Planning deregulation and commodification: How is housing precarity structurally encouraged through Permitted Development Rights?

Objectives Farmworkers in Michigan face precarious and exploitative labor conditions that affect their access to affordable, fair, and quality housing, which are key social determinants of health. We sought to assess the health, working conditions, and housing access, affordability, and quality of farmworkers living in and outside of employer-provided housing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We conducted a mixed methods cross-sectional study in collaboration with community partners from the Michigan Farmworker Project and the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. We assessed housing, labor conditions, and general health through in-depth phone interviews with seasonal, migrant, and H-2A farmworkers (n = 63) during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021) in Michigan. Descriptive analyses of these data included comparisons by type of farmworker and type of housing (employer-provided or other). Results The majority of farmworkers interviewed were women and seasonal farmworkers and spoke primarily Spanish. A significant share of farmworker participants reported living in poverty (38.3%) and had low or very low food security (27.0%). Nearly half of farmworkers (47.6%) rated their health as “fair” or “poor” during the year prior to the interview, and more than a third reported 3 or more chronic conditions (39.6%) and lack of health insurance coverage (38.7%). Among the 43 workers tested, 25.6% reported testing positive for COVID-19. Farmworkers reported experiences of objectification and dehumanization. Three-quarters of workers reported feeling that they were treated as less than human by supervisors and one-third reported verbal abuse. Farmworkers also experienced challenges exacerbated by their social vulnerability that impeded them from finding affordable, quality housing. Regarding housing quality, the majority of workers (80.6%) reported one or more environmental hazards around their residence, and about a third reported not having air conditioning (33.%) and lacking a functioning washing machine (33.9%). Concerns about the quality of drinking water accessible to workers and exposure to chemicals were shared by participants. Conclusion This study adds valuable knowledge to the understanding of the systemic barriers to housing and work conditions for female and male seasonal, migrant, and H-2A farmworkers in Michigan. Shortcomings in the regulatory and policy environment result in precarious housing and work conditions, including exploitative labor practices. These conditions negate equality, fairness, and health equity, important tenants for public health.

Access to affordable housing and transportation are social determinants of health (SDH). Furthermore, lack of access to efficient and cost-effective public transportation can add hours to the workday, increase exposure to environmental pollutants, and reduce access to healthcare, employment and educational opportunities. Empirical evidence suggests that people have mutually reinforcing effects of precarious, low quality, inaccessible, and/or adequate housing and transportation that create vulnerable situations impacting people’s work, home life, and leisure time. In this study, qualitative data was generated from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with healthcare workers from a residential long-term care organization located in an urbanized region with both public transportation and socialized housing programs. The data reveal that precarious housing and transportation situations were ubiquitous challenging issues among a diverse group of healthcare workers, which demonstrates the need to take into account the realities of the participants’ circumstances, identify potential public health interventions, and advocate for policy change.

Since 2015–2016, in the context of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’, new asylum policies altered the landscape of accommodation, housing, displacement, and (il)legalisation in Greece. This paper aims to explore the impact that the reception system established in 2016 has on everyday accommodation and urban experiences of refugees as regards their relationships with space and social connections. In doing so, it brings to the forefront the concept of ‘displaceability’ as an ongoing, non-linear, and relational sociospatial process, interrelated with housing precarity and illegalisation, through which the connections between people and places are ruptured. The paper, first, focuses on how processes and experiences of displaceability emerge for those entitled to asylum accommodation in Greece. Secondly, it examines how displaceability also concerns displaced people found at the margins of accommodation after their asylum claim has been processed, including both the cases of recognised beneficiaries of international protection and refugees with a negative decision. Thirdly, it discusses aspects of the experiences of those outside the reception system and accommodation sites, such as people arriving in Athens through informal and unregistered mobilities. The paper is based on research conducted in metropolitan Athens, Greece, as part of the TRAFIG Horizon 2020 research project.

Homelessness is a risk for growing numbers of immigrants. Largely as a result of low incomes, newcomers are more likely than the Canadian‐born to spend over 50 percent of total household income on housing costs. Many newcomers suffer ‘hidden homelessness’. They do not use shelters and other services, but share accommodation, couch‐surf and rely on their social contacts for temporary and precarious housing. The adverse impact of low incomes on the housing experiences of Canadian newcomers is exacerbated in the outer suburbs of metropolitan areas where the supply of affordable housing is limited. This study explores the social backgrounds and housing experiences of immigrant households that are vulnerable to homelessness in outer suburbs through analysis of special tabulations from the 2001 census for York Region and interviews with representatives from local community organisations serving immigrant and low‐income populations. The initial findings confirm that a high proportion of newcomers in York Region are at‐risk of homelessness during the first 10 years of residence in Canada. Although renters are more vulnerable than homeowners, a substantial percentage of newcomers who are homeowners pay more than 30 percent of their total income on housing costs. The shortage of affordable rental housing in the outer suburbs exacerbates the impacts of low incomes, immigration status, household size and ethnoracial identities on immigrants' housing.

