Three phases of Danish cohousing: tenure and the development of an alternative housing form

Abstract

Broadly understood as a housing form that combines individual dwellings with substantial common facilities and activities aimed at everyday living, Danish cohousing communities (bofællesskaber) are often seen as pioneering and comparatively successful. Yet, in spite of frequently being mentioned or addressed as case studies in the growing literature on cohousing and, more generally, alternative forms of housing, Danish cohousing experiences have not been systematically analysed since the 1980s. Emphasizing broader trends and evolving societal contexts, this article investigates the development of Danish cohousing over the past five decades. Through this historical analysis, the article also draws attention to the largely neglected issue of tenure structures in the evolution of cohousing. The multifaceted phenomenon of cohousing cannot and should not be reduced to issues of tenure. But if cohousing is to spread and contribute affordable alternatives to mainstream housing, tenure structures should be a key concern.     

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.     

Tenure type landscapes and housing market change: a geographical perspective on neo-liberalization in Sweden

Abstract

Discussions of tenure mix have received renewed interest as many have suggested that neo-liberalization has made way for gentrification of neighbourhoods and increasing segregation. Yet, few scholars have studied country-wide changes in tenure mix, due to the lack of data and appropriate methods. In this article, we propose to use tenure type landscapes to analyse changes in housing policy. We do so while acknowledging the evolution of housing policies in Sweden since 1990. Using individualized and multi-scalar tenure type landscapes to measure change in neighbourhoods, we analyse housing clusters in 1990 and 2012. We show that the tenure landscape in 1990 at the height of the welfare state was fairly diverse and mixed. During the next 22 years, however, the landscape changed to become more homogenized and dominated by ownership through tenure conversions and new housing. We argue that awareness of these changes is essential to understanding present and future segregation and gentrification processes.     

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.     

'The art political' and Los Angeles park planning

Tenant co‐partnership was a social movement which developed alongside the garden city movement in Britain during the period 1900 to 1914, and which financed and built most of the garden suburbs and villages associated with that movement. It was also a unique form of tenure, combining features of a tenant co‐operative and a limited dividend company. This article argues that forms of housing tenure have important long‐term consequences for the built environment, and that co‐partnership was an attempt to find a form which expressed Howard's holistic vision. In particular, co‐partnership was an attempt to harmonize the interests of the individual and the community, and of landlord and tenant. That it did not succeed is due to the failure of the co‐operative movement to back it, then to the effects of the First World War, the predominance of council housing and the inner tensions which led to the deformation of co‐partnership. The article ends with some insights gained from those estates which are still, after nearly 90 years, under collective tenant control, and speculates about the relationship between such control and the quality of the environment.     

Historicizing housing typologies: beyond welfare state regimes and varieties of residential capitalism

Abstract

Comparative housing scholars have, for many years now, imported typologies from non-housing spheres to explain housing phenomena. Notably, approaches attempting to account for divergent housing tenure patterns and trends have frequently been organized around typologies based on the assumption that a causal relationship exists between homeownership rates and the type of welfare regime or, more recently, the variety of residential capitalism a country exhibits. While these housing-welfare regime approaches have provided important research tools, we argue that the typologies they generate represent cross-sectional snapshots which offer little enduring cogency. Based on long-run data, we show that the postulated associations between homeownership, welfare and mortgage debt are historically contingent. This paper makes the case for employing historicized typologies, proposing a country-based typology linking historical housing finance system trajectories to urban form and tenure, with regional dimensions. We argue the need for typologies which can accommodate longitudinal, path-dependent dimensions, both within and between countries.     

Private and social rented housing in Europe: Distinctions,comparisons and resource allocation 1

The difficulties of clearly distinguishing private and social rented housing in a western European context are set out. The issues are illustrated by information for Germany and France. It is argued that comparative housing tenure data can be misleading and that distinctions in terms of ownership are of less significance for resource allocation than the specifics of the relationship between the state and the housing market. The significant production, distribution, pricing, subsidy and profit issues as they relate to rented housing are identified. The policy implications of an approach which is resource allocation rather than tenure orientated is outlined.     

Migration from a mixed‐tenure area. A case study

This article discusses the result of a case‐study of movers from a mixed‐tenure housing estate located in a central Swedish municipality with just over 90000 residents, and comprising upwards of 200 dwelling units in multi‐storey apartment buildings and terrace houses placed around eight courtyards. The forms of tenure being public renting, co‐operatives and owner‐occupation. We discuss the problem of residential stability, the households’ reasons for leaving the estate and the possible relation between mixed forms of tenure and residential migration. The estate has a rather low level of residential stability with an average relocation rate of 30 percent annually. The multi‐family buildings have the highest turnover, and the owner‐occupied single‐family dwellings the lowest. The migration rate is not exceptionally high but higher than one might expect in a district also including tenant‐ownership and owner‐occupied dwellings. Only a very small proportion of the migrant households had found their new homes within the district. Consequently very little use has been made of the opportunities for households to live in different types of buildings and under different forms of tenure without a change of residential area.     

