Access To Housing Research Articles

Housing Stability and Access to General Healthcare and Reproductive Healthcare Among Women in Ohio.

BackgroundThe relationship between housing instability and reproductive healthcare is understudied. We examined the association between housing insecurity and access and utilization of general healthcare, contraceptive healthcare, and abortion care.MethodsUsing data from a population-representative survey of adult reproductive-age Ohio women (N = 2,529), we assessed housing insecurity (not paying rent/mortgage on time in the past year). We examined associations between housing insecurity and the following outcomes: (1) not being able to access general healthcare in the past year; (2) experiencing delays or difficulties in accessing contraceptive healthcare in the past year; and (3) ever having an abortion. We used unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models. We selected confounders a priori and included age, socioeconomic status, and healthcare status.ResultsOverall, 10.6% of Ohio women of adult reproductive age experienced housing insecurity. Approximately 27.5% of respondents were not able to access general healthcare and 10.4% experienced delays or difficulties in accessing contraceptive care. Compared to housing-secure respondents, housing-insecure women were less able to access general healthcare (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]:2.16; 95% confidence interval [CI]:1.45–3.23) and more likely to experience delays or difficulties when accessing contraceptive care (aOR:1.74; 95% CI:1.00-3.04). Insecure housing was not statistically associated with ever having an abortion (aOR:1.76; 95% CI:0.93–3.34).ConclusionsIn this study, recent housing insecurity was associated with poorer access to general and contraceptive healthcare. Studies utilizing multidimensional measures of housing insecurity and other material insecurity measures are needed to further explore the relationship between material insecurity and access to general and contraceptive care.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10995-022-03492-5.

Land Management Using Land Reserves to Alleviate Emergencies on the Example of Warsaw

Some of the most important contemporary threats to the population are global emergencies, such as pandemics, refugee waves, and climate disasters. Urban areas with high-density housing and limited access to services have been primarily affected. There is often a lack of time, resources, and space to develop primary services available near places of residence. In the face of progressing urbanisation and the expanding pandemic, it is necessary to rationally manage urban space, ensuring the use of unused, post-industrial areas, on the one hand, and minimise the negative effects of crises—the spread of a virus, the occurrence of an urban heat island, or the relocation of refugees. One beneficial solution in cities is effectively managing empty, undeveloped urban areas to develop cities in a way that is future-proof from new emergencies. In this study, we aimed to search for optimal solutions which can help to alleviate the negative effects of emergencies in the city using the decision-making model of field reserve management. Two districts of Warsaw, the capital city of Poland, were chosen for this study: one was typically urbanised, namely, Mokotów, and the other had large undeveloped areas for construction, namely, Białołęka. We analysed the land reserves of these districts. Spatial analyses of the data made it possible to identify optimal locations that constituted land reserves that can be used for essential services. Based on the analysis results, planners can effectively create a set of recommendations for local governments. Thanks to these recommendations, municipalities can manage their land reserves and eventually adapt them for the abovementioned purposes. As a result, it is expected that the effective management of land reserves using publicly available spatial data will improve preventive actions in an emergency, such as a pandemic. In addition, the proposed design solutions are universal; since they are based on the data on available field reserves and their statuses, management in emergencies will be possible.

Can Indoor Residents Perceive Green and Blue Spaces in Communities as Posted Sentiments? A Verification in Nanchang

Ecological infrastructures (EIs), such as public and urban green and blue spaces (GBSs), have been well demonstrated to benefit visitors’ mental well-being. Experiences in community GBSs may also evoke positive emotions for their residents. In this study, 54 communities in Nanchang were chosen as objective sites, where landscape metrics of GBSs were remotely evaluated. A total of 2105 local residents’ facial expressions (with happy, sad, and neutral emotions) were obtained from Sina Weibo. Inhabitants showed more net positive emotions (happy minus sad) in cold seasons, and females smiled more frequently than males. Newly constructed communities with houses for sale had larger areas of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and built-up index compared to communities with no houses for sale. Neither the availability of houses for sale nor housing price had any effect on facial expression scores. Poisson regression revealed significant coefficients (β) of positive emotions with largeness of green space (GS) and blue space (BS). Overall, BS had a stronger contribution (β, 0.6–1.1) to residents showing positive emotions relative to GS (β, −2.45–0.89), whose area ratio of NDVI increased the frequency of showing happiness. We recommend constructing GBSs with over 0.68 km2 of GS and over 2000 m2 of BS per community, where the area ratio of GS should be more than 70% of the total if the goal is to evoke more happiness in residents.

