Housing Tenure: Pacific Families in New Zealand

Home ownership has been associated with health, social and economic benefits. However, a decline in ownership has been observed over the past decade in New Zealand. Minority groups, including Pacific people, have been disadvantaged in the housing sector. This study investigated housing tenure and the relationship between tenure and health among mothers of a birth cohort of Pacific children in New Zealand. Findings showed that most families lived in state or private rental accommodation with few (15.4 per cent) owning their own homes. Homeowners were more likely to be older, partnered and have higher incomes. Better mental health was observed for homeowners compared to renters. Findings can inform housing and public health policy for Pacific families.     

Housing quality and resilience in New Zealand

There is extensive research on the negative health impacts of poor housing quality. However, little is known about the potential health benefits of high-quality housing in poor neighbourhoods. Neighbourhoods with unexpectedly good health outcomes despite high levels of deprivation have been deemed resilient places and housing quality in these areas may be a contributor to this resilience. This study aimed to evaluate whether an indicator of neighbourhood housing quality was associated with a previously quantified resilience index (RINZ) in New Zealand. It was found that areas with high housing quality tended to have higher median income, greater proportions of partnered people and shorter-term residents, and very low proportions of Māori. A positive association was found between housing quality and resilience, after adjustment for deprivation. There was no indication of differences by heterogeneity in housing quality within the aggregate unit of analysis. These findings pose the hypothesis that improving housing quality in similarly deprived areas that have poor health outcomes could potentially boost health. To extend this understanding, further development of a more sophisticated housing quality indicator is recommended.     

Housing liquidation and financial adequacy of retirees in New Zealand

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of housing on financial adequacy of New Zealand retirees using the Survey of Family, Income, and Employment (SoFIE) data for the period 2002–2009. We examine the differential effect of housing liquidation options, rent imputation and asset liquidity on financial adequacy. We report evidence of financial adequacy variation across five housing liquidation options and this is influenced by rent imputation. The results show that non-homeowners are less financially adequate than homeowners. We find that Māori, renters and individuals living in multi-dwelling occupancies have much lower levels of financial adequacy. Individuals of Pākehā or Asian ethnicity, homeowners and those living alone benefit more from imputed rent derived through home ownership. Our study highlights the need for the New Zealand government to address the lack of suitable public housing, rising housing and rental prices and mandate compulsory contributory retirement savings plans.     

新西兰公共住房实践:创新与启示

在公共住房实践中,美国、香港和新加坡等地的经验作为我国的借鉴模范已经很多年,而拥有将近100 年公共住房实践经验的新西兰却很少被关注。新西兰房屋署协同政府、慈善机构、私人部门组织一起在整个国家范围内提供公共住房和住房援助。事实上,新西兰在公共住房实践中通过住房统计指标来构建体系框架,在很多方面有独到之处。详细阐述新西兰的公共住房体系整体框架,包括保障人群范围、保障维度和保障效果;其次,介绍新西兰在管理方面如何运用统计数据和报告来指导政策制定;并通过与我国住房保障的比较,提出可行性政策建议。     

Coveting your neighbour’s house: understanding the positional nature of residential satisfaction

Abstract

Do the characteristics of our neighbour’s house affect how we view our own home? In this paper, I examine the importance of local comparisons in housing assessments by testing whether the size of one’s home relative to others in their neighbourhood influences their housing satisfaction. I use a unique feature of the 1993 American Housing Survey, in which the US Census Bureau randomly surveyed 988 housing units around the country and a cluster of approximately 10 of their nearest neighbours. I use these data to test whether a unit’s relative size in its neighbourhood influences the occupant’s housing satisfaction while controlling for a series of occupant and unit characteristics. I find evidence that relative position matters. Those living in comparatively small houses are more likely to express dissatisfaction with their home than people living in units that are large relative to other houses in their neighbourhood cluster.     

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.     

The stress of incipient homelessness

This paper describes a longitudinal study of dwelling‐related stress among a sample of inadequately housed urban New Zealanders. At the time of the first interview, the respondents were asked to describe the housing problems they were encountering and to list some of the coping strategies they were planning. From an analysis of the survey data we conclude that housing stress has a significant negative effect on the well being of the respondents, particularly in the area of mental health. In the second interview, conducted six months later, we were able to determine which of the households had moved. Our analysis suggested that individuals in households that were rehoused by New Zealand's public housing agency (the Housing Corporation of New Zealand) reported significantly improved mental health after the move, largely as a result, we hypothesise, of living in dwellings that were less stressful. These findings are discussed in light of the diminishing state presence in the provision of public housing, both in New Zealand and elsewhere.     