Intersections of inequality in homeownership in Sweden

Abstract

Inequalities relating to ownership of housing have become a major issue de jour in many Western societies. This article examines how the distribution of homeownership in Sweden relates to two factors widely seen as significant to such inequalities, namely parental tenure status and place of birth. We use longitudinal registry data to examine the bearing of these two factors on individual-level tenure progression since the beginning of the 1990s for persons at different stages of their housing careers. We extend existing understandings of Swedish homeownership patterns by demonstrating that inequalities relating to place of birth and parental tenure intersect with one another in ways that substantially advantage certain subgroups while disadvantaging others, and by demonstrating that experiences of entry into homeownership have in recent years been changing in markedly different ways for these different subgroups. Overall, Swedish homeownership inequalities, far from dissipating, appear to be hardening along existing lines.     

Overcladding with brickwork

Denmark has found that overcladding existing high‐rise buildings in brickwork behind new insulation has practical advantages. It has led to the development of a special wall tie for the purpose and a recommended ‘staggered’ method of working, completing one storey height at a time; this gives better control and minimises mortar droppings fouling the insulation. The technique is described here by a member of the Danish Building Research Institute.     

Parental background and housing outcomes in young adulthood

Abstract

Scholars and policy-makers are concerned that young adults’ housing opportunities are becoming more dependent on their family background. This could hinder social mobility and exacerbate inequality. Using data from three cohorts of young people drawn from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study of England and Wales, this study examines how parental attributes in childhood are linked to young adults’ housing outcomes two decades later. The results show that young adults’ housing outcomes have changed considerably over time and are persistently stratified by parental class and tenure in ways that vary by gender. Housing outcomes have become somewhat more polarised by parental tenure over time as the children of renters became relatively less likely to enter homeownership and more likely to rent privately. This suggests that renters became an increasingly ‘marginalised minority’ in the late twentieth century, with consequences for their children’s housing careers and future social inequality.     

Understanding changing housing aspirations: a review of the evidence

Abstract

This article reviews the literature on changing housing aspirations and expectations in contemporary housing systems. It argues that there is a conceptual and definitional gap in relation to the term ‘housing aspirations’, as distinct from expectations, preferences, choices and needs. The article sets out working definitions of these terms, before discussing the evidence on changing housing (and related) systems. Emerging research has begun to consider whether trends such as declining homeownership, affordability concerns and precarious labour systems across a range of countries are fundamentally changing individuals’ aspirations for the forms of housing they aim to access at different stages of their lives. Whilst much of the research into housing aspirations has been considered in terms of tenure, and homeownership in particular, this article suggests that research needs to move beyond tenure and choice frameworks, to consider the range of dimensions that shape aspirations, from the political economy and the State to socialization and individuals’ dispositions for housing.     

Aging Baby Boomers and the Generational Housing Bubble: Foresight and Mitigation of an Epic Transition

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Transit-oriented developments (TODs) often consist of new housing near rail stations. Channeling urban growth into such developments is intended in part to reduce the climate change, pollution, and congestion caused by driving. But new housing might be expected to attract more affluent households that drive more, and rail access might have smaller effects on auto ownership and use than housing tenure and size, parking availability, and the neighborhood and subregional built environments.

I surveyed households in northern New Jersey living within two miles of 10 rail stations about their housing age and type, access to off-street parking, work and non-work travel patterns, demographics, and reasons for choosing their neighborhoods. The survey data were geocoded and joined to on-street parking data from a field survey, along with neighborhood and subregional built environment measures. I analyzed how these factors were correlated with automobile ownership and use as reported in the survey.

Auto ownership, commuting, and grocery trip frequency were substantially lower among households living in new housing near rail stations compared to those in new households farther away. But rail access does little to explain this fact. Housing type and tenure, local and subregional density, bus service, and particularly off- and on-street parking availability, play a much more important role.

Takeaway for practice: Transportation and land use planners should broaden their efforts to develop dense, mixed-use, low-parking housing beyond rail station areas. This could be both more influential and less expensive than a development policy oriented around rail.

Research support: Data collection and initial research were funded under contract with the New Jersey Department of Transportation.     

‘You can’t put your roots down’: housing pathways,rental tenure and precarity in older age

Abstract

In light of housing affordability concerns, we examine older people’s experiences of renting within a context of enduring home-ownership norms and aspirations. Adapting Clapham’s housing pathways framework, we ask: How is rental tenure experienced by older people who have encountered precarity in their housing history? Drawing on interviews with 13 older tenants, we observe the uneasy relationship between tenure insecurity and housing quality, and tensions between choice and luck in experiences of renting in later life. Three pathways related to renting in older age were apparent: life-long renting; loss of homeownership through adversity; and deliberate decisions to transition to renting. We note that challenges encountered in current and previous housing situations lead to diverse narratives of precarity in later life. These precarious experiences can be exacerbated by intersecting uncertainties associated with health, financial and personal circumstances. Older tenants’ housing pathways and experiences illuminate ways in which precarity can disrupt opportunities for ageing well and ageing in place.     

