Abstract
With the increasing concentration of population and economic activities in metropolitan regions, dwelling shortages and housing quality have become critical issues in urban management. Town plans considering social, economic, political, and cultural features of local communities have been developed with the aim of supporting housing, especially in emerging economies. In Iran, the ‘Mehr Housing’ Plan has been considered as one of the most relevant strategies for social housing since the 2000s. However, the acceptance of ‘Mehr Housing’ plans at the community scale has been rather low, reflecting the fact that it is a top-down, non-participatory policy. The present study investigates the most important factors affecting social acceptance of ‘Mehr Housing’ plans by interviewing 45 experts through a structured questionnaire that evaluated multiple analyses’ dimensions of housing and urban planning in Iran. Results showed that six dimensions (physical, institutional-managerial, economic, socio-cultural, legal, and locational) had contributed to social dissatisfaction with ‘Mehr Housing’ local initiatives. In particular, socio-cultural and legal dimensions were demonstrated to have a large impact on local communities’ dissatisfaction.
Highlights
Housing has been one of the most important human needs throughout history
This survey was based on a questionnaire registering basic aspects of the research derived from a literature review that identified 33 items organized in six thematic dimensions contributing to the overall dissatisfaction with Mehr Housing initiatives
The empirical results of this study showed that all six dimensions impacted the overall level of dissatisfaction, indicating a generalized weakness in the Mehr Housing Plan [34]
Summary
Housing has been one of the most important human needs throughout history. Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the right to adequate housing has been regarded as one of the essential components of people’s standards of living. Land 2020, 9, 169 owned by a government authority, which may be central or local [4,5]. Provision of social housing depends on institutional, political, cultural, and socioeconomic characteristics of each state, being more-or-less finely tuned with housing needs and taking account of social deprivation within local communities [7]. It is distinct from private housing—a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a private developer or non-profit organizations with no direct connection to the state [8]. Public housing has been intrinsically characterized by a terminology, definitions of poverty, technical (bureaucratic) procedures, and other criteria for allocation that vary significantly between different socioeconomic contexts across the world [9]
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