The Long-run Decline in Employment Participation for Australian Public Housing Tenants: An Investigation

In the 20 years from 1982 to 2002, the proportion of Australian public housing tenants in employment has fallen markedly relative to Australians living in other housing tenures. This paper explores the potential causes of this trend and their policy implications. For male public renters, the declining employment participation rate can be accounted for by closer targeting of public housing to the most disadvantaged in the labour market and blunter work incentives. This is not the case for female public renters. Their employment participation rate has remained flat while improved labour market conditions should have lifted employment participation rates among this group, even after controlling for an extensive range of individual characteristics. Work incentives are important to female public renters, but further research is required if we are to understand why their employment rates have not improved over this 20-year period.     

Atkinson Housing Co-operative: A Leading Edge Conversion from Public Housing

In 2003 the Atkinson community became the first public housing project to convert into a non-equity co-operative. After providing a brief introduction to the development of non-market housing policy in Canada, this paper discusses the process of creating the Atkinson co-operative. The conversion of Atkinson has produced a new model of social housing, in that Atkinson operates neither as a pure housing co-operative nor as a public housing project, but rather as a synthesis of the two models, referred to as a hybrid, or an incorporated co-operative within the public sector. The features of the hybrid arrangement are grouped within the following categories: land/property; finances; property management and administration; governance and decision-making practices; education and community programs; housing charges/rents; and living in public housing. The final section of this paper locates the Atkinson experiment within the tenant-management literature in public housing and also discusses the conversion as a process in community development. Although it is premature to determine the efficacy of this model, the results are likely to influence the movement for increasing tenant involvement in the management of public housing.     

The Past and Future of Housing Policy Innovation: The Case of US State Housing Trust Funds

State governments are increasingly expected to help fill the gap between the demand and supply of affordable housing within the US. Little systematic attention has been paid to state housing strategies over the years, despite a lengthening record of policy innovation. This paper asks what factors influence state adoption of housing trust funds (HTFs), and if these factors differ based on how the trust fund is financed and which state agency is responsible for administering it. Utilizing an event history analysis of pooled cross-sectional data, the paper finds that whether or not a state adopts a HTF, who administers it, and how they fund it, varies based on rates of new, single-family development, the size of the black population, prior state housing expenditures, and citizen ideology. The broader implications of these findings are considered for future housing policy innovations beyond states and HTFs.     

Reassessing State Housing Trust Funds: Results of a Florida Survey

While their structure and targets vary, state housing trust funds offer an increasingly common form of assistance designed to flexibly meet local housing needs. Frequently they are generated through real estate transaction fees, making them particularly relevant in high growth states such as Florida. For 16 years, Florida's housing trust fund (SHIP) has consistently met its major funding targets, assisting housing initiatives from rural counties to the largest urban centers. A survey of local SHIP administrators provides insight on defining characteristics and key policy dilemmas. Although this critical housing program fails to consistently meet certain goals, those stakeholders involved in its passage, maintenance and implementation consider it a success. Given these conditions, strengthened state oversight to ensure consistency with housing plans and increased state support for other programs, particularly those targeting rental strategies and the lowest income, rather than major legislative changes, could result in more informed, effective and equitable local implementation.     

浅谈钢结构住宅的发展

本文结合住宅产业化发展的特点及要求,分析了钢结构住宅在技术上、综合经济效益上以及适合产业化发展方向上具备传统建筑无法比拟的优势。阐述了在技术要求、物质基础及市场需求上,我国已经具备了发展钢结构住宅的条件。大力发展住宅钢结构不仅能满足人们对居住的需求,还能极大地提高我国住宅产业化水平,带动相关行业的协同发展。     

探求上海“保障性住房涵盖之外”低收入阶层住房解决的可能性途径

通过对特大城市中保障性住房发展建设若干局限性的分析,指出解决特大城市低收入阶层住房不宜仅仅依靠大规模建设保障性住房,充分利用现有的住房租售市场、打破城乡二元分割的住房政策等也是解决低收入阶层的居住问题不可忽视的方面。以上海为例,分析上海市低收入阶层的构成及空间分布,探讨目前"保障性住房涵盖之外"的低收入群体解决住房的典型方式,并据此提出若干针对特大城市中未纳入保障性住房体系的大量低收入阶层解决基本住房需求的政策建议,以缓解社会压力,维护社会的稳定和谐。     

