The Difficult Problems Arose in the Reform of the Housing System

There bound to be various difficultiesand problems in the process of promotingthe commercialization of housing.The all-round promotion ofcommercialization of houses will affect thepeople with vested interests.The structuralchange of the vested interests will result inthe factors of instability.During the 30 years or more of thepractice of the housing distribution systemwith Welfare characteristics,residents in the     

Housing context and legitimacy in the transformation of a stigmatized estate: the case of Rosengård

Large housing estates built in the post second world war era have been the object of extensive debates and research in Europe and in North America, due to their social and maintenance challenges but also their high symbolic value. A wide range of regeneration strategies has been employed in addressing issues of segregation and stigmatization of these estates. This paper examines the role of local housing and public management in the selection of regeneration strategies. The paper starts from the concept of housing context as means of explaining the selection of regeneration strategy. The paper is informed by a case study of regeneration efforts in Rosengård, where a minor regeneration effort, the Bokals, led by the municipal housing company, crystalizes a new integrated approach in regenerating the estate. This sets the stage for subsequent developments. We argue that legitimacy, in the sense of management being perceived as a credible agent of change, is critical in the cumulative strengthening and shaping of the regeneration strategy in Rosengård. We put forward the notion of legitimacy trading to capture the mutual and instrumental public support of the main actors. The main contribution of the paper is to demonstrate how including aspects of management legitimacy can develop the concept of housing context, by extending the range of applicability and broadening the range of regeneration strategies that can be accounted for.     

Opportunity or Loss? Health Impacts of Estate Renewal and the Relocation of Public Housing Residents

Estate renewal programs can have positive and negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of public housing residents. We aimed to investigate the potential health impacts of relocating residents as part of the redevelopment of a public housing estate in South Western Sydney, New South Wales. In-depth interviews were undertaken with public housing residents as well as with informants from local health and housing authorities. We found that a range of current and potential health impacts were linked to individual residents’ responses to the processes of estate redevelopment and relocation, housing and neighbourhood quality, residents’ social networks and access to social and health care services. Improved housing quality and maintenance, a personalised approach to relocation and equitable access to services were identified to contribute to positive health outcomes.     

Housing the very poor or the young? Implications of the changing public housing policy in South Korea

Abstract

This paper discusses the reorganization of the roles of the national and local governments in public housing policy alongside decentralization, with particular reference to South Korea. Focusing on policy changes over the past decade, it reveals that rather than retrenchment amid a push towards greater local autonomy, the national government has diversified and expanded its public housing policy, and is increasingly pursuing a universal approach to public housing. Through case studies of Seoul and Gyeonggi, it also shows how the two local governments have become creative suppliers of public housing that is more customized to the local context. In particular, it highlights the rising emphasis on targeting young people rather than the very poor in public housing policies, a shift that is partly a legacy of Korea’s ‘productivist’ welfare state. The paper closes by discussing the implications of this latest policy trend, especially on local–national policy coordination.     

Housing and the New Welfare State: Wobbly Pillar or Cornerstone?

This paper is concerned with the question of how to depict the housing-welfare state relationship, with special reference to the present period. It begins with a discussion of how housing can be seen as both the wobbly pillar under the welfare state and a cornerstone. The paper then examines two different perspectives, variously giving explanatory weight to economic and cultural factors. The first, derived from the work of Michael Harloe, provides an explanation of the tendency of social housing to move towards a residual role, but has nothing to say about the growing significance of housing markets and housing wealth in relation to the contemporary welfare state. The second, originated by Jim Kemeny, is based on international correlations of homeownership rates and levels of welfare state expenditure. It is argued that this approach has limited, and diminishing, relevance in the context of the early 21st century. The paper suggests that in the present period housing, especially the housing wealth of owner occupiers, provides governments with the opportunity to pursue welfare restructuring. This idea is explored by reference to evidence from Great Britain, a country with a high level of homeownership and an active programme of public service reform.     