The Impact of Housing Subsidies and Prices on Mothers' Living Arrangements: Evidence from the Census

Although rarely the primary focus of study, housing subsidies and prices influence the most fundamental decisions about family living. This analysis uses 1980, 1990 and 2000 US Census data to examine the effects of housing prices and subsidies on the living arrangements of mothers with young children while controlling for welfare benefit levels, unemployment rates, gender ratios, child support enforcement and personal characteristics. Results suggest that housing prices are positively associated with all shared arrangements relative to living alone, while housing subsidies are negatively associated with marriage and living with family relative to living alone.     

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.     

Children's Changing Urban Lives: A Comparative New Zealand–Pacific Perspective

Pacific Island countries are undergoing processes of urbanization and globalization. This paper asks what these processes mean for children's lived realities and for urban planning in the Pacific. It reports on findings from a study undertaken with children aged 9–13 years in schools in Suva, Fiji, and Dunedin, New Zealand, that looked at children's travel, safety, neighbourhood relationships and how they use their local urban environment. This research presents information and understandings that can inform the development of urban areas and enable planners to respond more effectively to meeting the needs of children living in a rapidly urbanizing Pacific.     

Evaluating Tenure Mix Interventions: A Case Study from Sydney,Australia

Policies of tenure mix, by removing concentrations of social housing or through the application of inclusionary zoning-type powers to new developments, are being pursued throughout Australia and in the USA, the UK and New Zealand. Implementing this tenure mix policy agenda requires significant intervention into urban areas that currently have concentrations of social housing, through programmes of regeneration or renewal. Despite this policy agenda, research on the benefits of tenure mix has produced inconclusive evidence, both in Australia and internationally. The paper reports on research undertaken in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, which tests a method of evaluating tenure mix policy. The exploratory method uses dwelling price data as a proxy for measuring amenity or ‘neighbourhood quality’ changes from tenure mix interventions.     

The Creation and Transfer of Housing Wealth: The Experience of Elderly New Zealanders

Issues of housing inequality among the elderly reflect their lifetime experience of the housing and labour markets. In retirement there are thus a range of households formed depending on whether they are asset and income rich or poor. The paper explores the experience of a sample of New Zealand households with respect to their level of accumulation and attitudes towards and practice of intergenerational transfers.     

Settling in or moving out? Exploring the effect of mobility intentions on public housing exits

This paper seeks to understand how public housing residents’ mobility intentions affect their actual exits. The results suggest that mobility intentions do have a significant effect on public housing exits. However, the rate of exit among those who intend to move out of public housing was similar to those who did not intend to leave. In addition, tenure had a significant effect on the odds of exiting alluding to issues of duration dependence. However, neighbourhood conditions did not fully explain public housing exits. Our proxy for policy reform had a large effect on the odds of exiting of public housing. This result suggests that changes in housing assistance programmes and urban housing policy could largely account for public housing exits. Overall, the results imply that while public housing residents may have positive and negative mobility intentions, their exits may primarily be due to shifts in housing policy and social welfare programmes versus individual characteristics and neighbourhood conditions.     

What women want: single older women and their housing preferences

It is increasingly recognized in Australia that single, older women are particularly vulnerable to housing-related stress and homelessness. This paper reports on a qualitative study that explored the housing experiences of single, older, non-homeowning women in regional New South Wales, Australia. Interviews were conducted with 47 participants living independently in precarious housing. This paper focuses upon the housing preferences expressed by the participants. A feminist standpoint perspective was adopted and thematic analysis was employed to interrogate the data. Findings showed the women’s primary preference is security of tenure in housing that is affordable and suited to their needs. Further, they want to feel they have autonomy in the private sphere. Over the participants’ life course, twin discourses of patriarchy and neoliberalism were identified as influential in shaping social arrangements, both in Australia and other developed countries. These findings may assist policy-makers in planning future housing for this ageing cohort.     

Publications Received

Problem: Most housing programs in the United States do not focus on the most pressing housing needs. In 2003 more than 13 million households spent at least half their incomes on rent or the costs of homeownership, an increase of more than 35% since 1993. The vast majority of these households were poor. Yet housing policy has shifted away from deep-subsidy programs targeted to the poorest households toward providing shallow subsidies to higher-income households.

Purpose: This article considers whether, given that the federal government is unlikely to increase funding for low-income housing, state and local governments are likely to increase housing assistance to the lowest-income households in the future, how such assistance could be structured, and how states and localities might be persuaded or compelled to provide this assistance.

