Australian Housing Policy,Misrecognition and Indigenous Population Mobility

Policy initiatives in remote Indigenous Australia aim to improve Indigenous health and well-being, and reduce homelessness. But they have raised controversy because they impinge on Indigenous aspirations to remain on homeland communities, require mainstreaming of Indigenous housing and transfer Indigenous land to the state. This paper uses recognition theory to argue that if policies of normalization are imposed on remote living Indigenous people in ways that take insufficient account of their cultural realities they may be experienced as a form of misrecognition and have detrimental policy effects. The paper examines the responses of remote living Indigenous people to the National Partnerships at the time of their introduction in 2009–2010. Drawing on interview and administrative data from a national study on Indigenous population mobility, the paper argues although the policies have been welcomed, they have also been a source of anxiety and anger. These feelings are associated with a sense of violated justice arising from experiences of misrecognition. The paper argues this can lead tenants to depart their homes as a culturally sanctioned form of resistance to state control. This population mobility is associated with homelessness because it takes place in the context of housing exclusion. Policy implications include developing new models of intercultural professional practice and employing a capacity-building approach to local Indigenous organisations.     

Reconciling Policy Tensions on the Frontlines of Indigenous Housing Provision in Australia: Reflexivity,Resistance and Hybridity

In Australia, significant recent reforms reposition Indigenous housing provision and management in remote and town camp communities under the mainstream public housing model. Two competing discourses surround this shift: a federal discourse of standardisation and state discourses of local responsiveness centred on the introduction of new community engagement processes into Indigenous public housing. This paper reports on qualitative research into the micro-scale of policy implementation to highlight policy-to-practice translation on the frontlines of Indigenous housing. Based on interviews with Indigenous housing stakeholders, this paper argues the capacity to support locally responsive housing management is problematic under the current arrangements. The analytical framework of realist governmentality reveals frontline housing professionals' role in the local resolution of tensions between federal and state policy levers. A focus on agent reflexivity and resistance on the frontline assists in capturing the dynamic (hybrid) identity of Indigenous public housing, as an atypical Australian example of hybridity in social housing.     

Community Land Trusts and Indigenous Housing in Australia—Exploring Difference-Based Policy and Appropriate Housing

Previous work has highlighted the primacy of non-economic rights in Indigenous housing objectives. This paper builds on that work and Sanders' other work demonstrating the limited relevance of ‘mainstream’ home ownership for many Indigenous communities, exploring whether models based on community land trust (CLT) principles might be appropriate for articulating Indigenous housing aspirations. The paper describes current Indigenous housing scenarios in urban, regional and remote New South Wales and Queensland, and findings regarding the resonance of CLTs with Indigenous housing objectives. While dominant policy and public discourses promote Indigenous home ownership as an economic development strategy, or as requiring the alienation of Indigenous lands, the research found neither to be primary sector imperatives. The paper draws on difference-based arguments regarding Indigenous affairs arguing that a focus on diversity emerging from informed Indigenous choice finds a role for policy supporting diverse Indigenous housing aspirations.     

A Framework for Reimagining Indigenous Mobility and Homelessness

This article reports on the findings of a national study on housing responses to Indigenous temporary mobility. Drawing on policy analysis and interviews with Indigenous users and service providers, it argues Indigenous temporary mobility is a largely overlooked area of housing need. Its invisibility is partly explained by its status as a form of Indigenous endosociality whose motives and forms are largely opaque to mainstream services. However, it also arises because of the difficulty of unravelling the relationship between culturally sanctioned temporary mobility, resistance to engagement with mainstream services and involuntary responses to housing exclusion. Lack of attention to the nexus between temporary mobility and homelessness represents a missed opportunity to improve the housing outcomes of this hard to serve population. The article proposes a framework for distinguishing different mobility groups as a first step towards improving early intervention and prevention of Indigenous homelessness.     

