Attachments,Grievances, Resources,and Efficacy: The Determinants of Tenant Association Participation Among Public Housing Tenants

Abstract: This study uses data from the Multi‐City Study of Urban Inequality to examine variation in tenant association participation among public housing tenants in Boston and Los Angeles. Using logistic regression models we estimate the net effects of four sets of factors on the likelihood that a tenant has attended tenant association meetings: neighborhood attachments, grievances, resources and constraints, and feelings of efficacy. Results show that net of other factors, participation is greater among attached tenants who have resided in public housing longer and who have social ties to other people. Grievances also increase participation, but they do so indirectly by increasing people's tendency to be more involved in their communities. With the exception of education's positive effect, resources and constraints are not important determinants of participation. Education and efficacy act like enablers increasing people's ability to be involved in their communities. The implications of the findings for research and community organizing are explored by examining how three mechanisms account for the findings.     

Building codes and energy conservations—Another view

The Swedish housing policy decision of 1974 is internationally unique in its specific quest to establish neutrality between housing tenures, not only in terms of costs, but also with regard to housing standard and household influence over housing management. After presenting the 1974 policy objectives, an interpretation of these goals is attempted in order to establish criteria for an evaluation of goal achievement. Then the present state of affairs for each of the three target areas is compared to the criteria. It is found that the record of achievement with respect to standards is mixed; while there is a visible and steady trend towards greater tenure diversity in single‐family housing production, the size variation is, if anything, diminishing in the multi‐family housing sector. As for household Influence, the self‐regulatory strategy involving tenants and public housing companies has increased collective tenant influence. Certain legislative measures have increased individual tenant influence over repair and maintenance. However, tenant rights are still inferior to those of homeowners. Finally, the objective of cost neutrality seems to have come increasingly closer to achievement in. latter years, if one limits the perspectives just to housing consumption. If the possibilities of extracting the exchange value from housing are taken into account, homeowners still seem favoured compared to tenants. It is concluded that if a greater extent of end‐state neutrality is to be achieved, housing policy would have to be more “non‐neutral” towards the tenures than has been the case’ so far.     

DOES INNER CITY PUBLIC HOUSING EXACERBATE THE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS OF ITS TENANTS?

ABSTRACT: This article analyzes whether inner city public housing exacerbates the employment problems of its tenants. Results from two evaluations of public housing demonstrations are used to test the potential impact of location, address discrimination, eligibility criteria, and rent schedules on tenant work behavior. To supplement this analysis, the effects of public housing on tenant employment, including self-employment, are estimated using a unique cross-sectional data set known as the Urban Poverty and Family Life Survey. The results do not support the claim that public housing, independent of tenant characteristics, contributes to employment patterns. While it is true that most public housing residents do not work, their counterparts in the private real estate market are no more likely to be employed or to have ever worked. Overall, these results indicate that the provision of public housing does not inhibit work behavior.     

Proud to be a Tenant: The Construction of Common Cause Among Residents in Social Housing

This paper demonstrates the assemblage of a distinctive body of combative beliefs among social housing tenants in England engaged in formal participation with their landlords. Applying the social movement diagnostic of frame analysis, the paper identifies three ‘collective identity frames’ that signify the construction of common cause among a diverse and fragmented tenant population. These frames celebrate social housing as a public good, promote grass-roots decision-making and advocate direct democracy to public services. They champion local knowledge and local services and articulate a commitment to collective action and collective provision that opposes itself to the individualising discourse of the market. Although a lack of unity characterises the organisation of social housing tenants, this assemblage of contentious claims may signify the continuation of narratives of a tenants' movement and indicate the cautious mobilisation of a distinctive ‘counter-discourse’ in housing policy.     

The Winners in China's Urban Housing Reform

Housing reform in China has proceeded on two tracks: privatization of public housing and development of a new private housing sector. During this period of transition, rents have remained relatively low in the remaining public housing, and purchase prices offered to occupants of public housing have been well below market prices. Although these rents and prices are partly based on known formulas, there is considerable variability in how much people pay for similar apartments. This study uses 2000 Census data to estimate the housing subsidy received by the remaining renters in the public sector and purchasers of public housing, based on private sector prices for housing of comparable quality and size. The paper also analyzes variation in the estimated discount from market prices that these people receive. The findings show that the biggest winners in China's transition from socialist housing allocation are those who were favored in the previous system, based on such factors as residence status, education and occupation.     

