous group. They differ by age, household composition, and socio‐economic status. Particularly when there are two wage earners in the household, access may be gained to more expensive dwellings. This article examines the housing situation of starters in five types of residential environment in the Randstad Holland: metropolitan areas, strongly, moderately, and weakly urbanised areas, and growth areas. The metropolitan areas contain many small and inexpensive dwellings and thus accommodate many non‐working (often student) starter households. In the least urbanised municipalities dual‐earner married couples are strongly represented among starters. All residential environments play an important part in the housing of starters, who usually locate in the residential environment where they had already been living. Particularly in the metropolitan and (strongly) urbanised areas so‐called substitute dwellings, such as rented rooms, caravans and houseboats, are important in accommodating newly formed households. They help ease the pressure on the stock of inexpensive housing. Starters living in suburban areas tended to move directly from the parental home into their first independent dwelling.     

On the Path to Homeownership: Money,Family Composition and Low-income Households

In Norway, as in many other countries, homeownership is encouraged politically, and a majority of the households become homeowners at some stage in their life cycle. Many households move house when circumstances change, and it is often at this point that they also make their tenure choice. This paper employs a bivariate probit framework to model the transition rate from renting into homeownership. Using a sample of initial renters, subsequent tenure choice is analysed jointly with the stay-move decision. A particularly important question in this context is whether low-income households face differential constraints on entering owner occupation that could be addressed by policy change. The empirical model includes financial characteristics, household characteristics and changes in household characteristics as explanatory variables. Changes in household composition are particularly important in explaining variations in both tenure choice and mobility. Hence, the common practice of estimating housing market behaviour using a panel of intact households potentially obfuscates important determinants of that behaviour. The paper proceeds by using the equivalent of a Chow test to show that a hypothesis of equal coefficients in samples of low- and high-income households is firmly rejected. Thus low-income households do behave differently. Short-term variations in income appear to have little effect on people's capacity to enter owner occupation. However, low-income households are more dependent on past savings for successful entry. This suggests a rather different policy approach if owner occupation is to be expanded.     

Market orientated housing policies and the position of middle-income groups in the Netherlands

As a result of the poor economic climate and neo-liberal policies, the welfare state in many European countries is becoming more residual and is directing its efforts at seriously deprived households. This development is affecting the middle-income groups, who enjoy less protection than before and are therefore forced to become more self-supporting. We can find a good illustration of this trend in the changing position of these groups on the Dutch housing market. The market orientated EU policies are denying middle-income households access to the social rented sector. Meantime, these households are already encountering accessibility problems in the owner-occupied sector due to the economic crisis and the tougher mortgage conditions set by the financial institutions. This paper describes the housing policy changes against this background and analyses the position of middle-income groups on the Dutch housing market.     

保障性住房人居环境评价及其影响因素研究——以广州市保障房住区为例

为解决“民有所居”的问题, 我国进行了大规模保障性住房的建设, 关注此类住房的人居环境是以人为本的重要体现。以广州市 4 个保障房住区近 800 户居民为研究对象进行入户调研, 建立包含客观建成环境和居民主观评价两大维度的保障房人居环境评价体系,并运用多元线性回归对其影响因素进行研究。结果表明,保障房居民对住区人居环境感到比较满意,但精神层面生活品质仍有提升空间;进一步发现,住房环境评价受人均住房面积、家庭人均月收入、入住时长、建造年代影响;住区环境评价受区位、建造年代影响;社会关系评价受建造年代、入住时长影响。针对研究结论,提出相应的改进建议,为保障房建设提升及相关政策的完善提供参考。     

A simulation model of residential mobility and housing choice

Residential mobility is the outcome of housing market search. Mobility rates depend on the search intensity of the household, the arrival rate of opportunities in the market, and the rates of acceptance of these opportunities by the households. Micro-analytical models of overt mobility fail in decomposing the compound rate into its constituent parts and can therefore not distinguish between demand- or supply-driven changes in the housing market. Micro-analytical models of stated preferences are only partial and do not reflect the actual behaviour of households in a specific housing market context. Simulation models of residential mobility and housing market search offer a potential advantage over micro-analytical models, due to their flexible nature. By simulating demand, supply, and the actual match of households to vacancies, a full representation of the housing market can be given. TheLocSim model presented here is a micro simulation model of a local housing market and is illustrative of the potential for modelling residential mobility. This includes:

