Abstract
To avoid “renoviction”, a public housing company in a stigmatized neighbourhood in Sweden (Hammarkullen) decided to renovate its rental apartments suffering from neglected maintenance using a “zero...
Highlights
Jenny Stenberg, Professor in Citizen Participation in Urban Transformation, in her research and teaching focuses on social aspects of sustainable development and on citizen’s involv ment in design, planning and renovation
This implies that renovation will lead to a certain number of tenants being forced to move when rent increases are too high for middle- and low-income earners
The present article is based on studies carried out in October-November 2019 when interviews (Kvale, 1996; Morgan, 1996) were conducted with five tenants living in the buildings that are being considered for renovation with a zero option, or who were board members for the tenants’ association of these buildings
Summary
Jenny Stenberg, Professor in Citizen Participation in Urban Transformation, in her research and teaching focuses on social aspects of sustainable development and on citizen’s involv ment in design, planning and renovation. The present article discusses a renovation of neglected rental apartments in Sweden, using a “zero option” with regard to rent increase It describes the tenants’ views on this initiative and its consequences for them. Sweden, like many other parts of the world (see Gertten’s documentary film Push), is undergoing a liberalization wave, and rental housing is increasingly becoming a commodity on the housing market The criticism of this development offered by academics in Sweden is strong, some researchers going so far as to claim that “the current form of displacement (through renovation) has become a regularized profit strategy, for both public and private housing companies” Parts of these housing areas are being bought and sold by international investment compa nies that own them for a few years, their main interest being to make money
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