Disrupting the order of things: Public housing tenant organizing for material,political and epistemological justice

Since the advent of public housing in the U.S., tenants have played an integral role in both fostering environments where they can flourish, and, when needed, organizing to hold public housing authorities and government officials accountable for providing the material resources necessary to maintain and enhance residents' quality of life. In the current era of public housing demolition and redevelopment as mixed-income communities, these organizing efforts have not only centered on minimizing forced displacement, but also for the right to participate as meaningful stakeholders in governing the transformation of the places they call home. While these material and political dimensions of tenant organizing have been the focus of many studies, relatively little research has focused on the epistemological work that organizing performs in challenging and disrupting abstract representations commonly deployed in spatial policy discourse that marginalizes public housing residents as being both victims and causal agents of concentrated and intergenerational poverty. We examine these themes through an analysis of tenant organizing in Nashville, Tennessee's largest public housing development that is slated for demolition and redevelopment. Our study finds that the material and political achievements of tenant organizing were predicated on the epistemological work that residents engaged.     

How knowledge and political ideology affects rental housing policy in Ontario,Canada: application of a knowledge paradigms framework of policy change

A case study of the Tenant Protection Act in Ontario, Canada is presented. A Conservative government elected in 1995 introduced an Act to deregulate rents and amend the Ontario Human Rights Code to allow use of income criteria to screen potential tenants. Document review and in‐depth interviews with tenant advocates were applied to understand how tenant advocates in Toronto used knowledge and other strategies to influence the legislation in the context of a new framework of policy change. The findings revealed that while different forms of knowledge, scientific, anecdotal and critical, had some influence on the process, the political ideology of the government played a significant role in determining the influence of opponents to legislation. The research concludes that while the neo‐liberal political ideology of the government did not consistently influence policy making in all areas, housing policy was particularly sensitive to political ideology. While the views of tenants did not influence the Conservative government, they did influence the policies of the Opposition parties that called for the restoration of social housing and rent control. On 2 October 2003, an Opposition party supporting these positions was elected in the Ontario general election.     

Multi‐family housing in the social rental sector and the changing Dutch housing market

The social rental sector has become a major segment of the housing market in the Netherlands (forming 44 per cent of the stock in 1988). Until recently, its management by non‐profit housing associations and municipalities posed no major problems: the stock was relatively new, the general housing shortage was severe, and middle‐income groups accounted for a substantial share of the tenants of social rental housing. This situation has changed; especially the older multi‐family housing in the cities has slipped into a lower position in the urban housing hierarchy, and lower‐income households predominate in this type of housing. At the same time, part of the older stock is in need of renovation. This article reports on interviews with managers of non‐profit housing associations about their strategies to keep the housing in good shape and to find tenants. It also reports on interviews with tenants in newly renovated housing complexes.     

Challenges to citizenship

This article is a role theoretical approach to participatory strategies in Danish social housing governance. By means of an historical account of the relations between state, organisations and tenants, changes in the interpretation of tenant roles are examined. The underlying argument in the analysis is that participatory strategies in housing governance must take into account how tenants interpret themselves as related to or detached from the local governance system. The role interpretations are brought about in interaction between organisational strategies, state policies and tenants behaviour. Current role interpretations tend to challenge the idea of the tenant as an active citizen in housing governance because they relate tenants predominantly to the output side of the political process rather than the input side.     

Monitoring low cost home ownership initiatives: A longitudinal analysis of housing market trends within the privatised areas of four council‐built estates in Scotland

This paper is concerned with monitoring the longer‐term housing market trends within the privatised areas of four local authority housing estates on the periphery of major Scottish cities. The study areas in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee were the subject of disposal initiatives to promote low‐cost home ownership in the mid‐to‐late 1980s. The analysis focuses mainly upon trends in mortgage possession and house price appreciation, based upon information obtained from the Register of Sasines and the Land Register. The results provide specific evidence of high levels of mortgage possession among initial purchasers as well as low rates of capital appreciation in respect of property values. In general, the findings point to the need for caution in the expansion of low‐cost home ownership initiatives, effective counselling to prospective buyers at the time of purchase, and provision of intensive support once the household's financial difficulties have begun to mount.     