Methods: We examine the income distribution of households supported by major programs administered by state and local governments and the extent to which these programs target the poor and provide them with sufficient levels of subsidy. We reviewed program data reported to funding agencies and trade associations, census data on housing problems compiled by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and data from surveys of policies and practices conducted by academic researchers and policy organizations.

Results and conclusions: We find that the shift to state and local administration of federal funds has not significantly shifted priorities. We provide evidence that states are not using their discretion go beyond federal requirements, and are not serving income groups below those they are required to serve. Locally funded programs are less likely to target the poor than state or federal programs.

Takeaway for practice: Rather than hoping for substantial local housing assistance targeted to the poor, we recommend making more effective use of existing federal resources.

Research support: None.     

Housing,Lone Parenthood and Gender: A Qualitative Approach in Southern Europe

One of the most significant changes affecting family structures in Europe over the last few decades is the remarkable increase in the number of lone-parent families as a result of the dissolution of relationships. Housing is one of the primary needs that arises. Attitudes for coping with the situation are varied and are determined by a number of factors—legal/legislative framework, finances and employment, psycho-social factors—which all affect men and women differently in terms of housing. The main goal of this research is to address, from the gender perspective, the constraints, needs and preferences expressed by men and women who become lone parents as a result of separation. The paper has adopted a qualitative method based on discussion groups, including a sample of divorced or separated men and women living as lone parents in Southern Europe.     

Global exposure and Auckland's housing market1

This is a story of how economic reforms in New Zealand since the mid‐1980s changed conditions for investment in the property sector and have periodically distorted Auckland's housing market. The contribution of immigration and funds that migrants have brought with them, and their strong preference for Auckland as a destination, also help to account for the growth of Auckland and activity levels in the housing market. The opening up of the New Zealand economy in the last two decades has exposed Auckland to growth pressures that are now evident in the city's labour and housing markets.     

Global exposure and Auckland's housing market

This is a story of how economic reforms in New Zealand since the mid-1980s changed conditions for investment in the property sector and have periodically distorted Auckland's housing market. The contribution of immigration and funds that migrants have brought with them, and their strong preference for Auckland as a destination, also help to account for the growth of Auckland and activity levels in the housing market. The opening up of the New Zealand economy in the last two decades has exposed Auckland to growth pressures that are now evident in the city's labour and housing markets.     

Social Capital and Housing Tenure in an Adelaide Neighbourhood

In this article we compare and contrast elements of social capital across different housing tenures in an Adelaide neighbourhood. Using the results of 530 self-completion questionnaires and in-depth qualitative interviews with 16 people we assess perceptions of conflict across housing tenures and between socio-economic groups, feelings of acceptance and belonging in the local neighbourhood, and levels of involvement in local formal and informal networks. While only a small number of questionnaire respondents reported negative views of socio-economic diversity in the area a theme emerging in the qualitative data indicated that housing tenure was relevant to some of these negative perceptions. Respondents from across different tenure types also reported differences in feelings of acceptance in the neighbourhood, and involvement in formal and informal networks. The study findings suggest that housing tenure is relevant to the development of neighbourhood-based social capital, and that this factor needs to be considered by social planners, housing policy makers and others involved in implementing social mix policies. In addition, the findings indicate the need to consider the community housing and public housing tenures in their own right, given the different models of housing provision, rather than collectively under the common banner of social housing as most research studies do. It is recommended that the full diversity of housing tenure is considered in any future analysis.     

Social Capital and Housing Tenure in an Adelaide Neighbourhood

In this article we compare and contrast elements of social capital across different housing tenures in an Adelaide neighbourhood. Using the results of 530 self-completion questionnaires and in-depth qualitative interviews with 16 people we assess perceptions of conflict across housing tenures and between socio-economic groups, feelings of acceptance and belonging in the local neighbourhood, and levels of involvement in local formal and informal networks. While only a small number of questionnaire respondents reported negative views of socio-economic diversity in the area a theme emerging in the qualitative data indicated that housing tenure was relevant to some of these negative perceptions. Respondents from across different tenure types also reported differences in feelings of acceptance in the neighbourhood, and involvement in formal and informal networks. The study findings suggest that housing tenure is relevant to the development of neighbourhood-based social capital, and that this factor needs to be considered by social planners, housing policy makers and others involved in implementing social mix policies. In addition, the findings indicate the need to consider the community housing and public housing tenures in their own right, given the different models of housing provision, rather than collectively under the common banner of social housing as most research studies do. It is recommended that the full diversity of housing tenure is considered in any future analysis.