Deconcentrating Poverty With Housing Programs

Problem: Housing programs of the past have exacerbated the problems of concentrated poverty. Current housing programs serving very low-income households, including homebuyers as well as renters, should be examined to determine the extent to which they help households make entry into neighborhoods with low concentrations of poverty.

Purpose: This research is designed to assist planners in understanding how well various approaches to resolving housing affordability problems can facilitate the poverty deconcentration process.

Methods: Administrative data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development are used to assess the degree to which federal housing programs help lowincome homebuyers and renters locate in neighborhoods where less than 10% of the population is below poverty.

Results and conclusions: Subsidizing households ought to be more effective than subsidizing housing units at helping lowincome households locate in low-poverty areas, and whether a household rents or buys should not matter to whether a program succeeds at deconcentration of the poor. Yet, analysis of national datasets across several housing programs finds neither of the previous propositions to be true. Housing vouchers suppliedto households are not helping renters locate in low-poverty areas any more effectively than are current project-based subsidies. It also turns out that tenure matters; a disproportionately higher share of low-income homebuyers are locating in low-poverty neighborhoods than are lowincome renters.

Takeaway for practice: I recommend that housing planners seeking to make poverty deconcentration more effective use housing placement counselors, administer programs at the metropolitan scale, lease and broker market-rate housing directly, promote mixed-income LIHTC developments, practice inclusionary zoning, and monitor the impacts of these efforts.

Research support: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.     

The Way We Think about the Way We Think

Abstract

Today's scholar is evaluated primarily through the metric of research narrowly defined under a scientific rubric. This idea of research has become naturalized, and its ubiquity cuts across most disciplines. Research as such has become overvalued as the only arbiter of success and has led to increasingly difficult hurdles for the architecture professoriate in tenure and promotion. Instead of trying to argue that architecture is a valid exception to the rule of research, the discipline should seek to become a leader in changing and broadening how research is understood in academe.     

Trouble in paraside? On increasing housing problems in flanders

The survey data for this article was collected by the Center for Social Policy (Antwerp University). At regular intervals, they question a representative number of Belgian families in order to make the operation and effects of social policy measurable. On the basis of that data, this article traces the evolution of housing indicators in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. After outlining the key issues in housing policy in Belgium and Flanders, the article presents the facts: for several population groups, it sketches the developments of tenure, housing amenities, housing costs, and affordability. The emerging picture is one of overall improvement. Nevertheless, some groups lag behind, while new social groups in need of housing emerge (e.g., lone parents). Age and the number of incomes per family seem to be the breaking points. The second part deals specifically with the housing situation of young families (head under 40 years of age). This population group is (historically) responsible for most new building of houses in Belgium and Flanders. Since we observe a decline in ownership, the reasons for this decline are of strategic importance to our understanding of the level of new housing construction and scarcity on the housing market. At the time of the research,Pascal De Decker (sociologist and urban planner) held an appointment at the Center for Housing and Housing Policy (Steunpunt voor Wonen en Woonbeleid) at Antwerp University (UFSIA). At present, he is an expert consultant to the Cabinet of the Flemish Minister for Urban Policy and Housing. Bert Meulemans (sociologist) supervised the reported research on target groups. He is a researcher at the Center for Social Policy (Centrum voor Sociaal Beleid) at Antwerp University (UFSIA) Veerle Geurts (criminologist) is a researcher at the Center for Housing and Housing Policy (Steunpunt voor Wonen en Woonbeleid) at Antwerp University (UFSIA)     

Individual differences in the neighbourhood level determinants of residential satisfaction

Abstract

Residential satisfaction is a key variable in understanding residential mobility. Many researchers have studied the individual level and neighbourhood level determinants of satisfaction, however, very few have studied which neighbourhood characteristics affect satisfaction for whom. In this paper, ordered logit models are estimated, explaining satisfaction from neighbourhood characteristics, personal characteristics and interactions. These interactions test whether neighbourhood characteristics have similar effects on satisfaction for all individuals, or whether individual characteristics affect the size and direction of these effects. Satisfaction is found to be less affected by the share of ethnic minorities for ethnic minorities than for natives, because minorities are more satisfied in neighbourhoods with higher shares of their own ethnic group. Neighbourhood characteristics are found to have a stronger effect on satisfaction for owner-occupiers and parents with children than for others, however the impact of neighbourhood ethnic composition does not vary with tenure or household type.