Causes and Consequences? Exploring the Shape and Direction of the Housing System in the UK Post the Financial Crisis

The impacts of the global financial crisis continue to reverberate around the world. This paper explores its impacts in the UK in general and England in particular in relation to the housing market and housing policy. It examines the underlying trends which were already in place before the financial crisis and the impact of the crisis and the government's policy responses on the housing and mortgage markets. The paper argues that the crisis mainly exacerbated already long established tensions while the current policy solutions have ameliorated, but not fully, resolved these pressures.     

Reinforcing Housing Assets in the Wrong Location? The Case of Botshabelo,South Africa

Apartheid policies were instrumental in displacing black urbanisation away from key urban areas. Botshabelo, 55 km east of Bloemfontein, is an example of this. This paper uses asset-building theory to argue that post-apartheid policy for Botshabelo has largely reinforced apartheid spatial planning patterns and locked in a significant percentage of the Botshabelo population. Population growth is slow, with evidence of the working age population leaving Botshabelo. At the same time, substantial investment in infrastructure services has increased investment in housing in the past 20 years.     

Will the City Rise Again? The Contested Geography of Housing Reconstruction in Post-Disaster Haiti

This paper examines the contested geography of post-disaster housing reconstruction in Haiti. Drawing on interviews with representatives of 48 organizations, it identifies three spatial preferences regarding reconstruction: urban, non-urban, and mixed. Organizations favoring urban versus non-urban rebuilding differed markedly in their financial resources and voice. Many intergovernmental organizations and large international non-governmental organizations (NGOs)—the organizations that most favored non-urban rebuilding—held relatively anti-urban perspectives. Small international and Haitian NGOs were more likely to see Port-au-Prince as a suitable site for reconstruction and express positive opinions about urban conditions more generally. The findings indicate that much of the formal housing reconstruction effort, particularly as led by large, well-funded and politically powerful organizations, will be directed to the urban periphery and countryside. This suggests Port-au-Prince may continue to face the same challenges of unplanned growth that have led some organizations to find it an undesirable setting for reconstruction in the first place.     

Analysis of the Planning and Construction of Chuanfu Housing Estate in Tianjin

Chuanfu Estate is located in the Nankai district ofTianjin.It is one of three experimental housing estates desig-nated by the Ministry of Construction of the People's Re-public of China in 1986 for the northern part of thecountry.It is included in the National Seventh Five-YearPlan's leading research program.Chuanfu Estate was builtaccording to the ″integral-planning,rational-layout,com-     

Housing the elderly: segregated in senior cities or integrated in urban society?

Ageing is driving the demand for housing for seniors in the Netherlands. The current urban planning ??cluster policy?? is mainly conducive to the construction of luxury inner-city apartments for seniors. Much less attention is given to the demand for dwellings for seniors outside the cities and for low- and middle-income households. Should the government accommodate this demand by constructing accessible dwellings? And would a ??senior city?? be a suitable framework for this purpose? The issue is whether senior citizens actually want to live together in a district, village or city. Would they want to move there if these senior cities were some distance away from other (age) groups, family, friends and services such as shops and care? We question whether the demand for senior cities is sufficiently strong to warrant abandoning the European planning principle of clustering. Doing so would lead to fragmentation of the landscape and less support for services in urbanized areas. The impetus for this study came from the major shortage of accessible housing in the Netherlands and a recent initiative to build a senior city of 1,500 dwellings in the province of Flevoland.     

Can the periphery achieve core? The case of the automobile components industry in Spain

The paper analyses changes experienced by Spain as a European peripheral region in the automobile global value chain (GVC). Our attention is focused on both spatial concentration of value‐added and high‐skill activities, and generation of technology in the components industry. The analysis of plants set up (investments) and relocated (divestments) by multinationals (MNEs) between 2001 and 2010 shows that Spain is no longer a place for labour‐intensive activities and standardized processes using simple technologies in comparison with other peripheral regions. However, the continuing majority presence of foreign‐owned companies is limiting decision power for generating and transferring technology, concentrating it mainly in the areas in which Spanish MNEs are specialized.     