-the variation in search intensities of households, dependent on the motive for moving, including dependence on events in other than the housing career;

-the generation of supply, as an unintended outcome of the residential mobility of households that move to another dwelling;

-the adjustment of initial preferences, as households become aware of the opportunities and constraints in the local housing market during their search;

-the public choice, with respect to the creation of opportunities by stimulating the construction of dwellings and with respect to imposing constraints on the accessibility of social rented housing.

The application of this model to the specific group of young people in the process of household formation illustrates the sensitivity of the rates of residential mobility and out-migration to shortages and other constraints in the local housing market.     

中国住房改革的社会影响--基于计算机技术的社会形态分析

市场经济体制改革以来,中国城市的外在形象和内部结构都发生了巨大的变化。住房市场化为普通居民提供了选择住房的机会。但是,并不是所有的百姓都从住房再分配中受益。中国城市中的住房再分配与居民在政府再分配和市场回报之间的位置联系密切,这种联系超过了成熟市场中因生活圈及其改变衍生出的住房需求。本文研究了宁波老城再开发地段当地居民的满意度,着重从社会方面分析,主要涉及住房再分配对居民的影响及其导致的潜在住房问题。研究以一份调查问卷为基础,调查了在过去15年内三个不同时期进行改造的社区。调查数据表明三个社区的满意度都不高。由于各阶层人们的努力,保护老城内综合环境的同时也要提高当地居民生活质量的新策略被采纳。然而,为改变人们的观念还有很多工作要做:通过报纸获得信息和教育,通过学术旅行和会议进行学术讨论,对决策人进行汇报,进行小规模改善的实践。住宅搬迁正在成为有争议的话题。因此,住宅再分配是市场体制下城市空间改变的一种过程。     

Swedish welfare state and housing markets: under economic and political pressure

Economic and financial crises are often connected to crises in the housing market. Some housing systems are, however, more sensitive than others. Traditionally, Sweden’s system aimed to protect households from such volatility, but changes in the welfare state model and increased mortgage indebtedness suggest that Sweden’s housing market might have become more exposed to macro pressures. The starting point for this article is an understanding of the Swedish welfare state model in which housing was traditionally a core value and where the link between income and housing outcome has been weakened. Deregulation and liberalization have fundamentally changed the special features on the Swedish housing market. In particular, the rental sector is decreasing in favor of increased ownership and greater speculation. In this article, we aim to give a picture of the grand restructuring of the Swedish housing sector including its implications for the link between income poverty and housing poverty and an understanding of the contradictory reaction of the welfare state to the global financial crisis (GFC). Our results show that affordability is a problem and that the proportion of households at risk of poverty has been increasing when taking housing costs into consideration. However, a combination of the lessons learned in the 1990s crisis and resultant increases in regulation together with a stronger and more immediate recovery than might have been expected meant that Sweden and its housing system came out of the GFC fundamentally intact. However, there must be concerns that future crises will not be so readily addressed.     

Job and residential search behaviour of two-earner households

Even though a large share of the workforce belongs to two-earner households, job search models invariably ignore the interaction between the wage earners of the same household. In this article, job and residential search behaviour of two-earner households are simultaneously analysed. The main finding of the theoretical model is that two-earner households search less intensively in the housing market, and more intensively in the labour market, if the distance between the workplaces of the two wage earners is longer. In the empirical part the latter finding has been analysed based upon a data set for Dutch two-earner households. Received: 12 May 1998 / Accepted: 10 October 1999     