Farm-Worker Housing in South Africa: An Evaluation of an Off-Farm Housing Project

Although farm-worker housing has been neglected in South Africa historically, new policy, tabled in 2004, specifically targets the constraints that have been hampering delivery in rural areas. While either on- or off-farm farm-worker housing is envisioned, constraints with regard to on-farm housing and service provision, such as the prerequisite of security of tenure, prevent generalised delivery to the rural population, despite the fact that ESTA provides for security of tenure under certain conditions. There is a need to upgrade the living conditions of people on farms where they are currently residing, in order to ensure the right to adequate shelter as envisioned by the Constitution. However, under current legislation tenure rights must first be secured before such action can be taken. Research on an off-farm housing project in Bothaville was conducted in order to determine the sustainability of this approach, while simultaneously assessing the broader housing policy context, with a view to making policy recommendations.     

Social Disorders in the Early Stages of Public Housing Decline: A Helsinki Case Study

While Helsinki's council housing is in physically good condition, it is beginning to experience crime, drug dealing and anti-social behavior. Through a case study of Helsinki's council housing the paper seeks to improve understanding of public housing decline early in the process. Open-ended interviews with Helsinki housing experts and housing officials highlight weak eviction laws and inadequate funding for transitional housing as key causes of increases in the number of multi-problem families. Analysis of a 2001 Helsinki public housing residents' survey indicates that while most residents did not believe neighborhood conditions were getting worse, almost half of the respondents were pessimistic about one or more neighborhood conditions (e.g. noisy neighbors, crime) and those who were most pessimistic about their neighborhood were most likely to plan to move. Recommendations for preventing further decline are discussed.     

Housing reform in a marketised socialist economy: The case of shanghai

Marketisation and privatization reforms implemented in Shanghai since 1980 have facilitated housing construction and the improvement of housing conditions. The multiplication of construction capital would have been impossible without an effective implementation of the consumption reforms and general improvements in the economy.     

Conceptualising Social Housing within the Wider Housing Market: A Vacancy Chain Model

There have been increasing calls for studies of housing systems that are more integrative and pluralistic in nature. Understanding the relationship of social housing systems to the wider housing market remains a key challenge. The mobility of households and the structural configuration of supply are both of importance, demanding methods able to reconcile both. This paper propounds vacancy chain models as offering significant potential in this regard, allowing policy analysis and options appraisal to be built on more dynamic conceptualisations of housing systems. The theoretical basis for vacancy chain models is developed before an account is given of a model developed of the Bradford (UK) social rented sector. The results suggest that social renting is very closely linked to the wider housing market and consequently the impacts of policy and investment may be felt beyond the sector. Observations on the future development of vacancy chain models are offered.     

Public Housing and the Aged: the South Australian Experience

Public housing policy is currently responding to a great and growing need for housing assistance among the aged. Despite major efforts to meet the needs of the elderly there are many who have far from adequate housing and many who are ‘trapped’ in housing which is no longer appropriate to their needs or which they can no longer manage.     

为老年人构筑可持续居住环境——以日本高龄者住宅为例

本文对日本高龄者住宅居住设施的类型和高龄者的居住现状进行了考察,并列举了高龄者租赁住宅的三个实例,归纳出日本高龄者住宅的特点和发展动向,以期获得对中国老年人可持续居住环境构筑的有益启示.     

The commodification of land and housing: the case of South Korea

The developmentalist state in South East Asia has played an important role in guiding and promoting economic growth. Although an implicit theme of much of the discourse is the role of the state in controlling the factors of production, this is not located within the decommodification/commodification debate. Proceeding from the premise that underlies much of economic theory, namely that land values at a time reflect the residual (or surplus) of economic activity that requires land as a factor input, the purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which the Korean state has managed the commodification of urban development and the distributional effects of this process. In spite of private land ownership the state has had a major impact on the processes by which land has become commodified, using extensive land expropriation and land‐use planning powers. The Korean state used different strategies to manage trends to commodification at different times: land readjustment projects were used from the 1950s to the 1970s and Public Management Development projects were the main mechanism of urban development from the 1980s. The urban development system was feasible because of the state's extensive control over access to housing finance (decommodified money). In the mid‐1990s there was a shift towards greater private sector involvement in urban development. The distributional effects of the urban development process have been highly inequitable. Subsidised home ownership for middle‐income families has been favoured over provision of public rental housing for low‐income families, driven in major part by cash flow considerations of the developmentalist state. Further, the basis of selecting beneficiaries has been very arbitrary. The system has promoted significant land concentration and land speculation particularly by private companies, including the large chaebol (corporations).     

