Energy savings from housing: Ineffective renovation subsidies vs efficient demolition and reconstruction incentives

Energy savings in the housing sector are key to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Policies to incentivize energy savings are however disparate between countries. Taking into account environmental aspects and consumer surplus, the paper uses a stylized economic model to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of three economic instruments: subsidies for renovation, subsidies for demolition and reconstruction projects and subsidies for building new houses on virgin land. The assessment also relates to differentiated value added taxes and other financial incentives such as green loans. In a counter-intuitive way, the model highlights that subsidies for renovations with minor energy gains worsen the overall energy consumption of housing due to the inducement of lock-ins with energy inefficient houses. Structural changes are needed in the use of policy instruments. First, commonly applied support schemes for renovations with minor energy savings should be abolished. Second, scarce public resources should incentivize deep renovation and demolition and reconstruction. Finally, taxes should apply on the use of virgin land to persuade households with a high willingness to pay for a new house, to invest in demolition and reconstruction.     

Designing for an imagined user: Provision for thermal comfort in energy-efficient extra-care housing

Regarded as one solution to the problem of how to enable older people to retain their independence, extra-care housing, where each resident has their own self-contained dwelling and access to communal facilities and to care, has received extensive funding in recent years. Implicit in the concept of specialist housing is the notion of ‘special’ occupants, imagined older people. Adopting a socio-technical approach, this paper considers how ideas about ageing inform those aspects of extra-care-housing-design that relate to thermal comfort. The paper draws on semi-structured interviews with 13 people involved in the design, development and management of UK-based extra-care housing. Participants characterised imagined occupants as vulnerable to cold, at risk from fuel poverty and liable to be burned by hot surfaces or fall from high windows. These user representations were reportedly inscribed into the design of extra-care housing schemes through the inclusion of building features such as communal heating, under-floor heating, restricted window opening and heated corridors. The utilisation of stereotypical user representations of older people raises questions, given that older people's thermal comfort needs can be highly diverse. The paper explores the implications for energy demand.     

摩托车ZAlSi11Cu2MgMn壳盖压铸模的设计

根据铝合金壳盖铸件形状复杂、壁薄、外形尺寸小等特征,选用了J1125型卧式冷室压铸机。模具结构采用1模4腔。为了使之成形良好,设计了一个截面变形均匀且尺寸不大的主横浇道和4个对称分布、宽度逐渐变大、截面突然变窄的过渡横浇道,从而优化了压铸模具结构。     

南京钢厂3500mm 轧机大型机架的冶炼浇注

简要介绍了多包精炼在南京钢厂 3 5 0 0mm轧机机架生产上的应用。利用三包冶炼 ,成功地冶炼浇注了两片 3 5 0 0mm轧机的两片机架 ,是我公司迄今为止生产过的最大的铸件。     

Not Just “A Roof over Your Head”: The Meaning of Healthy Housing for People Living with HIV

The literature has identified housing as a fundamental unmet need for people living with HIV; yet there has been little qualitative evidence exploring housing and HIV, particularly from a Canadian context. This paper focuses on our qualitative analyses of the housing experiences of 48 HIV-positive people living in Ontario. Findings from our interviews illustrate healthy housing as a dynamic interconnection between health, housing and other social factors that are influential to the health and well-being of people with HIV. Four salient themes have emerged from our qualitative findings: the interplay between healthy housing and economic security; the relationship between HIV, health and housing precariousness; the interconnection between housing, HIV, safety, stigma, social isolation and social exclusion; and the meaning of healthy housing for people living with HIV. These findings re-emphasize the importance of housing policies that consider housing as more than just a roof over one’s head, but also as something that supports the physical, mental, emotional and social well-being of people living with HIV.     

比较住房政策与供需模式——我国保障性住房公共政策思考

目前我国保障性住房问题的根源在于保障性住房公共政策目标及其定位下的公共住房政策模式。研究从比较住房政策及供需模式角度出发,通过对其他国家公共住房模式实践经验的梳理与剖析,结合我国保障性住房现况,反思我国保障性住房目标政策模式,并借鉴国外的成功经验,提出完善我国保障性住房公共政策模式的相关建议,希望能引起更多学者对保障性住房建设的关注与研究。     

Job Search Networks and Strategies in Scattered-site Public Housing

How does poverty dispersal influence the job search tactics and networks of poor women? Using the results of interviews with 253 women living in dispersed and small clusters of public housing, this paper examines how job networks and search tactics may vary. The premise is that the mechanisms involved in connecting poor residents of more affluent areas with opportunity may consist of both social connections and new strategies for accessing opportunity. The paper finds that dispersed residents have job networks containing more diverse information. Second, dispersed residents more often used formal methods to find their most recent job. Third, dispersed residents seek better jobs, net of demographic controls, search method, and search outcome. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for the design of housing mobility and mixed-income housing programmes, the current policy emphasis at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.     

Forced Relocation vs. Voluntary Mobility: The Effects of Dispersal Programmes on Households

The deconcentration of poverty in the US has involved both voluntary mobility programmes for low-income households and involuntary relocation of families through government action. This paper examines the effects on families of these two different strategies. Using data on over 600 families in the Twin Cities region of Minneapolis/Saint Paul, the study reveals only sporadic support for the hypothesis that voluntary or involuntary participants in the deconcentration effort will report improvements in their living conditions, or report better conditions than a control group of public housing and Section 8 residents. Several possible explanations for the lack of programme effects are offered.     

The Timing of Household Events and Housing Events in the Netherlands: A Longitudinal Perspective

Research on the relationship between household events and housing events so far has largely ignored the role of timing. This study aims to uncover in what way the postponement of marriage and childbirth that took place in the second half of the 20th century in the Netherlands affected the timing of moving into 'long-stay housing' (single-family dwellings and owner occupied dwellings). This is done by analysing time lags between household events and housing events. Survival analysis shows that over cohorts, moving into long-stay housing happens consistently earlier, and increasingly frequently before first childbirth. This finding is most likely attributable to the increased economic prosperity and increased availability of long-stay housing. This allows young people to adjust their housing to the household situation they anticipate, rather than to wait until they actually experience the household event. However, this does not hold for single home leavers: they move into long-stay housing neither earlier, nor much more often over time. It is concluded that the level of commitment in the household situation is the fundamental explanation for housing choice, and that economic prosperity mainly facilitates advancement in the timing of adapting the housing situation to the (anticipated) household situation.