The geography of rental housing and the restructuring of housing assistance in New Zealand

In 1993 major reforms to the delivery of housing assistance in New Zealand came into effect. These included the introduction of an Accommodation Supplement to provide income assistance for housing, the establishment of Housing New Zealand Limited to market former state houses and the setting up of the Ministry of Housing to provide policy advice. These reforms have replaced an explicitly spatial public policy based on the provision of housing stock in particular locations with an apparently aspatial housing policy based on income supplements,. The former state housing construction and allocation programme, however, has generated residential location patterns which continue to constrain and predetermine the choices made by those contemporary households who now draw income supplements. Far from spatially diffusing rental demand, these recent housing reforms show every sign of further concentrating demand and supply of low rental housing and reinforcing the inherited, highly segmented social geography of the New Zealand city.     

In search of profit: housing association investment in private rental housing

The traditional mission of housing associations in England is to provide non-profit housing let at sub-market rents to low-income and disadvantaged households. And yet in recent years, large ‘property developer housing associations’ have begun to invest in for-profit private rental homes let at market rents. Despite long waiting lists for their accommodation, these housing associations are mainly letting their for-profit rental homes to middle-income tenants rather than their traditional low-income clientele. Drawing on a ‘historical institutional’ conceptual framework, and combining structural and ‘agency’ explanations, this paper explores the reasons for this new trend. It argues that investment by large developer housing associations in for-profit and more upmarket rental homes will become increasingly important relative to their non-profit social housing. Over time, this ‘partial recalibration’ of their landlord role is likely to gradually transform the institutional rules, everyday practices and norms that shape their behaviour.     

The uneven geography of housing affordability stress in Canadian metropolitan areas

Housing in‐affordability is a growing problem within Canadian urban areas. This research asks an as‐yet unanswered spatial question: where do those suffering high rates of housing affordability stress reside and what do the spatial patterns imply about policies intended to address this housing problem? This paper tabulates and maps the spatial distribution of households that pay excessive amounts of their income for rent in order to identify locations within metropolitan regions where housing affordability stress is greatest. It is found that significant unevenness characterises the spatial distribution of housing affordability problems in major Canadian census metropolitan areas (CMAs). Only a minority of places conform to the North American stereotype that concentrates this problem near the city centre. Where some CMAs have concentrations of the problem in the inner city or, alternatively inner suburb, other metropolitan areas exhibit a more diffuse pattern of housing in‐affordability. The locus of the problem is also variable depending on whether the household is of the family or non‐family type. The interpretation of the uneven patterns relates broadly to features of supply and demand that have been identified in previous research. From both a policy and theoretical perspective this work demonstrates that greater attention needs to be paid to the spatial aspects of housing affordability and to the related, economically‐induced risk of homelessness in Canadian metropolitan areas.     

石家庄市住宅房地产市场发展趋势

房价水平的上涨已经引起了国家有关部门的高度重视,本文通过相关的调研,反映石家庄市住宅市场的现状与行情,分析价格的影响因素,鲜明地提出笔者自己的观点,并预测其发展趋势.     

Gendering the right to housing in the city: Homeless female lone parents in post-Olympics,austerity East London

This paper assesses how gender, housing, austerity and the right to the city inter-relate with reference to female lone parents from East London, the site of the 2012 Olympic Games. In so doing, the paper draws upon qualitative research undertaken with lone parent mothers living in temporary accommodation. The women's housing experiences are embedded within a deepening of neoliberal welfare cutbacks and restructuring under what Peck (2012) has called ‘austerity urbanism’. Although the mother's lives are based in East London where they have extended family and where many of them grew up, they have either been moved, or face the prospect of being moved, out of the area and even beyond the city limits into suburban South East England. Rather than basking in the much trumpeted 2012 Games regeneration ‘legacy’, these women's right to live in East London, close to their support networks, is being eroded.     

