Building social mix by building social housing? An evaluation in the Paris,Lyon and Marseille Metropolitan Areas

In France, social housing is perceived as an instrument for promoting social mix. In particular, there is an expectation that introducing social housing into wealthy areas will bring in low-income households and lead to greater coexistence between lower and higher socio-economic groups. However, several factors tend to hinder the pro-mix effects of social housing: financial constraints that reduce the number of new buildings, especially in high-income neighbourhoods; Not in my backyard attitudes in wealthy areas; allocation practices by social landlords who seldom rent dwellings in expensive neighbourhoods to poor households. Previous experiments with social housing have often proved disappointing in their impact on social mix. What about today’s experiments? Has the social housing built in recent times increased social mix? The empirical evaluation we carried out in Paris, Lyon and Marseille shows that recent social housing developments have stimulated social mix but the impact measured is very small.     

Social and housing tenure mix in Paris intra-muros, 1990–2010

This paper sheds light on the relationship between the social and tenure mix in Paris between 1990 and 2010. Using two quantitative methods (cluster analysis and entropy indices) it explores the relationship between the social and tenure mix at the microscale. Although no statistical correlation was found, other relationships were discovered. First, the social mix is a function of the general characteristics of the neighbourhood or district. Second, social upgrading and homogenization began in the 1990s, and the ‘ideal’ social mix was a temporary phase before upper socio-professional groups became overrepresented. The growing availability and diversification of social housing has neither created a greater social mix nor slowed down social upgrading, either in general or for social housing in particular. Finally, the fact that there are different categories of social housing landlords nuances the outcomes of policies.     

Varieties of Home Ownership: Ireland’s Transition from a Socialised to a Marketised Policy Regime

This article presents an historical institutional analysis of government supports for home ownership in Ireland. In doing so, it critiques the interpretation of the Irish home ownership system and, by extension, of this tenure’s meaning and role as a neo-liberal project which dominates the comparative housing literature. Rather than liberal policies, the article argues that between the 1920s and 1970s, government subsidies slowly expanded, in terms of generosity, variety and universal availability, to such a scale that Ireland’s home ownership regime was effectively ‘socialised’. This regime (not market forces) raised home ownership to 80 per cent of households. However, ideological, financial and socio-economic supports for this regime weakened and during the 1980s home ownership was marketised as universal subsidies were withdrawn and mortgage lending privatised. The implications of this redirection were initially disguised by low house price inflation, but when the economy boomed in the 1990s home ownership contracted sharply to levels which could be supported solely by the market.     

欧美城市居住混居的理论、实践与启示

市场经济转型背景下出现的贫富差距带来日益明显的居住空间分化,社会群体空间分异居问题成为当前政府、社会和城市居民普遍关注的焦点议题。居住分化问题在欧美国家普遍存在,而欧美国家近年已经开始倡导采取住房混合战略以实现混居格局。本文从理论和实践两个层次分析了欧美国家城市近年来的居住分化与混居模式,并对其进行了系统评述。     

Mixed Messages about Mixed Tenure: Do Reviews Tell the Real Story?

Mixed tenure is the predominant development and regeneration strategy and is a key component of UK housing and urban policy. It is purported to provide wide-ranging social, environmental and economic benefits to residents. While there is a large literature on mixed tenure, policy makers are likely to rely on reviews and summaries of the evidence rather than primary studies. But can they rely on such reviews? Using systematic review methods this paper critically appraises recent reviews for the evidence that mixed tenure policies and strategies have achieved any of these expected benefits. Of the six UK reviews of primary studies, most drew on less than half the available primary studies, none provided a critical appraisal of individual studies and made no comment on conflicting evidence between and within studies. While the reviews gave indications of the deficiencies of the evidence base, rather than focus on the implications of these deficiencies, four of the six reviews emphasised the positive effects of tenure mix.     

Social Housing Management,Governance and Delivery in Ireland: Ten Years of Reform on Seven Estates

This paper examines developments in social housing management, governance and delivery in the Republic of Ireland during the last decade, using evidence from two rounds of research conducted in 1997 and 2007 on seven social rented estates, located in a variety of regions. Among the three most significant developments in this regard, the reconceptualisation of the housing management function has had the most positive impact on the views of tenants. Some aspects of the externalisation of social housing provision, such as the growth of the housing association sector and the use of PPP arrangements for social housing regeneration, have also been positive, but the future of this externalisation agenda is uncertain. The impact of the various reforms to the management of the social housing service, such as advent of strategic policy making and performance monitoring, has been uneven in some cases and uniformly low in others.     