Earning Housing: Removing Barriers to Housing to Improve the Health and Wellbeing of Chronically Homeless Sex Workers

For many sex workers, accessing and maintaining housing is one of the central reasons for engaging in sex work. Simultaneously, one of the most stringent barriers to accessible and affordable housing is the stigma and discrimination against sex work as a livelihood. This paper explores the relationship between barriers to accessing housing for sex workers and the systems that hold the barriers in place. This paper is based on qualitative research conducted by Ocean State Advocacy’s research team. Using quantitative analysis of 100 surveys and qualitative analysis of 35 interviews conducted with sex workers living in Rhode Island, this paper discusses the ways housing improves the physical health, mental health, and overall wellbeing of sex workers. By including sex workers and centering their human rights in movements around housing equity and access, sex workers’ needs are prioritized while increasing understanding of stigma and systemic disenfranchisement within the field of housing justice.

PATTERNS OF THE FORMATION OF RURAL PUBLIC BUILDING IN MODERN CONDITIONS OF DEVELOPMENT

The article analyzes the peculiarities of the formation of public buildings in rural settlements and directions of its development. The processes of the formation of the village space, dictated by the factors of culture, society, mentality and traditions over several decades, are highlighted. This architecture is distinguished by a special character filled with natural and climatic features, close to the landscape of the area, accordingly, the optimal consideration of natural factors completely solves most of the operational processes. The public building of the village has a content dictated also by functional features, and its presence gives an opportunity to improve the cultural and household, service side of its residents. The development of rural areas depends to a large extent on the level of provision of social standards at the same time as the availability of housing and energy supply. The relevance of the study is substantiated by the identification of the features of public buildings in rural settlements, their nomenclature and layout, the regularity of arrangement by type of building in terms of the nature of the settlement and the requests of its residents. The research methodology consists of real-time studies of the construction of Ukrainian villages, analysis of the formed planning, geopolitical and social infrastructure, analysis of scientific publications in the field of economics, urbanism and social transformations of rural settlements.
 The architecture of the Ukrainian village has its own character and its own aesthetic motives dictated by a number of factors. The history of the village of western Ukraine dates back more than one century, and the layering of experience provides the basis for further development. Public buildings - administrative, cultural and household buildings have an important role in the life of the community, but it is still at the stage of formation. The political and economic situation in the country today dictates new conditions for the full functioning of citizens. Standardization of public buildings in the village is currently imperfect. The insufficient number of studies and the rapid pace of transformation of the urban planning system provide space for further work on the analysis of existing buildings and their renovation.
 The study of the existing infrastructure and the needs of the population highlights clear directions for the improvement of the rural environment by minimizing costs in construction and further operation of buildings. Administrative and cultural and household institutions need space compaction due to the multi-functionality of the environment, taking into account current operational needs. The situation that has developed in Ukraine dictates a number of requirements for the conversion of educational and medical institutions in order to increase the level of safety and service of various population groups, which requires the search for effective solutions also in the design of new buildings.

From informal to formal: understanding gendered energy transitions through filmmaking in Cape Town and Mumbai

Provision of affordable housing and energy access is an urgent challenge in India and South Africa. This study adopts a participatory filmmaking approach to understand women’s agency in low-income domestic housing in Mumbai and Cape Town. Through their films, the women shared insights of how the transitional housing environment has impacted their everyday routines and how they are utilising the access to energy. By employing creative, participatory filmmaking practice within the female community, the research explored an alternative approach to understand energy demand. The cycles of participatory filmmaking were followed by workshops, interviews, and acknowledgement of participation. The films revealed that access to formal housing and electricity grid have led to improvements in the women’s welfare and wellbeing, showing the importance of privacy and the development of personal leisure activities. Yet echoing Murray Li, there is nothing ‘inevitable’ about women’s energy transitions and energy access does not necessarily reduce the women’s time spent on household chores: in Mumbai, women still cook 3–4 times per day, every cooking moment taking 1–2 hours, amounting to women putting in 56 hours of (unpaid) work per week. The study advocates the use of film as a method in energy studies: the films were able to capture the lived experience in these low-income groups, heterogeneity of the material arrangements, the pride and skills in cooking. The films enabled the participants to see their ‘invisible’, unpaid work and to express their aspirations giving us a glimpse of what ‘empowerment’ from the women’s perspective would look like.