Housing provision for women escaping domestic and family violence (DFV) has become a salient aspect of government policy in Australia and globally. This has occurred amid ongoing political failure to deliver sufficient and affordable housing, contributing to precarity in housing markets. This article examines how women’s DFV-related housing precarity is represented in contemporary Australian Commonwealth and New South Wales policy. The article reveals competing representations of this issue between housing and criminal justice policies, producing uneven effects for DFV victim-survivors. Under the dominant governing rationality of neoliberalism, the housing assistance available for this group is primarily crisis or private market focused. In proposing such temporary and private forms of assistance, the policies produce a representation of DFV-related housing precarity that overly individualizes a predominantly structural problem. The article argues that the gap between symbolic policy commitments and practical steps to address housing shortages needs to be narrowed to sharpen the focus on the varied housing needs of women fleeing DFV.

Precarious housing research has become increasingly relevant to previous welfare housing contexts, such as Sweden. In the 1990s, Swedish housing became gradually market-oriented, which induced a shortage of affordable rental housing and increased housing costs in all major cities. This article presents the results from interviews with individuals about their experiences of the unequal housing market in the city of Malmö, Sweden. The article furthers knowledge of the lived experience of housing precariousness in the Global North. The narratives from the housing precariat are analysed through the lens of housing inequalities, and the analysis theoretically adds to ‘research on critical geography of precarity. The article aims to illustrate the consequences of the shift from a general welfare approach of housing to an individualized and neoliberal housing market. In particular, this article adds insights on the gendered and racialized aspects that affect housing precariousness.

COVID-19 made visible the care world. Care includes everything we do to sustain, preserve, and repair our world so that we may live in it as well as possible. This paper addresses carework spatially, bridging the concepts of spatial justice, participation, situated knowledge and solidarity, with the pandemic as a backdrop. Based on an action research project, this paper elaborates a conceptualisation of care, both as a practice and a process, focusing on the experience of women living in a context of housing precarity. Using mixed methods, including in-depth interviews, ethnographic work, and workshops, it aims to deepen the comprehension of socio-spatial care practices during COVID-19, focusing on the agency of poor marginalised women, providing frameworks of care within the places they inhabit, also considering the impact on the research itself. Empirically driven, this paper shows that housing precarity and housing deficits affect women more dramatically. Notably, those spatial care practices also reveal forms of mutual aid and solidarity capable of questioning - or even overcoming - obstacles created or intensified by the pandemic.

The city of Binghamton is in the depths of a housing crisis that has been growing for decades. According to the Stakeholders of Broome County, a housing advocacy coalition, there are only 17 affordable housing units available for every 100 extremely low-income renter households. This deficit in low-income housing in the city of Binghamton and greater Broome County has been persistent for over 20 years. Despite this, hundreds of luxury housing units have been constructed in recent years that are marketed toward Binghamton University students and are too expensive for low-income households to afford. How does the presence of Binghamton University impact the local housing market, specifically the low-income housing market? Additionally, what policy solutions could be implemented to help alleviate the Binghamton housing crisis? I investigated the Binghamton low-income housing market through a series of interviews with tenants, landlords, non-profit and community leaders, public officials and university administrators. I specifically looked at Binghamton University’s effect on the housing landscape in the City of Binghamton. The impact caused by Binghamton University is partially due to the University’s 20 by 2020 plan announced in 2014, in which they planned to expand the school’s undergraduate and graduate enrollment from around 16,000 to 20,000 by 2020. The University fell 2,000 students shy of this expansion goal, however the planned expansion may have been a large factor in the construction of several student housing projects since the 2014 proposal. The City of Binghamton’s supply of student housing far surpasses the actual demand, although new student housing projects are proposed every year. Meanwhile, there is a severe shortage of low-income housing. Developers know that they can make more money in the over-saturated student housing market rather than the growing low-income housing market. Although policies have been written and proposed, the city and county have failed to enact sufficient policy to encourage developers to build affordable housing, as student housing projects and the university’s growth bring money to the downtown area, outpricing the local residents.