The private rental sector: Problems,prospects and policy

Abstract

Despite the neglect in research and policy for rental housing, there is a developing awareness of the problems of the private rental sector and the need for policy intervention. The paper suggests that the development of policies must proceed with caution; there are many areas where our knowledge of the problems and processes of the private rental market are insufficient for policy development.     

Is Homeownership the Answer? Housing Tenure and Indigenous Australians in Remote (and Settled) Areas

This paper examines the relevance of recently floated policy ideas for extending homeownership to remote Aboriginal Australians. It argues that while the housing tenure system in more densely settled Australia is dominated by homeownership, this is not, and cannot realistically be expected to be, the case in remote areas. The paper uses data from the 2001 Census, organized by remoteness geography, to demonstrate the different character of the housing tenure system in remote Australia. The paper argues that homeownership in remote Aboriginal communities is a somewhat unrealistic policy goal, given the underlying income and employment status of Indigenous people in these communities. The paper also argues that there are better measures of Indigenous housing need and disadvantage in Australia than low homeownership rates. It briefly reports on one past failed experiment in Queensland to introduce homeownership to a remote Aboriginal community.     

Telling stories: the role of narratives in rental housing policy change in New Zealand

Abstract

This paper examines the emergence of the regulation of housing conditions in the private rental sector as a policy issue in New Zealand using an analysis of narratives in media, advocacy and political texts. Narratives are evident in public discourse and are the stories told by interest groups to identify and cast a problem as a policy issue in a way analogous to the beliefs of the speaker. This case study shows that while the narratives used by advocates for policy change were effective in raising the issue, they were ineffective in overcoming a counter-narrative of excessive regulation by the government and concerns of possible rent rises. This opposition to regulation of the private sector by a right-leaning government needs to be more effectively countered by more powerful intersecting narratives, if evidence on the relationship between housing, health and safety is to become the basis for effectively implemented government policy.     

Rethinking Federal Housing Policy

Problem: Federal housing policy is made up of disparate programs that a) promote homeownership; b) assist low-income renters’ access to good-quality, affordable housing; and c) enforce the Fair Housing Act by combating residential discrimination. Some of these programs are ineffective, others have drifted from their initial purpose, and none are well coordinated with each other.

Purpose: We examine the trends, summarize the research evaluating the performance of these programs, and suggest steps to make them more effective and connected to each other.

Methods: We review the history of housing policy and programs and empirical studies of program effectiveness to identify a set of best principles and practices.

Results and conclusions: In the area of homeownership, we recommend that the federal government help the nation's housing markets quickly find bottom, privatize aspects of the secondary mortgage market, and move to eliminate the mortgage interest deduction and replace it with a 10-year homeownership tax credit. In the area of subsidized rental housing, we recommend that the current system of vouchers be regionalized (or alternatively, converted into an entitlement program that works through the income tax system), sell public housing projects to nonprofit sponsors where appropriate, and eliminate some of the rigidities in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. In the area of fair housing, we recommend that communities receiving Community Development Block Grants be required to implement inclusionary zoning programs.

Takeaway for practice: In general, we recommend that federal policy build on proven programs; focus on providing affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families and provide the funding to meet that goal; avoid grandiose and ideological ambitions and programs; use fewer and more coordinated programs; offer tax credits, not tax deductions; and promote residential filtering.

Research support: Partial funding support was provided by the National Science Foundation.     

Measuring Informal Housing Production in California Cities

Problem, research strategy, and ­findings: Planning scholars and practitioners once assumed informal housing was largely absent in the developed world; today they increasingly acknowledge its role in the United States. Recent evidence suggests that informal housing, or non-permitted construction, is a significant phenomenon inside incorporated cities, despite widespread regulations and code enforcement. Informal housing is a de facto source of otherwise scarce affordable housing in many locations, but also compromises health and safety and strains municipal infrastructure and fiscal health. Planners lack a means of measuring informal construction at the scale of individual cities. We propose such a method, and apply it to incorporated cities in California. Data limitations prevent us from precisely estimating the magnitude of non-permitted construction, but our findings suggest that informal channels are an important source of housing production, especially in the places where permitted construction is constrained.