美国公共住宅建设模式的发展演变及其启示

文章以美国政府补贴住宅体系中属于用实物补贴方式解决低收入家庭住房问题的公共住宅为研究对象,以美国公共住宅的发展概况为背景,通过城市、规划、建筑三个层面上对不同时期美国公共住宅建设模式的分析比较,总结其经验及教训,并结合我国具体国情及保障性住房的建设现状,探寻其借鉴意义。     

Divorce and the Housing Movements of Owner-Occupiers: A European Comparison

Divorce usually carries a range of economic consequences for both men and women, the housing situation of the ex-partners being among the most important ones. So far, however, the housing consequences of this life event, and in particular the way these are influenced by institutional arrangements, have been somewhat of a neglected topic. This paper focuses on one aspect of this process, more specifically the impact of divorce on tenure changes of homeowners, using comparative panel data for 12 European countries. It is concluded that although divorce significantly raises the odds of experiencing a tenure change for homeowners in all countries under consideration, this process is fairly similar across European welfare states. While institutional arrangements mitigating the economic consequences of divorce for women do not seem to explain much variation between countries, cross-national differences in tenure changes for homeowners are partly influenced by social housing policies and the extent of family support.     

Housing quality of communist party members in Urban China: a comparative study

Using two nationally representative samples from 1988 and 1995, this study examines the comparison of housing quality determinants between Communist Party members and non‐Communist Party members. This study finds that, although Communist Party membership tenure is an important factor in determining housing size and quality among the members themselves, the significant factors that influence housing size and quality do not greatly differ from those of non‐members or the general population. However, several key variables have widely varying impacts on housing size and quality across groups and/or time. These variables include: housing type, education, primary work unit, public‐financed health care, household size, occupational rank of primary employment and total family assets and disposable family income.     

Residents' Attitudes to Landscape and Ecology of Idyllic Housing Sites: The Case of South Korea

The demand for idyllic housing has been rapidly spreading from the national capital regions to suburban areas of large metropolitan cities in South Korea. This trend could be seen as a demand for more environmentally friendly residences. This research explores the general characteristics of idyllic housing residents, reasons for moving to idyllic housing sites, general attitudes to the surrounding landscape of residential areas and landscape memory, residents' satisfaction with the landscape and their attitudes to the ecological environment. The main reason for the dissatisfaction with idyllic living was the lack of facilities caused by the Farmland Act. A new law for the development control of idyllic housing sites is needed or the existing law needs to be tightened to address this problem. The research presented here is a first step towards a more comprehensive analysis of idyllic Korean housing and further research is needed.     

Public Housing as Control: Spatial Policy of Settling Immigrants in Israeli Development Towns

This paper examines the relationship between inter-ethnic power relations and public housing policy for immigrants in Israel since 1948. Based on a comparative analysis of Israeli policy of housing Mizrahi immigrants in the 1950s and Russian immigrants in the 1990s, the paper argues that despite the perceived decline in the state's capacity, the implication of public housing policy has remained unchanged since the 1950s. By moving Jewish immigrants into development towns in sparsely populated and overwhelmingly Palestinian regions of the country, Israeli policy has served to Judaize these regions and to reinforce ethnic stratification among the country's Jewish population. In this manner, Israeli public housing policy was neither consistent with conceptions of post-Second World War public housing policies in welfare states nor with the recent impact of globalization and the free-market dynamics on public housing policies.     

Employing New Tools for Realising Urban Housing Potential: A South East Queensland Perspective

Like many of the other Australian metropolitan areas South East Queensland is rapidly growing. A population increase of approximately 1 million over the next 20 years will demand new planning and development responses and new policy tools. This article provides an empirical account of the piloting of one such new policy tool which assesses the potential and suitability of densification in urban localities.