Home ownership into the new millennium: A view from the margin

The late 1990s saw the beginnings of a decline in Australia's high rate of home ownership. This trend, especially among younger people, appears to be driven by a complex of economic, social and demographic forces. The paper looks at this development from one specific viewpoint: the phenomenon of mortgage default. Recent data suggests a rise in the number of people falling into arrears on their mortgages, in some cases to the point of default. The paper surveys this outcome and analyses the factors responsible. Data drawn from the experiences of a state government mortgage lender is used to test the factors isolated in the literature as significant in this respect.     

“Thank heavens for the lease”: histories of shared ownership

Drawing on and developing Kingdon’s multiple streams analysis, this article examines the development of one aspect of the UK’s low cost home ownership programme: shared ownership. We demonstrate how key human and non-human policy entrepreneurs were able to set the agenda from 1973–1983 in favour of shared ownership; they neutralized the alternatives, while retaining some of their instruments; and solved a number of early problems by bringing key players into the programme. Our data-sets include a range of archival material and elite interviews. The policy entrepreneurs included John Stanley (who was the housing minister in the First Thatcher government), the National Federation of Housing Associations, and the Building Societies Association. Our development of the multiple streams analysis is to argue that documents, including the lease, act as policy entrepreneurs in their own right. The lease was central to the development of shared ownership and its transformation into a model lease enrolled other organizations, most critically the building societies.     

Housing tenure, housing costs and poverty in Flanders (Belgium)

This article deals with the relation betweenhousing and poverty in Flanders (Belgium). Wedescribe how home tenure and housing costsdeveloped differently for different incomegroups. Furthermore, we assess the impact ofthese evolutions on poverty and welfaredistribution. Our analyses show that in theobserved period homeownership increasedstrongly among higher-income categories andremained stable or even decreased amonglow-income households. Average housing costsincreased more for low-income households thanfor high-income households, leading to a sharpincrease in problematic rent-to-income ratiosfor the former. It appears that especially theprivate rented sector is problematic. Thesocial rented sector is evaluated ratherpositively. Taking account of housing costsleads to higher poverty levels and higherwelfare inequality compared to the situationwhere only current income is used to calculatepoverty and welfare distribution.     

Local Social Networks and Social Resources in Two Dutch Neighbourhoods

Much research in neighbour relations is inspired by two research questions. First, it is necessary to know to which degree social contacts are local and in particular whether local social contacts in disadvantaged neighbourhoods bear an instrumental disadvantage. Second, it is necessary to know whether policies aiming at mixing people from different social and ethnic backgrounds result in more diverse networks and therefore in better opportunities for low-income residents. To address these questions, this paper compares the role of local relationships and the social resources they provide in a low-income neighbourhood and a socio-economic mixed neighbourhood in the Netherlands. Contrary to assumptions in the research literature, residents in the low-income neighbourhood do not differ from their counterparts in the mixed neighbourhood in the degree to which they receive social support for dealing with everyday problems. However, networks of low-income residents provided fewer resources in terms of accessed prestige.     

The “Pink Pound” in the “Gaybourhood”? Neighbourhood Deprivation and Sexual Orientation in Scotland

Abstract

The emergence of geographic concentrations of non-heterosexual individuals – so-called “gaybourhoods” – is often linked to housing, demographic characteristics of the non-straight population and wider discrimination. These neighbourhoods are associated with narratives of gentrification with the non-straight population acting as gentrification pioneers. In popular imagery, non-straight households are typically portrayed with higher disposable income, and more likely to live in owner-occupied apartments in affluent neighbourhoods. This paper presents data from the Scottish Health Survey showing a disproportionate concentration of non-heterosexual people in the most deprived places in Scotland. These neighbourhoods are predominantly peripheral housing estates, dominated by social housing; not gentrifying inner-city neighbourhoods. We use data from the Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) to interrogate individual characteristics that might explain this spatial concentration of residence. We argue this means the narratives of LGBT gentrification and affluence should be regarded with caution given ongoing exclusion and deprivation among the non-heterosexual population.     