Takeaway for practice: We urge planners to engage with informal housing issues, given the considerable importance of this hidden yet vital portion of the housing market as a means of providing living spaces amid tight housing market conditions. Our method for calculating the rate of informal housing addition is a useful tool for planners to gather basic facts about the informal housing market in their communities, a prerequisite for policy interventions.     

The long-term effects of housing policy instrumentation: Rio de Janeiro’s case from an actor–network theory perspective

Abstract

This paper explores the long-term effects of Rio de Janeiro’s slum upgrading, a key policy instrument of municipal housing since the 1990s, and an essential reference for housing initiatives worldwide. From a theoretical stance, this paper builds on the Political Sociology of Public Policy Instruments (PPI) and actor–network theory (ANT). The paper argues that Rio’s slum upgrading instrumentation, that is, its constitution and use, has been key to the various housing policy oscillations over the past three decades. It also contends that this instrumentation contributed to the depoliticization of the municipal housing policy through the fostering of a ‘community of practice’ centred on slum upgrading, formed by a wide range of state and non-sate actors, and based on a technical rationality. This community and its practices have weakened the political control over Rio’s housing policy in the past decades.     

Remote Area Indigenous Housing: Towards a Model of Best Practice

This article analyses housing provision for Indigenous populations in remote communities, focusing particularly on the Indigenous Australian population. It uses a 'best practice' framework to do this. It then develops a model of best practice which is used to evaluate remote area Indigenous housing in terms of four stages and six components of housing provision. After summarising the results of the application of the model to some 26 examples, with more detailed analysis of two of them, it reaches conclusions about elements of best practice in remote area Indigenous housing, about best practice methodology and about the wider applicability of the model.     

Housing the very poor or the young? Implications of the changing public housing policy in South Korea

Abstract

This paper discusses the reorganization of the roles of the national and local governments in public housing policy alongside decentralization, with particular reference to South Korea. Focusing on policy changes over the past decade, it reveals that rather than retrenchment amid a push towards greater local autonomy, the national government has diversified and expanded its public housing policy, and is increasingly pursuing a universal approach to public housing. Through case studies of Seoul and Gyeonggi, it also shows how the two local governments have become creative suppliers of public housing that is more customized to the local context. In particular, it highlights the rising emphasis on targeting young people rather than the very poor in public housing policies, a shift that is partly a legacy of Korea’s ‘productivist’ welfare state. The paper closes by discussing the implications of this latest policy trend, especially on local–national policy coordination.     

‘The older adult’ doesn’t exist: using values to differentiate older adults in the Dutch housing market

Abstract

To date most prognoses of older adults in the housing market have been based on average housing preferences and average housing market behaviour of all persons in a certain age cohort. Due to socialcultural and social-economic dynamics, the relationship between age and housing is expected to change for successive cohorts. This study sets out to improve housing preferences estimates by recognizing the growing differentiation among older adults. This heterogeneity is analysed by differentiating older adults on their lifestyles (operationalized as values), using latent class analysis as a clustering technique. These analyses result in older adults being classified into five segments on the basis of their viewpoints, motivations and attitude. Next, for each lifestyle segment a separate discrete choice model is estimated, offering insight in the relative importance that these segments give to various housing attributes. The findings demonstrate advantages over a traditional, single model approach and can be helpful in formulating contemporary housing policy.     

From the Subprime to the Exotic: Excessive Mortgage Market Risk and Foreclosures

Problem: The recent rapid growth of high-risk mortgage lending raised the financial risk profile facing not only the American homeowner but entire neighborhoods. From the perspective of planners, the problem of increased and geographically concentrated foreclosures is the most critical outcome that has resulted from high-risk mortgage markets.