Housing and the elderly in Singapore – financial and quality of life implications of ageing in place

In spite of the unprecedented success of publichousing in Singapore, the rapid rate at whichthe population is greying is causing housingstress in the matured Housing and DevelopmentBoard (HDB) estates. Although new housingoptions such as studio apartments are beingprovided by the public sector while a recentlyformed housing cooperative is developing aretirement village, the majority of the elderlyin Singapore prefer to age in place,notwithstanding the imbalance between thedemands of their homes and the functioninglevel of the elderly persons' physical andbiological systems. This implies that homemodification, rather than new-built elderlyhousing, may be a more pragmatic solution tothe elderly Singaporeans' housing problems thatcould also improve their quality of life. Since85% of the population of Singapore live inpublic housing, this paper examines the typesof home modifications that could be carried outto the existing stock of public housing so asto create a suitable living environment for theelderly. In addition, the paper considers thehousing finance predicaments of the elderlySingaporean and explores possible financinginstruments that could be implemented tosupport home modifications for Singapore'sgreying population. The paper concludes thatsince home modification(s) could improve thequality of life of the elderly persons morethan specialised housing, public funds shouldbe diverted from building new specialisedhousing to home modification(s) for elderlyhome owners.     

Political Economy and Housing in the Twenty-first Century – From Mobile Homes to Liquid Housing?

The recent Global Financial Crisis started as a crisis in the US sub-prime mortgage market, and rapidly spread to a wider financial crisis. This article suggests that beyond the crisis, we can now see that households are playing an evolving role as a site of risk absorption. In so doing, households have become a frontier of capital accumulation, not just as producers and consumers, but also as financial traders. Households are increasingly buying financialized products as an ordinary part of daily subsistence – houses, insurance, education, electricity and mobile phones. But at a level beyond the household’s daily reality, these regular purchases are being re-specified as assets, on which asset backed securities are built and then traded. It is in this way that by securitizing mortgage debt, finance has given global liquidity to housing. The size of securitized markets on housing as well as household assets and payment streams now dwarfs stock markets. The requirements of this emergent financial citizenship for the house and households extend beyond just honouring payments on a home purchase, it is requiring a culture of financial calculation that becomes absorbed as part of the daily norms and dispositions of social being. The presumption of rights of access to housing, education and health care are being replaced by the acceptance of individual financial participation and calculation. Here, we argue housing is being reconstructed as both the capital base for, and site of, individualized life course risk management.     

Opportunities and Constraints in State Housing Policy: The Example of Tasmania's ‘Affordable Housing Strategy’

The lack of Commonwealth government funds for public housing has encouraged state governments across Australia to develop ‘Affordable Housing Strategies’ to address the problems that result from the shortage of housing available for low-income households. However, to date there has been limited discussion of the implications of these affordable housing strategies and their significance as a form of policy intervention. This article highlights the Tasmanian Government's ‘Affordable Housing Strategy’ as a case study to illustrate the obstacles that confront state housing policy makers. These include difficulties in securing partnerships with the private sector, an inability to influence macro-economic policy settings, fluctuations in the property market cycle and a reliance on small and uncertain budgetary allocations. However, there is limited scope to address some of the problems that have undermined previous state and Territory housing policy initiatives by reaching agreements with local government to ease planning controls for social housing, boosting the capacity of the community housing sector and using additional budgets judiciously.     

Industrial districts,urban areas or both? The location behaviour of foreign and domestic firms in an Italian manufacturing region

The Annals of Regional Science - The present paper aims at exploring the location behaviour of manufacturing firms, according to their ownership: domestic firms (henceforth DOMs) and inward foreign...     

