Multi‐Actor Housing to Address Vulnerabilities at a Personal and Local Level

Abstract

In response to an everlasting housing crisis, cities worldwide have witnessed a surge in alternative housing initiatives (AHIs) driven by third‐sector organisations. In Brussels, a network of third‐sector organisations has been developing strategies with each other and local authorities, resulting in a plethora of initiatives focusing on various critical situations. Drawing on ethnographic research in a Brussels AHI, this article investigates how its complex multi‐actor structure affects the daily life of its inhabitants both within their dwellings and the wider neighbourhood. By capturing the tactics employed by third‐sector actors on the ground, which often deviate from their initial strategy for reclaiming the right to housing, as well as the homing practices of the inhabitants, the article focuses on tracing how and why such a housing configuration does or does not address its inhabitants’ interplaying vulnerabilities related with the housing crisis as well as their relationship with the local urban fabric.