Housing Policy and the Underclass: The United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The urban underclass has gained considerable currency as a concept to describe the changing face of poverty in the United States. Locating the urban underclass within the theoretical framework of citizenship and social class, this paper broadens conceptualizations of the urban underclass to allow a comparative analysis. Using the conceptualization developed, the author analyzes the role of housing in the social and spatial segregation and isolation that have been the hallmarks of the urban underclass in the United States, as well as in the Netherlands, Germany, and England. After comparing the divergent housing policies in the three European countries, the author examines local-level data in one old industrial city in each country. While there is some spatial concentration of poor and minority populations, the neighborhoods in question remain ethnically heterogeneous and do not lack social institutions. In short, they are far removed from the US hyperghetto.