The Residential Mobility Pattern in the Istanbul Metropolitan Area

This paper investigates intra-urban residential moves according to housing areas with varying densities in Istanbul. First, the reasons for actual moves are explored, initially with regard to the age and education characteristics of the households. Further consideration is given to the type of previous dwelling, duration of residence in the previous dwelling and the distance from the origin to destination areas. The results related to age are consistent with previous studies; older households are less mobile. However, duration of time in the residence reflects a different pattern from previous studies; in Istanbul, it appears not to reduce residential mobility. Second, planned mobility is analyzed according to household structure such as age, education, tenure and income. The analysis is expanded by adding dwelling characteristics and ‘roomstress’—a measure of the space needed by the household. Further, neighbourhood characteristics are added to elaborate their impact on the probability of the residential mobility. Results reflect that renters are more mobile than owners. While high accessibility decreases the odds of residential mobility, neighbourhood traffic problems positively increase the odds of future mobility. However, ‘roomstress' appears not to provide a significant source of explanation in any of the models.     

The population make-up of residential areas: Structure and changes (Douai, France)

In a given social environment, what is theimpact of housing status, of the socialperception and identification of residentialareas on its actual population make-up? Underwhat conditions do these perceptions change?These questions have led us to determine foursynthetic variables of residential space:the socio-residential status of housingtypes (symbolic links between thecharacteristics of the housing unit and theposition of its occupant in society); the ``housing zones'' (impact of the composition ofthe housing stock on the social markersdefining a residential area); the residential areas (actual ``social marker'');and the local impact (social markers thatare not directly linked to the nature of thehousing stock).This article describes the methods and modelsused to construct these variables. They areused to understand the links betweenresidential movements and changes in thepopulation make-up in the area of Douai (inNorthern France), located in a formercoal-mining field which was gradually closed,beginning in the 1970s. We used secondaryprocessing of the 1990 partial census surveysof one-quarter of the French population, and wecarried out 1,344 surveys with households whichhad moved in 1994.Results show that mobility is often linked to``crisis'' situations: these are moves which donot aim to improve one's socio-residentialstatus. In the end, most households remainwithin the same housing category, in the sameresidential area, and in the same housingzone.     

Gentrification or social renewal? Effects of public supported housing renewal in Denmark

This paper analyses social change, particularly the processes of social decay, in obsolete and deteriorated housing in the older housing stock in Denmark between 1986 and 1996. These changes are compared with the development which has occurred in similar kinds of housing that have been physically upgraded through a government program for housing renewal.

The study shows that this kind of housing attracts a quick turnover of residents and a tendency towards more unemployed or lower income occupants. It is also used by young people as their first home when moving away from their parents.

It is also shown that public supported housing renewal stops this type of housing pattern and increases the share of households that have high incomes. The changes, however, are not considerable and there are also many unemployed people among the newcomers. These changes depend to a large degree on the size and tenure of the renewed dwellings. In private renting, particularly co‐operatives and in larger dwellings the socio‐economic composition of residents undergo greater changes than in smaller dwellings in non‐profit or public housing. Extensive renewal often results in high rent compared with rent from the regulated housing market in Denmark. As a result the renewed dwellings have difficulties in competing with other kind of dwellings. For that reason residents of this type of housing primarily consist of welfare or pension recipients or others who receive high housing benefits. A minority of people with higher income also use these dwellings but mostly as temporary housing as after a few years they often move to owner‐occupied housing.     

Housing Mobility as a Function of Household Structure: Towards a Deeper Explanation of Housing-related Disadvantage

This paper considers the nature and extent of housing mobility for a specific population of 'nuclear family' owner occupiers. The aim is to explore what is a frequently overlooked dimension of housing-related disadvantage.It is suggested that the concept of disadvantage would be rendered more meaningful if it were extended to take account of differential opportunities and constraints within as well as between a variety of household employment structures. The ways in which households generate and reproduce gender divisions of labour represent a synthesis of the negotiation of home, work and family life and, consequently, access to and sustainability of particular streams of housing amenity and resources. Moreover, when household employment structure is recognised as a key determinant of housing mobility it can be appreciated that processes which underpin the 'flow' of household structure also serve to reinforce significant cleavages between households. This relationship, between relative housing mobility and different household employment structures, is described in terms of observations from two sets of complementary micro-data from the Census of Population.     