Purpose: This article analyzes recent trends in mortgage finance in order to recommend what local planners can do to reduce the negative consequences of high-risk home lending for their own communities.

Methods: I plot public and private data, much of it readily available for little or no cost, to discover where in the nation recent mortgage foreclosures are concentrated, and describe how similar analysis could be used prospectively and at a local scale to anticipate future problems.

Results and conclusions: Numbers of subprime, exotic, and zero-down-payment mortgages have all been growing. Where they are spatially concentrated they are linked to rising and geographically concentrated home mortgage foreclosures. I find evidence that subprime lenders achieve greater market penetration in metropolitan areas with less educated residents, and that higher-risk lending is more prevalent where housing prices are high and increasing. I also find that when local housing markets are hot, even high levels of subprime lending are associated with only slightly higher foreclosure filing rates, but foreclosure rates rise quickly when hot markets cool.

Takeaway for practice: Although foreclosures are less likely to be a severe problem in very strong real estate markets, when prices in previously hot markets stagnate or decline, foreclosures can quickly follow. This is a serious concern given recent trends in mortgage financing that have extended credit to more economically vulnerable populations and generally weakening housing markets in many metropolitan areas. These foreclosures tend also to be spatially concentrated within metropolitan areas, particularly stressing housing markets in neighborhoods where the higher-risk products are more prevalent. I recommend that planners: (1) track local lending and foreclosure patterns; (2) promote healthier mortgage markets in vulnerable areas; (3) fund targeted foreclosure prevention and counseling; (4) develop refinancing/restructuring programs; (5) redesign programs to promote sustainable homeownership; (6) get foreclosed properties reoccupied quickly; (7) recognize the effect of foreclosure surges on rental housing markets; and (8) be proactive in policy debates on lending regulation and foreclosure processes.

Research support: None.     

The Foreclosure Crisis,Foreclosed Properties,and Federal Policy: Some Implications for Housing and Community Development Planning

Problem: Foreclosures surged during the 2007 to 2009 national foreclosure crisis and federal policymakers failed to respond quickly and forcefully to the problem. The large numbers and geographic concentration of foreclosed properties have posed a particular problem for many planners.

Purpose: I aim to describe the intrametropolitan distribution of foreclosed properties at the zip code level, the often anemic or delayed federal policy response to rising foreclosures, and the potential effects of likely changes in federal policy and housing finance for metropolitan housing, development patterns, and local housing and community development planning.

Methods: I used archival research and secondary and media resources to document the federal response to the foreclosure crisis. I analyzed a proprietary data set to describe the problem of the accumulation of foreclosed properties across and within metropolitan areas.

Results and conclusions: Foreclosed properties were already accumulating in metropolitan areas with weak housing markets by 2006, but formerly hot markets such as Riverside, CA, Las Vegas, NV, and Phoenix, AZ, had many more by mid-2008. Within metropolitan areas, foreclosed properties were disproportionately concentrated in central city neighborhoods, although suburban zip codes with long commute times also had relatively high levels. The federal response to rapidly worsening foreclosures was faltering and timid. More conservative finance following the crisis will put downward pressure on housing consumption, potentially shifting demand to smaller homes. However, financing may be difficult or expensive to obtain for condominium buildings, and lenders and investors may shy away from less conventional projects, due partly to higher risk premiums.

Takeaway for practice: In the short run, local governments must confront the problems of foreclosed properties, especially when they are highly concentrated in certain neighborhoods. More conservative mortgage markets are likely to persist for some time, with potential impacts on housing demand. Planners should strive to diversify tax bases by promoting more diverse land use and housing patterns to make their communities more resilient in future crises. Federal policymakers may move toward greater mortgage market regulation, but this will be vigorously debated. Policymakers will also consider the ongoing federal role in secondary markets, without which long term stability is unlikely. Finally, Congress may extend the Community Reinvestment Act to nonbank financial institutions given the federal support they have received during the crisis.

Research support: None.     