Housing is a key fundamental requirement of life. However, a significant number of people in the Global South are poorly housed. We answer three questions on Ghana’s housing deficit and quality trends for over 20 years using the Population and Housing Census data. First, what role does government housing policy play in understanding the demand and supply of housing in Ghana? Second, what is the trend in the quality of housing in Ghana? Finally, what are the determinants of the housing quality index, ownership and types in Ghana? The findings show that housing quality in Ghana increased within the study period. The study further unearths that there is an increase in the share of households in sufficient and excellent housing quality classes and a decrease in the share of households in the highly deficient and deficient housing quality classes. We recommend that policymakers encourage the use of durable building materials and improve housing services to promote housing quality in Ghana.

In the wake of underinvestment in, and residualisation of, the social housing sector, housing policymakers in Australia are adopting a range of strategies to ration social housing and reduce the size and length of social housing waiting lists. A recent addition to these strategies are ‘diversionary products’ that seek to direct applicants towards the private rental sector where they are free to make ‘autonomous’ housing choices and work towards a purported pathway of housing independence. Drawing on research conducted in Queensland and New South Wales in Australia, and informed by conceptual analyses of diversion the criminal justice space, this paper interrogates the principles and practices of diversion deployed by social housing policymakers to understand what are people being diverted from, and where they are being diverted to? Where diversion from the criminal justice system is driven by imperatives to keep vulnerable populations ‘out of harm’s way’, the same discourses are discernible in the social housing sector alongside (neo) liberal discourses that privilege private market solutions to the shortage of social housing. Yet, foregrounding pathways to independence, autonomy and person-centred housing products has the effect of preventing otherwise needy applicants from applying for social housing; stretching out waiting times further; and directing vulnerable groups towards precarious and harmful private housing arrangements.

The research reported here examines, from a historical perspective, the urban transformations that characterized the city of Mumbai since its foundation. First, a brief historical overview of the Indian peninsula, which is distinguished by a multitude of climates, contexts, ethnic groups, cultures, languages, and religions, is outlined. Second, the report focuses on the twentieth century migration patterns in order to better delve into the urbanization processes and features. The Indian urban dimension has grown rapidly and currently the country is the second most populated in the world. Its metropolises show many critical issues and poor housing conditions stand out. Urban informality and precarious housing are common, and they are particularly relevant in the most inhabited urban agglomerations. Mumbai developed on a small group of islands under Portuguese and British control and transformed into a megalopolis in a relatively short time span. Although public authorities became gradually aware of the housing shortage problem, the policies and interventions implemented proved to be inadequate to tackle the issue. The city’s historical and geographical specificities have negatively affected urban development, raising land values and ultimately, jeopardizing social housing interventions. The Slum Rehabilitation Schemes case serves as an example to describe the Mumbai urban habitat and the extreme character that distinguishes it. This analysis also stimulates reflections on the housing issue and its possible developments in similar contexts.

Rote Wien, an X-ray of Vienna's social housing," presents an in-depth critical mapping exploration into the esteemed social housing system of Vienna, Austria. Drawing parallels between maps and X-ray images of urban space, this study delves into the intricate process of critical mapping, elucidating Vienna's multifaceted approach to social housing. Through meticulous analysis of historical data and contemporary policies, the research examines key factors shaping Vienna's housing landscape, including affordability, ownership, housing quality, and proximity. Rooted in the principles of affordability, high quality, social cohesion, and socioeconomic integration, Vienna's social housing model traces its origins back to the visionary initiatives of the "Red Vienna" era following the First World War. However, despite its exemplary status, Vienna confronts challenges arising from shifting national and regional neoliberal ideologies, budget constraints, and the influx of international real estate investment. By dissecting the evolution of Vienna's social housing from its inception to present-day adaptations, this study provides valuable insights into the city's resilience and innovative strategies in the face of urban housing crises. Moreover, "Rote Wien" serves as a seminal resource for architects, urban planners, and policymakers, offering a blueprint for addressing contemporary housing challenges in cities worldwide. By examining the successes and shortcomings of Vienna's social housing model, this critical mapping endeavor not only elucidates the intricacies of urban housing dynamics but also provides a framework for fostering inclusive, sustainable, and livable cities for all residents. Through its comprehensive analysis and nuanced insights, "Rote Wien" offers a compelling narrative of Vienna's social housing journey, underscoring the pivotal role of critical mapping in understanding and reshaping urban landscapes to promote equity, accessibility, and social cohesion. In this critical mapping study, multiple types of maps and graphs were used. A chrono-style mapping and temporal analysis (Figure 1 ) was used to deploy a historical study through the use of chrono-style maps, which visually represent spatial configurations over different time periods. This map was complemented by timelines that intricately link spatial developments with temporal dynamics, allowing for a nuanced understanding of the evolution of, in this case, Vienna's social housing system. By overlaying historical data with geographic representations, this form of mapping facilitates the identification of patterns, shifts and continuities in the urban landscape over time. This approach allows researchers to uncover the historical processes that have shaped Vienna's social housing policies, from their inception during the 'Red Vienna' era to their adaptations in response to contemporary challenges. This temporal analysis provides valuable insights into the long-term trajectories of social housing development, highlighting key moments of transformation, continuity and divergence within Vienna's urban fabric.

