Housing inequalities under socialism: the case of Poland

Abstract

This paper empirically investigates interurban inequalities in housing conditions (in housing availability and quality) in Poland during the 1946–1984 period. The pattern of these inequalities are examined from three perspectives: geographic location of cities, their sizes, and the type of their major economic activity. The most striking differences in housing conditions in the early post-World War II period had been found between cities located in western Poland and those located in the eastern part of the country. These early east-west inequalities, inherited from the past, have been significantly reduced throughout the socialist period. Uneven territorial allocation of meagre funds for housing construction and maintenance, and the initial postwar policy of low rent which created indifference among tenants and owners to housing maintenance and led to physical dilapidation of part of the dwelling stock, have been chiefly responsible for the process of equalization through deterioriation. Interurban disparities in relation to size and type of cities have been magnified during the socialist period, but only in relation to the quality of housing. Dwellings in small and agricultural towns compared to those in large and industrial cities have been characterized by the lower levels of improvements. The crisis of small towns, an outcome of the policy of heavy industrialization during the 1950s, left these urban settlements outside the main-stream of housing construction and modernization programs. Large and many medium-sized cities have been promoted by the government for further development and received disproportionately large share of funds for housing. In spite of preferential treatment of these cities, a continuous increase in their population and the entrance of the baby-boom generation into the housing market only exacerbated the housing shortage in the largest urban areas. The professed socialist government policy of equal housing for everyone does not appear to be the main mechanism shaping the housing situation in Poland. The dominant mechanisms seem to stem from economic policies aimed at rapid industrial development of the country.