美国混合居住政策及其效应的研究述评——兼论对我国经济适用房和廉租房规划建设的启示

在总结美国公共住房政策发展历程的基础上,评述了美国三大混合居住政策的提出、内容、带来的影响以及展趋势.政策的提出很大程度上是应Ζ对大规模公共住房建设所引起的贫困集中问题.混居政策的实施分散了贫困集中,提高了邻里安全感和满意度,为邻里社交网络多样化提供了机会,尤其是给低收入家庭的孩子带来了明显的积极影响:但混居政策对低收入家庭成人的就业、收入和福利依赖是否具有影响却存在争议.美国混居政策的推行为我国城市和谐发展提供了有价值的思路,对我国当前正大规模启动的经济适用房和廉租房的规划建设有重要的借鉴与启示.     

美国居住隔离及包容性住房政策研究综述：成因、影响及启示

美国的居住隔离现象一直备受学术界的高度关注,是众多学科研究的焦点。深入了解美国居住隔离产生的原因及其变化,对我国的城市发展和政策制定有很好的借鉴作用。本文通过文献综述,剖析了美国居住隔离的成因,总结了其发展变化以及产生的社会影响,并系统介绍了美国包容性住房政策的产生和发展以及对居住隔离的影响。分析认为：（1）导致美国居住隔离的主要因素包括社会经济地位差异、社会偏好和歧视;（2）美国种族居住隔离依旧明显但程度整体呈缓慢下降趋势,居住隔离模式逐渐偏向阶层之间的居住隔离,其尺度也从社区上升到城市;（3）居住隔离加剧了社会不平等,抑制了弱势群体的流动性,最终导致贫困集中和社会矛盾激化;（4）包容性住房政策可以有效提高保障房的供应量,有消除居住隔离、促进社会融合的潜力。在此基础上,本文提出了三点对中国住房政策的启示：大力推行并优化包容性住房政策,促进社会融合;深化户籍改革、扩大住房保障的覆盖面,消除体制化的弊病;住房保障既要“补砖头”又要“补人头”。中国住房政策应吸取美国居住隔离和包容性住房政策的经验和教训,对中国城市发展和社会和谐稳定具有重要意义。     

Achieving a Socio-Spatial Mix? Prospects and Limitations of Social Housing Policy in Santiago de Chile

In the Chilean housing sector, the combination of free-market imperatives guiding investment decisions and a long tradition of social housing subsidies has generally had remarkable success in quantitative terms but has also contributed to the large-scale segregation of poor families on the urban periphery. With the goal of a better socio-spatial mix and, ultimately, social integration, the Chilean government recently revised its guidelines for housing subsidies, promoting small-scale social housing in central locations. This paper examines the early effects of this new housing policy in a cluster of the so-called “pericentral” municipalities in Santiago de Chile. Specifically, it raises the question of whether the policy has a chance of achieving its objectives in light of prevailing free-market conditions. We demonstrate strong interrelations between the current dynamics of real-estate investment and government-led housing programs which together continue to promote uneven socio-spatial development and segregation of the urban poor on a smaller scale.     

Stakeholder Representations of Gentrification in Amsterdam and Berlin: A Marginal Process?

In recent years, several studies have highlighted how gentrification strategies are imposed under the discursive umbrella of ‘social mixing’. However, most evidence is based on Anglo-Saxon experiences. This paper sets out to expand the geography of gentrification by looking at the representation of processes and policies of gentrification as put forward by key stakeholders in Nord-Neukölln (Berlin) and Indische Buurt (Amsterdam). It shows that in both contexts, stakeholders and policy documents engage with the concept of gentrification, rather than avoid it. Due to public-policy influence and local criticisms, this engagement differs between both cases. In Nord-Neukölln, the term is heavily contested and policy-makers attempt to refute accusations of gentrification, while in the Indische Buurt, the process is explicitly pursued as a positive policy instrument by policy-makers. Different representations within each case are shown to be influenced by the characteristics of in-moving and out-moving residents; the employed timeframe and the perceived influence of institutions on urban regeneration.     

Citizen support for spending to reduce homelessness in Canada’s largest urban centres

Abstract

We present the results of a randomized controlled survey experiment involving 1508 Canadians using hypothetical vignettes of homelessness experiences, allowing us to examine the extent to which Canadians who live in large urban centres hold different attitudes towards homeless populations and may differ systematically in terms of supporting expanding homelessness investments. The findings point to differences not only among major urban centres, but also along urban-suburban-rural dimensions, which help us understand the place-based drivers of political will and policy responses across the Canadian urban and regional context.