Cross-city spillovers in Chinese housing markets: From a city network perspective

Cross-city spillovers among housing markets are usually modelled by the classical spatial autoregressive models, which usually suffer from identification problems in practice. This paper investigates the cross-city house price spillovers arising from city network externalities wherein a city's connections with other cities in the urban network create the external house price premium through productivity and amenity gains. Using a cross-sectional data set for an urban system in eastern China, we present significant evidence for positive network spillovers by the application of spatial lag of X model and spatial Durbin error model. Besides, common shocks are also proved to be responsible for cross-city dependence of house prices.     

Mat-hybrid housing: Two case studies in Terni and London

This study focuses on the spatial and mutable characteristics of the “mat-hybrid housing” (MHH), aspecific type of public housing. Analyses were conducted specifically on the period between 1960 and 1980 and two particular case studies, namely, Nuovo Villaggio Matteotti in Terni, Italy, and Odhams Walk in London. The qualitative research design of this study is based on the methodology called AIFAD (an abbreviation for Archives, Interviews, Fieldwork, Analytic diagrams, and Drawings). The goal of this paper is to identify, define, and extract possible strategies fo rimplementing MHH, which can improve urban growth through compact schemes. These objectives can be achieved by adopting the schemes in such manner as suburban sprawl is prevented, the densities of existing cities are intensified, the possibility of changing the concept of domestic space is tested, and the identity, history, and tenant participation in each city is strengthened.Through this approach,the MHH can be effected.     

Thessaloniki: The changing geography of the city and the role of spatial planning

Thessaloniki has existed for over twenty-three centuries. Today it is the second largest city in Greece after Athens. This City Profile aims to identify and present the milestones in the city's development trajectory and give an overview of the evolution and the planning of the city. After a summary of the historical development of Thessaloniki, emphasis is given to the period after 1990s. Lately, the fiscal and refugee crises hitting the country have changed the urban geography of the city, challenging its sustainability and questioning its future development. At the same time the planning and management system of the city face the overfragmentation and semi-implementation of the plans, the chronic lack of a clear vision for the city's development and the downgrading of the role of strategic spatial planning within the current context of recession. The adoption of a really radical resilience policy along with the reconsideration and redefinition of planning principles and content seems to be the only option for Thessaloniki to track its development trajectory.     

Roman impressions: contemporary city planning and housing in Rome

Since 1870, when Rome was established as the capital of a unified Italy, four general plans have guided its development. The first plan (1883) guided initial growth. In 1909, a liberal plan was initiated, and in 1931 there was a third plan embodying Fascist perspectives. The most recent master plan, still influencing development, was formulated in 1962. A key feature of this plan, the Asse Attrezatto or ‘equipped axis’, was to draw commercial, industrial, and residential development away from the historic center of the city. Owing to strong political disagreement with fundamental issues, the axis has not been executed. Nevertheless, the city has made a considerable achievement in relieving acute housing shortages brought on by rapid urban population growth, between 1945 and 1980.     

Long-run urban dynamics: understanding local housing market change in London

Abstract

Recently, a literature has emerged using empirical techniques to study the evolution of international cities over many centuries; however, few studies examine long-run change within cities. Conventional models and concepts are not always appropriate and data issues make long-run neighbourhood analysis particularly problematic. This paper addresses some of these points. First, it discusses why the analysis of long-run urban change is important for modern urban policy and considers the most important concepts. Second, it constructs a novel data set at the micro level, which allows consistent comparisons of London neighbourhoods in 1881 and 2001. Third, the paper models some of the key factors that affected long-run change, including the role of housing. There is evidence that the relative social positions of local urban areas persist over time but, nevertheless, at fine spatial scales, local areas still exhibit change, arising from aggregate population dynamics, from advances in technology, and also from the effects of shocks, such as wars. In general, where small areas are considered, long-run changes are likely to be greater, because individuals are more mobile over short than long distances. Finally, the paper considers the implications for policy.     