Contribution and challenges of the private sector’s participation in housing in Nigeria: case study of Akure,Ondo state

Housing inadequacy in Nigeria’s rapidly growing urban centres is manifested in qualitative and quantitative terms. Government’s efforts at mass delivery of houses have failed to achieve the desired result, hence the collaboration between the public and private sector to bridge the wide housing gap. A study into the public–private partnered initiatives at mass delivery of housing in Akure, Nigeria was undertaken. Seven housing schemes of this sort were identified and studied, taking their contributions to bridging the housing gap in the city into account. The achievement is meagre though progressive strides are discernable. The macroeconomic environment, continued dominance of the public sector, bureaucratic bottlenecks, and socio-cultural issues presented serious challenges to active private-sector participation. Affordability is elusive; execution of the projects had some problems while political manoeuvrings impacted on the projects negatively. It is affirmed that participation of the private sector has potential for improving housing delivery; however, the present operation needs to be fine-tuned for future success.     

Who are the typical commuters in the post-socialist metropolis? The case of Riga,Latvia

There have been important changes in the geographical mobility of the populations of post-socialist countries since the 1990s. Drawing on an extensive sample survey—the Geographic Mobility of the Labour Force survey conducted by the University of Latvia in 2006—this paper, examines the demographic and socio-economic differences between commuters and stayers in the suburbs, as well as commuting time. The results of the study indicate that people who have suburbanised over the past decade are much more likely to commute than stayers. We show that commuters to Riga differ from non-commuters with regard to most demographic and socio-economic variables. For instance, the probability of commuting is higher for the younger and more affluent suburban residents. Somewhat surprisingly, our analysis shows that there are no significant differences in commuting time between socio-demographic population groups.     

The influence of local development on the impact of natural disasters in Northeast Brazil: The case of droughts and floods in the state of Ceará

Using data from the Damage Assessment Reports from the Civil Defence, the current study investigates the relationship between the damage caused by natural disasters and local development at the municipality level in Ceará state, Brazil. The results show that a better urban and water supply infrastructure, a lower population density, and a higher proportion of own revenues relative to total revenues are associated with smaller disaster damage. However, economic development in terms of GDP per capita exhibits a convex relationship with the impact of natural disasters across municipalities, reflecting the potential decreasing returns of preventive investments due to the highly hazardous environment that involves municipalities.     

Housing Market Renewal: Evidence of Revanchism or a Response to ‘Passive Revanchism’ Supporting ‘Citizenship of Place’?

In England, housing market renewal (HMR) proved an urban policy cause célèbre held to be representative of state-sponsored gentrification. This paper considers some critiques and explores the relocation experience of a group of residents in South Yorkshire, England during the implementation of HMR policies during 2005–2007. This paper argues that: (i) from the mid-1970s, ‘place-based citizenship’ and participation standards had been eroded and the introduction of HMR was an antidote to state neglect; (ii) state failure in addressing ‘slow-burn’ shocks such as deindustrialisation and housing market restructuring can be viewed as a form of ‘passive revanchism’ and (iii) HMR can be viewed as a means of addressing deficits in participation standards that arise from differential experiences of place: the term ‘citizenship of place’ is therefore used to signal the call for a more nuanced account of policy interventions such as HMR in order to assess how complex processes of restructuring affect citizens across spatial and temporal scales.     

Welfare or Work? Low-Income Working Households' Housing Consumption in the Private Rented Sector in England

This paper is concerned with issues of equity and efficiency in the Housing Benefit (HB) system in the private rented sector (PRS) in England. Using information from a survey of low- income working households (LIWH) and in-depth interviews with LIWH families, it addresses two policy-relevant questions. First, there are mixed findings on whether the current HB system enables HB recipients to consume more housing than is available to otherwise similar non-HB-recipient households in the PRS. HB rules on eligible property size appear not to unduly favour HB claimants compared with LIWH. LIWH, however, tend to pay a rent which is less than the maximum amount an HB recipient could receive. This is particularly true for LIWH families with children who are most likely to be living in properties smaller than allowed by HB regulations. Second, there is no evidence that the HB system incentivises LIWH to give up work or otherwise seek to become eligible for HB.