Scrutinizing Precarity: in search of emancipatory potential

This paper provides a review and discussion on the emancipatory potential of the notion of 'precarity'. Since the 1980s, the notion of 'precarity' has been used increasingly by scholars and activists to account for variegated grievances. Specifically, it has been used to address issues related to the transformations of labour in the XXIst century: neoliberal reorganization of labour markets, increasing unavailability of stable jobs, increased personal debts, debilitating labour unions or the lack of accessible housing among other issues. However, beyond structural grievances voiced by everyday workers, precarity can also serve as an analytical tool to pin down socially induced suffering at the systemic level of capitalist social relations. Precarity thus provides not only an understanding of social suffering from specific features of working people's employment in different sectors, industries, or with specific job contracts but also helps to grasp a fundamental feature of contemporary capitalism beyond labour markets and which cuts across class distinctions. It is thus a highly relevant task to scrutinize this notion and, as argued in this paper, take the politics of precarity seriously in the search for its emancipatory potential.

Enabling Long-term Predictions and Cost-benefit Analysis Related to Housing Adaptation Needs for a Population Aging in Place: Protocol for a Simulation Study.

BackgroundPolicies that promote aging in place are common in Sweden and many other countries. However, the current housing stock cannot sufficiently accommodate a population aging in place considering how functional capacity and housing needs change as people age. To be suitable for all regardless of their functional ability, housing should be designed or adapted to facilitate the performance of activities of daily living. Long-term planning and plausible projections of development 20 to 30 years into the future are needed.ObjectiveThe overall aim is to develop simulation models that enable long-term predictions and analysis of potential consequences in terms of societal gains and costs for different large-scale measures and interventions in the ordinary housing stock.MethodsThis study is designed as a simulation study and will broadly apply health impact assessment methods in collaboration with five municipalities in Sweden. Individual interviews and research circles were used to identify current and prioritize potential new policies to improve the accessibility of the housing stock. We will run a series of simulations based on an estimated willingness to pay from discussions with the municipalities. Two to three different prioritized policies will be compared simultaneously using Markov cohort analysis to estimate the potential costs and health impact on the population. Using data from a systematic review and existing population-based data sets with individual-level data on home and health variables, we will calculate parameter estimates for the relations between housing accessibility and health outcomes. The potential impact of selected policy interventions will be estimated in several microsimulations representing people living in the community. Sensitivity analyses will be conducted for each simulation.ResultsAs of April 2022, open access data was collected, and a systematic review was underway and expected to be completed by November 2022. Collaboration with five municipalities was established in autumn 2020. In spring 2021, the municipalities developed a list of prioritized policy interventions to be tested and used in the simulation models. Inventories of barrier frequencies in ordinary housing started in spring 2022 and are expected to be completed in autumn 2022. Data gathering and analyses for simulation inputs will be completed during 2022 followed by the simulation modeling analyses to be completed in 2023.ConclusionsImproved accessibility of the ordinary housing stock has the potential to maintain or improve the health of the aging population. This study will generate tools that enable long-term predictions and reliable cost-benefit estimates related to the housing adaptation needs for a population aging in place, thus providing support for the best-informed policy decisions.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/39032

Involuntary resettlement outcomes following the regeneration of informal communities: The case of Baishizhou urbanizing village in Shenzhen, China

AbstractIn recent decades developing nations have witnessed rapid urbanization with a massive inflow of rural migrants into their cities, creating large areas of informal settlements. However, city administrators have begun the regeneration of informal settlements resulting in gentrification and the involuntary resettlement of the informal settlement residents. Although a great deal of research has been conducted on regeneration projects, little is known about the resettlement outcomes of those removed. Therefore, it is essential to explore the spatial effect of urban regeneration and the relocation pathways of the forcibly removed tenants. This study examined the heterogeneity of residential relocation brought about by urban regeneration. With a support vector machine model applied under the proposed classification framework, six relocation patterns were identified in Baishizhou urban regeneration area, in Shenzhen, China. By analysing the variations in changes in housing security, neighbourhood and accessibility, the heterogeneity of relocation pathways revealed the relocation preference of different groups and the vulnerability of the residents. While the urban landscape's aesthetic quality may benefit from regeneration, the quality of life of many of those removed was shown to decrease. The results call for more social inclusion and sustainable urban regeneration, with efficient and targeted policy needing to be designed to protect the housing wellbeing of this vulnerable group.