住宅工程施工的质量控制—以浙江省杭州市某小区建设为例

本文以某住宅工程施工为实例，分析了影响施工质量的因素，阐明了施工阶段质量控制是工程项目质量控制的重点，是决定最终产品质量的关键阶段，提出了相应的控制措施及住宅工程施工质量控制中值得注意的几个问题。     

武夷山市保障性住房套型设计研究

本文以武夷山市保障性住房为研究对象,总结了本市保障性住房的基本特点并归纳出适宜于保障性住房套型空间的设计原则,通过空间的共享使用、一次性装修储藏空间设计和活化架空层设计等手段来全面提升改善保障性住房的性能,给居住者在有限的住房面积内提供最佳、最适宜的住房品质。     

伦敦证明交通拥堵收费政策如何在大城市发挥效用

一百年以前，在马车时代，穿越伦敦中心区的道路交通平均速度为每小时11英里。到20世纪末，城市交通的速度仍为每小时11英里，而这还只是平均速度。大多数时间，街道拥堵，车辆只能蠕动或者根本就无法移动。     

Housing entry pathways of refugees in Vienna,a city of social housing

This article presents the findings of an empirical study investigating refugees’ difficult entry into Vienna’s ‘tight’ housing market. Arguing that newcomers’ access to housing can be better understood by a closer look at the actors involved in the housing search process, an actor-centred approach is used. Complementing the constructivist pathway framework with a model of search based on Bourdieu’s theory of practice, four types of housing entry pathways could be identified. This study draws on semi-structured in-depth interviews with forced migrants who arrived in Austria in recent years. The analysis of newcomers’ housing entry pathways not only sheds light on the coordination structures at work in a city of social housing, but also on ‘good’ and ‘bad’ rental housing submarkets that have emerged in the course of the recent refugee movement. The paper concludes that a high proportion of social housing does not provide any indication that newcomers are granted better access to secure affordable housing.     

晋城市经济适用住房方案设计构思

阐述了晋城市经济适用住房的项目概况,提出了该经济适用住房的规划设计理念,从规划设计、道路交通、功能空间布局、竖向规划和绿化景观规划等方面对规划设计方案进行了介绍,分析了该住房的平面、立面设计,从而保证建筑与环境的和谐共生。     

Traffic pollution: A search for solutions for a city like Nairobi

Congestion and traffic-related pollution are typically the largest contributors to air pollution in cities. Rapid urbanization in developing countries has caused large-scale proliferation in motor vehicle use making cities increasingly congested and, subsequently, polluted. There is a growing awareness that the air quality status quo in East African cities is unacceptable. This paper uses the case of Nairobi, Kenya to discuss current traffic pollution challenges and how they may be addressed. The paper begins with an overview of urbanization and pollution effects. It goes on to look at the specific case of Nairobi as it searches for solutions to the negative impacts of pollution through a lens which sees resolution of congestion effects as key to amelioration of traffic-related air pollution. It suggests that a combination of infrastructure, policy, regulatory and softer measures may provide the most effective way to address traffic congestion and, thus, traffic pollution. In addition, the paper highlights the need for further research into the lived experience of negotiating daily life in Nairobi, as well as further exploration of the social, economic and environmental feasibility of potential solutions for the city. While Nairobi is used as the case study city, the lessons learned are generalized for cities in the East African region, which often share similar traits of congestion and traffic related pollution.     

Racist housing practices as a precursor to uneven neighborhood change in a post-industrial city

Racial dynamics and discrimination have been extremely important in influencing decline in the American Rust Belt. The mid-twentieth century departure of white and middle-class populations from cities was precipitated by a breakdown of discriminatory housing practices. This study examines the relationship among housing condition, vacancies, poverty, and demographics in Flint, Michigan, from 1950 to 2010. Historical census data from the National Historical GIS and housing condition data from the City of Flint government are aggregated to neighborhoods defined by economic condition factor (n = 102). Results of rank-difference correlation and geographically weighted regression indicate that, across neighborhoods with the greatest decline in housing condition, the strongest correlate was most often the increase in vacancy rates driven initially by racially motivated suburbanization – suggesting that demographic change alone is not primarily responsible for neighborhood decline. This research is important to understanding the long-term and ongoing consequences of mid-twentieth century racist housing practices, particularly as it relates to the implications of maintaining legacy infrastructure.