Affordable Rental Housing Research Articles

Offsite construction supply chain strategies for matching affordable rental housing demand: A system dynamics approach

Australian housing affordability is influenced by both housing supply and demand factors. These factors include lengthy construction and planning process. The affordability crisis affects the housing rental sector, which accommodates more than 20 % of Australian household. This research developed a system dynamics model to simulate demography-linked affordable rental housing demand and supply in South East Queensland (SEQ). A Prefabricated Offsite Construction (OSC) housing supply strategy is compared with a traditional building approach (BAU) to investigate the effectiveness of OSC techniques to reduce informational asymmetries during development planning stages to deliver better affordable rental housing is linked to housing needs in SEQ. The model focuses on demographic groups housing demand of one, two- and three-bedroom apartment units and examines how reductions in the development process, through OSC methods, influence the efficiency of Government supported affordable rental housing supply schemes. Overall, the study finds that reduced planning and construction timeframes through OSC methods may improve demography-linked rental housing supply by approximately 6.6 % overall compared to BAU in SEQ. For 1,2- and 3-bedroom apartment demand, OSC strategies are expected to improve supply efficiency by 8.7 %, 8.4 % and 9.2 %, respectively. Optimal OSC strategies were assessed and found that flexibility in development sizes have an outsized positive effect. The study has implications for Government supported affordable rental housing strategies, including the build to rent sector.

The new housing precariat: experiences of precarious housing in Malmö, Sweden

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.

Toward suburbs: Examining neighborhood-level changes in naturally occurring affordable housing stock in Florida, USA

Due to a severe shortage of affordable housing in the United States, insufficient funding for housing programs, and the growing importance of preserving market-affordable rental units, it becomes increasingly imperative for housing scholars and policymakers to capture neighborhood-level changes in unsubsidized privately-owned affordable rental housing stock, also widely called naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) stock. In this study, first, we propose a unique way to estimate changes in the number of NOAH units at a neighborhood level by using the Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy and other secondary datasets. Second, applying this approach, we analyze neighborhood-level changes in NOAH stock based on the four largest core-based statistical areas in Florida from 2000 to 2016 with a particular emphasis on identifying the relative growth of NOAH units in suburban neighborhoods. Results derived from multivariate census-tract-level regressions reveal that although a large proportion of NOAH units is still located in urban neighborhoods, newly generated NOAH tends to be disproportionately located in suburban neighborhoods. The proposed approach to estimating changes in NOAH stock can help local municipalities that desire to identify neighborhood-level needs for affordable housing preservation align resources with changes in NOAH stock within a metropolitan area.

Affordable Rental Housing: Making It Part of Europe’s Recovery

Many European economies have faced pressure from rental housing affordability that has widened social and economic divergence. While significant country and regional differences exist, this departmental paper finds that in many advanced European economies a large and rising share of low-income renters, the young, and those living in cities is overburdened. In several locations, middle-income groups also increasingly face rental affordability issues.

Do migrants and locals differ in commuting behavior? A case study of Xiamen, China

Although there is a growing body of literature on the commuting pattern of rural migrants in China, few studies have examined the diversity in commuting behavior among workers with different occupations. The present research used the 2015 Xiamen household travel survey to examine commuting distances and commuting times of distinctive types of workers in the city. The results reveal differences in commuting behaviors among distinctive socioeconomic groups, namely blue-collar, pink-collar, or white-collar local or migrant workers. For local residents, blue-collar workers have the longest commute distance, while pink-collar workers have the shortest commute distance. Migrant workers—for both blue-collar and pink-collar—in general commute over shorter distances than local workers to reach their workplaces. However, planning practices have attempted to demolish their affordable rental housing in urban villages, which will increase their commuting times and costs and exacerbate sociospatial inequality. These findings can be of practical use when offering alternative housing for migrants in urban redevelopment.

Identifying the Spatial Heterogeneity in the Effects of the Social Environment on Housing Rents in Guangzhou, China

Housing rents in cities is an important topic in the study of urban geography and an area that needs to be focused on to develop livable cities. As a critical component of the urban environment, the social environment influences housing rents and should not be neglected. However, little research examines how spatial heterogeneity in the social environment impacts housing rents. To address this gap, this paper performs a case study of Guangzhou, China and constructs a livability-oriented social environment conceptual framework that covers five aspects: educational background, occupation, unemployment, floating population, and rental household. It then develops datasets of the influencing factors such as the social environment as well as the building, convenience, physical environment, and location characteristics for 1,328 communities in Guangzhou. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and mixed geographically weighted regression (mixed GWR) model are then employed for further analyses. The results show that the mixed GWR model is more effective than the OLS and classical GWR models. Four aspects of the social environment—educational background, occupation, floating population, and rental household—have a spatially heterogeneous relationship with housing rents. The impact of the social environment on housing rents is more evident in suburban districts. The current findings help to better understand the spatial limitation of the social environment’s impact on housing rents, which enables policy makers to develop evidence-based, spatially differentiated affordable rental housing programs and provides theoretical support for the development of livable cities.