Housing Need Among Children With Medical Complexity: A Cross-Sectional Descriptive Study of Three Populations.

Children with medical complexity (CMC) are hypothesized to have unique housing and accessibility needs due to their medical fragility and medical technology dependency; however, research on prevalence and types of housing need in CMC is limited. The objective was to describe housing need in families of CMC, and to compare housing need across CMC, children with one chronic condition (Type 1 diabetes; CT1D) and healthy children (HC). This cross-sectional descriptive study assessed housing suitability, adequacy, affordability, stress, stability, and accessibility using survey methodology. Participants were caregivers of CMC, CT1D and HC at a tertiary-care pediatric hospital. The association of housing need outcomes across groups was analyzed using logistic and ordinal logistic regression models, adjusting for income, educational attainment, employment status, community type, immigration status, child age, and number of people in household. Four hundred ninety caregivers participated. Caregivers of CMC reported increased risk of housing-related safety concerns (aOR 3.1 [1.3-7.5]), using a common area as a sleeping area (5.6 [2.0-16.8]), reducing spending (4.6 [2.3-9.5]) or borrowing money to afford rent (2.9 [1.2-6.7]), experiencing housing stress (3.3 [1.8-6.0]), and moving or considering moving to access health/community services (15.0 [6.4-37.6]) compared to HC. CMC were more likely to experience multiple indicators of housing need compared to CT1D and HC even after adjusting for sociodemographic factors, suggesting an association between complexity of child health conditions and housing need. Further research and practise should consider screening for and supporting housing need in CMC.

Economic analysis of the construction industry in the Slovak Republic: the path to sustainability

Housing is one of the basic human needs, and we can evaluate and compare the standard of living in the states according to the quality and availability of housing. The housing issue has been addressed in the Slovak Republic for several years with an unsatisfactory result. The paper aims to provide an overview of economic indicators related to the construction industry in the Slovak Republic while demonstrating the interconnectedness to sustainable development. Construction production, the construction industry's share of GDP, number of employees, and labour productivity are analysed and depicted graphically. A comparison of 2020 with previous years is also provided. To conclude, viable solutions for improving the sustainable Slovak construction industry are presented.

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF SERVICES OF HOUSING AND COMMUNAL SERVICES MANAGEMENT COMPANIES IN UKRAINE BASED ON THE APPLICATION OF COGNITIVE MODELING METHODOLOGY

The problematic situation that has developed in the housing and communal sector in Ukraine is well known. It is largely related to the conflict of goals and interests of interested parties. Thus, the owners of residential premises are concerned about the reduction of the quality of housing and communal services against the growth of tariffs. Resource supplying and contracting (servicing) organizations are dissatisfied with untimely and incomplete payment for the provided resources and services, while the state is worried about the lower availability of housing and utility services for most of the population. In their turn, the management companies (MCs) believe that their interests are infringed on both by the state and local self-government bodies.Dissatisfaction is experienced by managing organizations, which fulfill contractual obligations to resource suppliers, contractors, and owners of apartments, but, nevertheless, are a constant object of criticism. In modern conditions, the state cannot remove itself from the activities to reform the sphere of housing and communal services.Its policy should be focused on the realization of economic interests of all economic entities of the housing and utilities sector through the creation of mutually beneficial economic conditions at all levels of interaction between them, namely in the provision, distribution, exchange, and consumption of all types of housing and utility services to meet the ever-increasing demands of the population.

Does Physical Activity Make Russian Youth Happier?