Privatization,Politics, and Urban Services: The Political Behavior of Charter Schools

Abstract In this article we re‐examine the dualist theory of public and private sector providers of public services. While this theory holds that private sector providers exhibit a behavior substantively different from those of the public sector, i.e., they respond to external pressures with market‐oriented behavior instead of political behavior, we argue that these actors actually can and often do respond in a political manner. Furthermore, we argue that a political response is as likely to be exhibited by for‐profit providers, who should be the most free‐market oriented, as nonprofit organizations. We provide evidence for our proposition drawn from our study of the behavior of charter schools, market‐based providers of public education, and charter school advocates in the District of Columbia and find that when faced with numerous challenges, charters responded by lobbying government for assistance instead of competing in the market place. We conclude that the line of demarcation between the behavior of public and private sector providers is actually quite blurred and when faced with similar problems in the delivery of public services, both forms of providers will respond in a similar manner.     

Place,political culture and post-Green Ban resistance: Public housing in Millers Point,Sydney

In early 2014 the announced sale of 300 public housing dwellings in Millers Point and the proposed relocation of tenants to other parts of the city sparked a media storm. Millers Point is a prime location in central Sydney, and while some media commentary was initially supportive of dispersal a highly organized protest campaign involving various non-government organizations, the City Council, parliamentary representatives, heritage bodies and trade unions quickly emerged in support of the tenants. Public tenants in other inner city locations also became involved. Redevelopment of public housing neighbourhoods has proceeded relatively slowly over the last decade in Sydney, Australia, with most attention focused on broad acre suburban estates. Partly because of increasingly sophisticated consultation strategies employed by housing authorities, and partly due to the continuing powerlessness and stigmatisation of public tenants, resistance has been fragmented and localised. Any media attention given to redevelopment has generally supported dispersal of public tenants. We analyse the Millers Point case in order to identify elements that have allowed resistance to be organized in a way that has not previously been seen in Australia. Through interviews with local tenant leaders and other key players, and analysis of media treatment of the case, we describe the historical, locational and political factors and strategies deployed on both sides of the retrenchment plan. This case of resistance is examined within the context of the globalization of the Sydney economy and property market.     

The development and politics of tenant participation in British council housing

Since the late 1960s traditions of paternalistic management in British council housing have been challenged by calls for greater tenant involvement Such calls came first from the tenants’ movement, but during the 1970s and 1980s they have been echoed in different ways by central government. The forms, aims, advocates and development of tenant participation have varied, so that events are not well explained by functionalist theories of the state. While there have been significant economic influences, political and cultural factors (particularly the ideology of consumer expectations) have been very important in putting tenant participation on the agenda of both the tenants’ movement and the state.     

Privatisation of public housing in Israel: Inconsistency or complementarity?

Privatisation has been part of Israeli housing policy since the first public housing units were built in 1949. It has involved the sale of publicly‐owned dwellings to sitting tenants, but also the shift to residents of responsibilities usually associated with ownership, such as maintenance and tax liabilities. The evolution of this policy is examined by considering the social, economic and political factors which have shaped the development of Israeli public housing policy from its beginning.     

‘Ma and Pa’ Landlords and the ‘Risky’ Tenant: Discourses in the New Zealand Private Rental Sector

Social constructions of what it means to let and rent housing are revealed in language and are intimately tied to housing outcomes for both landlords and tenants. This paper is concerned with the socially constructed identities of landlords and tenants in the private rental sector and how these are revealed in language. Fairclough's methods of discourse analysis coupled with Habermas' ideal speech situation and theory of communicative action are used to form an analytical framework for examining public debate and discourse on the private rental sector in New Zealand. It is argued that current discourses about tenants and landlords are the result of public debate and stereotypes that have failed to incorporate the experiences of tenants, and further that these stereotypes conceal the multiplicity of identities and motivations for behaviour of both landlords and tenants.     

Changing directions in Australian housing policies: The end of muddling through?

From the post‐war period through to the 1980s, Australia's housing system was dominated by tenure‐based policies directed towards home ownership and the provision of public housing. Private tenants were virtually excluded from housing assistance of any form. The 1990s, however, have seen an apparent U‐turn in housing policies with elimination of explicit home ownership policies, the withdrawal from direct involvement in public housing funding and a rapid expansion of rental assistance for private tenants. Australia is about to follow its New Zealand neighbour in undertaking a wholesale shift away from direct intervention in the production of housing and moving towards consumer subsidies which rely on the effective operation of the private sector in meeting housing needs. This paper provides a brief overview of changes in policies towards home ownership, public rental and private rental, a framework for interpreting these and an assessment of the appropriateness of the directions currently being followed in light of current economic trends.     