Achieving Regional Housing Planning Objectives: Directing Affordable Housing to Jobs-Rich Neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Low-income households face affordability issues and are often forced to live in areas with limited job access and inadequate transportation. Local communities exacerbate these problems through exclusionary zoning. We study the impact of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) change in allocation formula under California’s affordable housing mandate. The old policy followed a fair share strategy, whereas the new policy requires local jurisdictions to locate mandated affordable housing units in jobs-rich areas. We compare affordable housing produced in the region before and after ABAG adopted the jobs-housing policy; we also compare the new patterns to the location of market-rate housing and to the experiences of San Diego (CA) and Los Angeles (CA), both of which retain fair share allocation. We do not control for variables that may have affected affordable housing location. ABAG’s policy shift is associated with a 104% improvement in the balance of housing and jobs at the local level; affordable housing units are more likely than market-rate housing to locate in jobs-rich areas, which may indicate that localities prioritize affordable housing. We also find that more affordable housing locates in such areas in the San Francisco Bay Area (CA) than in San Diego or Los Angeles.

Takeaway for practice: A voluntary regional government in a state with mandatory affordable housing requirements can affect the production and distribution of affordable housing. A total of 25 U.S. states require localities to include affordable housing elements in their comprehensive plans; we suggest that regional and local planners use these opportunities to meet multiple policy goals by directing affordable housing to jobs-rich neighborhoods.     

How do housing and labour markets affect individual homelessness?

Abstract

We examine the impact of housing and labour market conditions on individual risks of homelessness. Our innovation is a focus on homelessness entries, although findings from jointly estimated homelessness entry and exit probit equations are reported. Risky behaviours and life experiences such as regular use of drugs, the experience of violence and biographies of acute disadvantage lead to a higher risk of becoming homeless. Public housing is a strong protective factor. We find clear evidence that for certain subgroups it is being the ‘wrong person in the wrong place’ that matters most when considering risks of entering homelessness. Indigenous Australians, for example, are no more likely to become homeless than other vulnerable groups holding housing and labour market conditions constant. However, tighter housing markets and weaker labour markets expose Indigenous Australians to significantly higher risks of entering homelessness.     

The Limits of Housing Investment as a Neighborhood Revitalization Tool: Crime in New York City

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Local residents often oppose place-based affordable housing on the grounds that such housing will increase crime and decrease property values. New York City has actually used affordable housing investment as a neighborhood revitalization tool, leading to a positive impact on neighborhood property values. Households in distressed neighborhoods consistently cite crime as a problem, but we know little about the impact of housing investments on crime. Using a unique set of point-specific data on affordable housing and crime locations between 2002 and 2008 in New York City, I estimate a set of regression models to identify the effect that affordable housing investments have on crime on the block where they are situated. I find little evidence that affordable housing investments either reduce or increase crime on New York City blocks, suggesting there are limits to the revitalization effects of these subsidies and that crime fears about subsidized housing are unwarranted.

Takeaway for practice: Cities with tight rental markets such as New York should continue to invest in affordable housing construction. However, these cities need to find ways to expand housing options in higher-income, less-distressed neighborhoods, or they risk exacerbating concentrated poverty and further subjecting low-income households to unsafe living environments.     

Residential Satisfaction Among Public Housing Residents Living in Social-Mix Housing Complexes: The Case of the Seoul Metropolitan Area,Korea

Abstract

This study asks how a social mix policy that mixes public housing with private housing in the same housing complex is associated with residential satisfaction among public housing residents in Korea. We also ask if mixture types between public and private housing make a difference in the residential satisfaction of public housing residents. By analyzing the 2011 Korea Housing Survey for Public Housing Residents, we find that living in the independent type that includes only public housing and the random-mix type that randomly mixes public housing with private housing in the same building is positively related to residential satisfaction among public housing residents. The empirical analysis also shows that the levels of social conflict among residents are the lowest in the random-mix type.