The article considers the relationship between the indicators of physical activity of youth in Russia and the level of their life satisfaction.The authors draw attention to the importance of understanding how physical culture and sports can contribute to the formation of an indicator of the subjective well-being of youth in Russia (on the example of students). The study is based on data from the Russian Longitudinal MonitoringSurvey – Higher School of Economics (RLMS – HSE). For empirical analysis were used individual panel data for 2009–2019. The analyzed sample includes full-time students of Russian universities, technical colleges and colleges aged 16 to 25 (2918 men and 3417 women).The first part of the article analyzes trends and characteristics of the physical activity of Russian students in recent years before the COVID-19 pandemic, reveals preferences for engaging in specific types of physical activity and sports, analyzes the intensity of these activities and assesses life satisfaction of Russian students depending on their level of physical activity and sports.Based on the patterns identified in the first part of the article, hypotheses are formulated about the presence of a positive correlation between the indicators of physical activity of students (physical culture and sports activities and their intensity) and their subjective assessment of life satisfaction. The results of econometric testing of the hypotheses are presented in the second part of the article. Ordered logit regression on panel data with a random individual effect was used for the analysis. Evaluations were conducted for each gender group separately. When constructing the corresponding models, in addition to physical activity indicators, a wide range of individual factors that could affect the life satisfaction of young residents of our country were also taken into account, namely age, gender, place of residence, availability of own housing, self-assessment of health status, body mass index, smoking habit, marital status, income, loan debts of household.The regression analysis demonstrates that, all else being equal, a positive correlation between the physical activity and its intensity, on one hand, and level of life satisfaction on the other, but exclusively for male students. For women, however, only high-intensity physical activity leads to an increase in their level of life satisfaction.According to results of the study, the authors formulated several recommendations aimed at stimulating the physical activity of young students, and concluded that the implementation of special programs to revitalize the lifestyle of Russian students, taking into account the patterns identified in the work, can contribute both to an increase in the share of physically active youth and the growth of the subjective well-being of this category of the population.

Mass Customization of Housing: A Framework for Harmonizing Individual Needs with Factory Produced Housing

Integrated processes for design and fabrication have guided mass customization of architectural systems and components. Providing affordable and accessible housing, a vital segment of the building industry, is a multifaceted process that witnessed various manifestations towards individualization over the past few decades. Design flexibility in housing systems is becoming a crucial aspect, informed by consumers’ lifestyles, demographic patterns, and lifecycles change at a rapid pace. As the housing market demands more personalized, efficient, and agile strategies, prefabricated building systems have always presented a viable alternative for flexibility and customization, following a rise of interest in the last decade focused on new modes of digitized design and production. This paper presents an overview and appraisal of various practices to implement customization in the housing industry, with specific focus on empowering a systemic approach. We then propose an open framework that could accommodate emergent design technologies and production protocols, with the aim of taking advantage of advanced research efforts, and coupled with current industry application.

Utilizing Healthy People 2030 to Engage Leadership, Key Constituents, and the Public Across Multiple Sectors: Opportunities for Local Health Departments and Community Partners.

Utilizing Healthy People 2030 to Engage Leadership, Key Constituents, and the Public Across Multiple Sectors: Opportunities for Local Health Departments and Community Partners.

The Older Persons' Index of Multiple Deprivation: Measuring the deprivation circumstances of older populations in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Existing indices of multiple deprivation exclude indicators specifically relevant to the population aged ≥65 years. In this study we create a whole-of-population cohort of people aged ≥65 years living in private dwellings and who completed the 2013 New Zealand Census of Populations and Dwellings to create an Older Persons' Index of Multiple Deprivation (OPIMD). We combined 22 indicators representing 6 domains of deprivation (Income, Housing, Health, Assets, Connectedness and Geographic access) to establish this individual-level measure of deprivation. We used smoking data from the census to validate the OPIMD and describe the geography of the OPIMD by District Health Board, contrasting these patterns with a conventional area deprivation index. The OPIMD has the potential to inform policies concerning resource allocation for the older population. An accompanying website with an interactive atlas and an online OPIMD calculator is available for wider use of the data. Further research is required to explore associations between the OPIMD and other major health and social outcomes affecting this population.