Surviving Capitalism: Affordability as a Racial “Wage” in Contemporary Housing Markets

AbstractIn a time of growing inequality, analysts and commentators increasingly highlight the unaffordability of everyday living under capitalism as a convenient language for diagnosing today’s problems and devising policy solutions. This article reconsiders the notion of an “affordability crisis” by drawing on Du Bois’ conceptualization of the racial “wage” to theorize the uneven development of markets: a racial stratification process that renders capitalism affordable and livable for some non-elites, often whites, but not others. One of racism’s economic consequences is that it systematically produces affordability crises for market participants on the wrong side of the color line. Drawing on the literature of published studies on white suburbanization combined with historical evidence on the Community Reinvestment movement, this article illustrates the contrasting affordability politics in the homeowner and renter markets, which are divergent both in racial composition and in terms of their affordability to people without wealth. Ultimately, this article explains how and why marginalized groups undertake efforts to politically reconfigure the way markets work from the ground up, albeit through necessarily strained and improvisational means: as in community groups’ appropriation of tax shelters to finance affordable rental housing production, marking a precursor to policies subsequently adopted by mainstream officials and legislators.

Policing Marginality in Public Space

The pandemic spurred by COVID-19 has illuminated in stark detail the threats to safety and health that have long-characterized the lived experiences of unsheltered individuals. The pandemic has brought to the forefront deeply rooted structural problems, which contributed to the social conditions now currently rendering houseless people particularly vulnerable to the brutal disease and premature death. Skyrocketing housing prices coupled with city-wide housing shortages have converged in recent years to create a nation-wide affordable housing crisis. According to a 2018 report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, to meet existing housing demand, about 7.2 million more affordable rental housing units would have to be built across the United States. Although the severity of the problem varies across jurisdictions, the same report indicates that “[n]o state, including the District of Columbia, has an adequate supply of rental housing for extremely low income households.” In Los Angeles, perhaps the “epicenter” of the affordable housing crisis,6 the number of unsheltered people has increased 12% in Los Angeles County and 16% in the city of Los Angeles—a 52% increase for the city since 2011.7 Approximately 75% of homeless people in Los Angeles are unsheltered and live outside.The housing crisis seems to have also prompted local jurisdictions to ramp up quality-of-life policing efforts in public spaces. In this Essay, I suggest that the housing crisis in particular provides a case study from which to scrutinize some of the historical and ongoing harms that flow from managing access to public space using criminal laws—and why constitutional prohibitions against status crimes, one tool in the arsenal of challenges against quality-of-life policing, fail to protect against overcriminalization. The first part of the Essay provides a brief discussion of some of the past and present uses of criminal law enforcement to regulate the boundaries of, and behaviors within, public spaces with a focus on how those laws served to reinforce racial, gender, class and other status hierarchies. In particular, I discuss how the use of criminal laws to regulate access to, and behaviors in, public spaces reinforces both existing status hierarchies and contributes to ongoing criminalization of historically and currently marginalized groups. In the second half of the Essay, I discuss the recent Ninth Circuit case, Boise v. Martin, as an entry point into a discussion on the constitutional limits of criminalizing acts that occur in public because, in the words of Justice White in his concurrence in Powell v. Texas, the person accused has “no place else to go.” I suggest that constitutional protections against the criminalization of status do little to limit or constrain an oft-ignored but harmful purpose of criminal law as applied to the policing of public space: the public ordering function. The public ordering function of criminal law highlights its role in targeting not only houseless individuals, but an array of marginalized groups deemed “out of place,” disruptive, disorderly, or dangerous. Centering in on this function of criminal law permits a more practical view of the limits of existing constitutional protections and provides a framework to better account for the full scope of the harms stemming from ongoing quality-of-life policing efforts targeted at houseless individuals and other marginalized groups.

Urban productivity and affordable rental housing supply in Australian cities and regions

This research examines the relationships between urban productivity and affordable rental housing, focusing particularly on the location and availability of affordable rental housing relative to employment and labour markets in capital cities and satellite cities. Lower income (Q2) workers who play critical roles in urban economies are more likely to experience housing stress (exceeding 30% of their income on housing costs) in these markets.