Willingness for different job mobility types and wage expectations: An empirical analysis based on the online resumes

In this paper, we study different determinants of the intentions of multi-dimensional job mobility and potential consequences on the expected wage, allowing for multiple types of moves, including location, industry, and occupation, and different combinations of these three dimensions. Our results confirm that the same observable characteristics can lead to different or even completely opposite effects on job mobility intentions. To be specific, on-the-job seekers (compared to unemployed ones) and job seekers with management positions in their last jobs both have a higher willingness to change job locations, but they are less willing to change industries and occupations. Moreover, our results demonstrate that the relationship between job mobility and wage expectations highly depends on the combinations of different mobility dimensions. Specifically, potential geographic mobility positively impacts wage expectations, with an increase of the expected wage by 6.3%. However, changing industry, occupation, or both results in a lower expected wage by 3.7%, 1.6%, and 11%, respectively. The wage expectation of the “All change” group does not significantly differ from the cohort of non-movers (i.e., “No change”), implying that geographic moves could only partially offset the adverse effects of switching both occupation and industry.     

Growth and change in one person households: Implications for the housing market

As a result of several demographic and social trends, the one person household accounts for approximately one quarter of all households in Australia and is expected to further expand to one-third by 2021. After couple families, the single person living alone is the most numerous household form. The paper differentiates one person households by life course stage and considers their likely housing demand in terms of tenure, dwelling type and number of bedrooms. Original analysis of the 1996 ABS 1% Household Sample File has been undertaken. Home ownership increased over the life course for singles, but not to the same extent as for other households. Moreover, there is some evidence to suggest that, household income aside, people living alone may prefer flats, units or apartments over detached houses. The paper suggests that our understanding of housing careers needs to incorporate the possibility of one or more spells as a one person household.     

Growth and change in one person households: Implications for the housing market

Abstract

As a result of several demographic and social trends, the one person household accounts for approximately one quarter of all households in Australia and is expected to further expand to one‐third by 2021. After couple families, the single person living alone is the most numerous household form. The paper differentiates one person households by life course stage and considers their likely housing demand in terms of tenure, dwelling type and number of bedrooms. Original analysis of the 1996 ABS 1% Household Sample File has been undertaken. Home ownership increased over the life course for singles, but not to the same extent as for other households. Moreover, there is some evidence to suggest that, household income aside, people living alone may prefer flats, units or apartments over detached houses. The paper suggests that our understanding of housing careers needs to incorporate the possibility of one or more spells as a one person household.     

Subtenures and Housing Outcomes for Low Income Renters in New York City

New York has devised a variety of policy approaches to improve the housing status of low‐income households, including public housing, publicly subsidized private housing, rent vouchers, welfare shelter allowances, rent regulation, and tax incentives to landlords. Little systematic attention has been paid to how these various subtenures compare when judged by the housing outcomes they produce for low‐income households in the city. Using data from the 1996 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey, this article compares New York City’s rental subtenures in terms of the following outcomes: housing quality, crowding, affordability, residential mobility/stability, and various indicators of neighborhood quality. Adjusting for differences in household and housing stock characteristics, we find that the tenant‐based Section 8 program seems to produce the best set of overall outcomes for low‐income renters in the city.     

TOWARD A SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE CITY: Race and Dimensions of Urban Poverty in Women's Lives

ABSTRACT: Focusing on processes of racialization in the lives of women in lowincome households, this article aims to contribute to a social geography of the city through a study of the feminization of poverty. Data were collected from a snowball sample of approximately 100 African- and Anglo- American women in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1989. Emphasizing the need for localized accounts of the feminization of poverty, attention is paid to specific aspects of these women's daily lives, namely their racialized experiences of economic restructuring, sources of income and household structures. Their division into “work-rich” and “work-poor” households is revealed further through an examination of their participation in formal and informal local social networks. I argue that their everyday experiences leave the weight of poverty falling more heavily on African-American women: living in the same place can take on different meanings for racialized social groups.