The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the fundamental importance of secure, affordable and quality housing. However, it has also revealed the precariousness of housing for many and how pre-existing inequalities have been amplified by a global health emergency. The private rental sector has long been considered a precarious tenure, owing to weaker regulation, the temporary leases and a power imbalance between the rights of tenants and the interests of landlords. This article mobilises the concept of precarity to explore the lived experiences of tenants navigating Ireland’s rental sector, the challenges they face regarding housing affordability, security, quality and accessibility, and the ways the pandemic has intensified their experience of housing precarity. The research is operationalised through 28 interviews with renters from Dublin’s inner-city, suburbs and commuter belt. The concept of precarity captures the economic importance of housing for financial well-being and security, as well as the non-economic functions of home as an emotional conduit for belonging, ontological security and mental health.

One of the most enduring themes within post-war social policy has been that of housing. From the recognition of the five giants to the language of housing crises, via concrete jungles and the right to buy, housing has been a mainstay of political rhetoric. More recently, the growth in precarious housing (Hodkinson and Robbins, 2013) , the tragedy of Grenfell Tower (Shildrick, 2018) , and increasing numbers of children in temporary accommodation (Wilson and Barton, 2023a) has brought a renewed focus to the debate. And yet, one of the interesting aspects of the language of the housing crisis is that it spans both sides of the political divide and is sufficiently nebulous as to mean different things to different voices. In policy terms, the crisis has been, since the turn of the millennium, littered with interventions to mitigate and manage some of the most egregious outcomes without really tackling root causes. The decent homes programme (National Audit Office, 2010), helpto-buy schemes (Meeks and Meeks, 2018), Teresa May's white paper to 'fix our broken housing market' (DCLG, 2017), and the potentially imminent 'renters reform bill' (Wilson et al., 2023) all aim to resolve some of the symptoms without really tackling the underlying problems, as evidenced by the ubiquitous and persistent language of the housing crisis. Where solutions to the housing crisis are proposed, they have overwhelmingly focused on a relatively simplistic understanding of the need to increase supply. The 2019 Conservative manifesto pledged to see 300,000 houses built per year by the mid-2020s and one million homes during the course of the 2019 parliament (Wilson and Barton, 2023b) . In countenance, research commissioned by the Housing Federation and Shelter suggests a target of 340,000 houses need to be built per year, with 145,000 being affordable (Cast Consultancy and Harlow Consulting, 2020) . One of the significant similarities about such targets is the fact that they have all been routinely missed and the UK has not seen 300,000 completions in a year since 1977 (Statista, 2023) . This does not seem to bode well for the ongoing mantra of increasing supply and the new Labour government's commitment to increased supply. And here lies a fundamental nub of the problem. The hegemony of the housing crisis maintains a focus on increasing supply and house building targets. This is not to say that there are some limited nods to encouraging people to buy houses and a vision of a homeowning democracy. But, in general terms, the predominant solution to the housing crisis in political rhetoric has been a tunnel vision focused on supply. One of the reasons that these targets are not met is because the housing supply in the UK is overwhelmingly delivered

Despite emerging as a core concern for street-based sex workers participating in prostitution diversion programmes (PDPs), housing has received limited empirical attention. In this article, we explore the meanings of housing in the context of court-affiliated PDPs in the US cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia based on interviews and focus groups with 31 PDP participants and 32 criminal legal system professionals. Three themes emerged: (a) housing precarity and crisis mode, (b) housing as a foundation, and (c) housing as an idea(l). PDPs prioritise therapeutic interventions targeting individual behaviours and attitudes over meeting basic needs, often placing programme participants in substandard housing and removing them from existing networks of support. Such prioritisation, which often conflicts with participants’ expressed preferences, does not always leave them better off in the short or long term. PDPs’ neglect of the quality, type, and meaning of housing reveals and reinforces a fundamental disregard for people in street-based sex trade as multifaceted, agentic human beings. We conclude that programmes must prioritise home as a ‘comfort zone’ that must be afforded to all people.