Socio-spatial Consequences of Disturbed Areas Act 1991 on Urbanizing Spaces in Gujarat

Segregation on ethnic lines has often manifested in various forms of exclusion and group in equality. The spatial manifestations of violence in globalizing spaces of ‘divided cities’ also exhibit rigid patterns of community based ‘self-sorting’. The communalization of public and private housing with regard to demography has been a significantly pronounced exclusionary crisis in Indian divided cities. This paper, an abridged version of my MPhil thesis, concerns such a unique case. It assesses the impact of Disturbed Areas Act 1991 (‘The Act’) on ghettoisation in Ahmedabad city against the background of mass violence. The paper thus concerns the dynamics of spatial segregation in cities of Gujarat around residential and commercial property disputes. It conducts a socio-legal examination of ten case laws (2002–2021) by responding to the literature on divided cities. It argues that informal zoning practices of community led self-sorting behavior at the ground level, coupled with the Act’s operation (and the demand for its extension as legal protection), disparately impact existing group inequalities pertaining to housing access, afford ability and individual residential mobility in urbanizing spaces.

Predicting Housing Evacuation Process during Natural Disaster Event Using Pathfinder Simulation, Puuwatu Kendari Real Estate Complex as A Case Study

Housing site plan should respond to safety standards for disaster evacuation, especially in Kendari City, Indonesia. It is caused by its geological conditions at high risk of natural disasters such as earthquakes, liquefactions, tsunamis, etc. The study on housing accessibility quality for the evacuation process in Kendari was limited. This study was conducted to identify the evacuation access quality of the housing site plan in Puuwatu Kendari as a case study. The main indicators to measure evacuation access quality are user characters, housing unit layouts, and the width of circulation access including the pedestrian path, road system, and the assembly point. These indicators are analyzed by the Pathfinder application. It is identified that the actual time for the total evacuation process outside of housing units is 44,4 seconds and into the assembly point (the nearest open public space) 103,5seconds. The actual time of evacuation to reach outside of housing units is still in the standard range of 2-3 minutes. On the other hand, the actual time of evacuation to reach open public space is 287 seconds still within the standard 30 minutes. It is caused by the distance of the assembly point in a radius of 60-70 meters. The quality of the assembly point is the main problem for the typical housing site plan in this case study. Respectively, the housing site plan in Kendari and the other similar cities have to be managed to comply with the standard for the disaster evacuation process.

Method for thermal evaluation of automotive gearbox packages taking into account load point-dependent oil distribution

The spread of all-electric drives is steadily increasing in all sectors of road transport. Due to the constantly increasing demands on efficiency and performance by legislation and customers, it is necessary to continuously push the system limits of the powertrains. This paper presents an approach that performs an initial thermal system analysis based on a first gearbox configuration and efficiency calculation. Here, the componentwise loss calculation is used to identify thermal hotspots within the gearbox stage. The basis of this analysis is the thermal network method. For the approach, the gearbox elements gear, bearing, shaft, seal and housing are broken down into standard thermal elements to be created automatically for any subsequent gearbox configuration. The linking of these elements to each other is also standardised and automated comparably. An extensive simulation study is carried out using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method to consider the load point-dependent oil distribution, which enables an initial estimate of the oil distribution. The thermal network filled in this way is then solved on a time-step basis, allowing dynamic load cases to be considered. The quality of the method is validated within the paper using the VW ID 3 gearbox as an example. Due to the use of a series gearbox, the validation was carried out on the basis of the accessible housing temperatures. These already show good convergence of the method compared to other existing approaches, which reinforces the necessity of conducting further experimental studies.

The Effects of Homeownership on Wealth Distribution

Within the broader context of new dimensions of poverty such as housing poverty, energy poverty, etc., this article describes dependencies between household income, real estate ownership and socio-economic trends. We argue that income is not the principal determinant for home ownership rate, but rather recent lifestyle changes can better explain the homeownership decreasing trend in developed economies. Job mobility, family formation determinants and demographical trends seem to find well-supported basis in literature and data. Using data for the US states we have proved that the decreasing rate of home ownership may be explained by social aspects of changing lifestyle such as increasing share of population moving from rural areas to cities, age of marriage, divorce rate, career-oriented lifestyle, rather than by the frequently cited price-income ratio. We have also observed a short-term correlation between financing availability and homeownership rate, but we conclude that property prices would adjust to lose monetary policy without any long-term effect on homeownership rate. It results that government or monetary policies aimed to cushion the housing unavailability (recently increasing value of price-income) ratio may distort the housing market. We propose a new insight in the housing availability discussion.