Harnessing social class,taste and gender for more effective policies

ABSTRACT

This paper explores why domestic energy policies, thermal retrofitting and the operation of domestic energy-efficient technologies are often met with social inertia in practice. Two sets of interview data – UK homeowners who have retrofitted their property and social housing tenants living in energy-efficient housing – reveal a very different mix of habits, skills and attitudes regarding domestic heating, rooted in socio-economic background and further determined by tenure. Middle-class homeowners’ retrofit design were part of their social and economic capital and self-expression of taste. These aspirational retrofits were characterized by comfort, conspicuous consumption and do-it-yourself (DIY) activities. Policy should strengthen these ‘paths of least resistance’ by providing resources to harness the taste-motivated retrofit stream. In contrast, the less-privileged tenant group struggled with the basic interaction with new technologies imposed on them and need more tailor-made paths: simpler heating controls; a simpler manual for some; and practical measures such as burglar-proof natural ventilation. The paper explores how social stratification and status-led consumption can be brought into understandings of energy retrofitting practices. Reflecting on gender in such contexts could also help to overcome exclusion practices and stereotyping, and there are market opportunities for retrofit packages to engage women and harness their emerging interest in DIY.     

Social housing management: Concerns about effectiveness and efficiency in the Netherlands

Recently a discussion flared up in the Netherlands on the effectivenessand efficiency of providers of social housing. Though most people feel that Dutch housing associations are run effectively, there are no data to underpin this conclusion. The government is not clear about the criteria for each housing association: most of the criteria are unquantified and, to some extent, contradictory. Nor is it clear whether every individual housing association has to meet these criteriato the same extent. Many more doubts have been raised about the efficiencyof social housing providers, as housing associations do not act as if theywant to maximize profits.Several suggestions have been put forward to improve efficiency: periodicalexternal visitations, benchmarking, the introduction of a Real Estate Index,and outsourcing a substantial part of the management and development activities. The main conclusion so far is that we are under-informed aboutthe efficiency of housing associations. Some advisory bodies argue that theoverall efficiency of housing associations would improve if they were transferred from the semi-public to the private sector. They claim that thedemand side of the housing market could be strengthened by the introductionof housing vouchers and suggest that housing associations opt out of the public sector.These options fail to take account of the fact that we are insufficiently informed about the efficiency of commercial players on the housing market and the inherent shortcomings of free housing markets when it comes to accessibility, affordability and quality for low-income households, externaleffects and the cherry-picking of tenants by commercial landlords. Hence, weconclude that until more information is available on the true effectivenessand efficiency of housing associations, there are good reasons to continue their current hybrid status, which combines public tasks and market activities.     

Home ownership and rent control in Switzerland

This paper discusses the reasons for two intriguing characteristics of the Swiss housing market: the small demand for owner occupancy in spite of high per capita income and the survival of a viable private rental sector after decades of rent control. The low rate of home ownership seems to be the result of the high cost of owning caused by the taxation of imputed rent and capital gains, and the lack of financial incentives to save for a down payment. The survival of private renting as the dominant housing sector, on the other hand, was made possible by the permissive second‐generation rent control regime which succeeded in maintaining the continuing profitability of private investments in rental housing. The main effects of rent control in Switzerland appear to be the reduction of housing costs of long‐standing tenants and the prevention of abuse through arbitrary eviction and exploitation of temporary shortages.     

Does locality make a difference? The impact of housing allowance reforms on private landlords

Housing subsidies are used by developed welfare states to ensure their citizens can access decent and affordable housing. This paper assesses the relative importance of individual and area level factors on the degree to which private sector landlords were affected by changes to Local Housing Allowance (LHA) in the UK. The changes were part of the government’s package of measures to reform LHA and reduce the welfare benefit bill. Multi-level modelling techniques have been applied to a longitudinal survey of 788 private sector landlords who had LHA tenants in 19 Local Authorities across GB. The analysis shows that whilst landlords were affected by reforms, area effects were not as pronounced as anticipated. In general, landlords were equally affected regardless of where they operate. The findings suggest tenants in the most affected areas have absorbed increases in their rent shortfall signifying income was not the overriding determinant of demand.