Examining green affordable housing policy outcomes in Australia: A systems approach

The Australian affordable rental housing sector has historically faced barriers to green building (GB) adoption due to issues of split-incentives, despite financial support from the commonwealth. This paper explores how a recent shift towards bond-based funding mechanisms offer an opportunity to integrate green building practices, and influence regional social, environmental and economic outcomes. A novel system dynamics model is developed to forecast a business as usual (BAU) and green-building scenario framed around the recently introduced Australian Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator (AHBA) policy framework. The purpose of the model is to examine how a mandate on green building standards together with the use of green versus conventional bonds impact social, environmental and economic outcomes of the framework over a 20-year horizon, within the South East Queensland metropolitan area of Australia. The study determined that the green building framework would deliver 2.37% less housing overall due to higher initial capital costs. However, offers substantial long-term energy and water efficiency benefits, improved affordability for tenants due to reduced utility costs, deferred water and energy infrastructure benefits, and considerable contributions towards Australia’s carbon emission reduction targets. Tenants are expected to benefit from a 45–59% reduction in energy and a 27% decrease in water bills. Moreover, a shift to affordable green building policy could contribute to 2.9% of Australia’s Conference of Parties (2030) carbon emissions reduction target if applied nationally. The study concludes with a sensitivity analysis to reveal policy refinement recommendations that would yield the benefits of green affordable housing without sacrificing the small reduction in housing stock delivered by the proposed program.

ЕКОНОМІЧНА СУТНІСТЬ ЖИТЛОВОГО БУДІВНИЦТВА ТА РИНКУ ЖИТЛА

Based on the results, the study confirmed the importance of providing housing for the population as a multifunctional element of the management system, which has a multiplier effect on access to other components, such as education, employment, leisure, etc. It should be noted separately that the need for housing affects the development of construction, including the production of building materials and building structures, as well as interacts with the banking sector and the financial sector of the country. In the context of the analysis of legal and regulatory support, the priority of the development of housing construction and the provision of quality housing to the population was confirmed. Regulations in the direction of public administration are thorough and aimed at achieving qualitative results of implementation, but significant impact of economic factors outlines the need to the expand existing mechanisms of state support. The analysis of programs to support the provision of housing to all segments of the population operating within the framework of the implementation of the state housing policy showed the activity of government representatives to search for directions and ways to realize the rights of citizens of Ukraine to housing, but on the other hand, it is now more declarative in nature, because there is no stability in increasing the amount of funding and there are constant transformations regarding the conditions of participation. The importance of developing a mechanism for the construction of housing of economic class at the expense of various budgets (state, local and other sources) to provide preferential categories of the population has been proved. The importance of the development of the rental market, which today is represented exclusively by private owners and in most cases is in the shadow economy, has been confirmed. In addition, it is determined that this direction is very important for the sphere of economic relations, because with affordable rental housing, labor mobility increases and accordingly forms the ground for reducing unemployment. It is determined that the growth of construction and support for the development of the construction industry will also have positive effects on the development of the financial and banking sectors, achieving stabilization of the cost of housing in the real estate market.

Affordable Rental Housing and Older Adults: A Case Study for Community Development Initiatives

Older adults living in rental housing with limited income are at-risk for experiencing life-course disruptions, including social isolation, loneliness and homelessness. To address these needs, one Vancouver-based affordable housing provider for older adults has implemented community development initiatives (CDIs), including resident-led community gardens, workshops, and social events. Based on data from three focus groups, resulting in a total of fifteen participants, this study explored the efficacy of five different CDIs in supporting residents’ social connection and sense of community. Findings revealed that CDIs contribute to increased social engagement and inclusion of older adults living in affordable rental housing. In particular, resident-led community gardens were identified as the most impactful CDI in supporting both social engagement and inclusion, with the added benefit of addressing resident’s food insecurity. We discuss how CDIs can be implemented in various housing settings for low-income older adults as an effective method of supporting aging-in-the-right place. Part of a symposium sponsored by the Environmental Gerontology Interest Group.

Can Build-To-Rent Generate Affordable Housing Outcomes? A Whole-Life Costing Approach to Investment Analysis

Doubts remain among stakeholders in academia and the housing industry about the potential success of build-to-rent to generate positive outcomes for institutional investors and affordable dwellings for low- and moderate-income households. However, a systematic study on the viability of build-to-rent to deliver affordable housing in Australia is largely rare and non-existent in the literature. We fill this gap in the literature by investigating the financial viability of build-to-rent and its potential to generate affordable rental housing outcomes in Brisbane, Australia. Using rental prices from CoreLogic (Formerly RP data) and construction-related costing data from WT Partners Australia for 2019, we apply the whole-life costing approach to investment analysis and confirm that build-to-rent can be feasible in Australia under equity financing. Also, we find that under the current regulatory regimes and market structure, build-to-rent will fail to deliver affordable housing outcomes. Moreover, providing free land alone cannot help to make build-to-rent affordable. Thus, significant public subsidy and tax concessions, particularly on Goods and Services Tax (GST) on construction-related costs, may be required if build-to-rent developments are to generate affordable housing outcomes in Australia.

Regulatory gentrification: Documents, displacement and the loss of low-income housing

Within the vast literature on gentrification, law is not often discussed. Where it is mentioned, law tends to be discussed as a contributor to wider processes of displacement and dispossession. This article takes a different approach, examining law itself as a site of gentrification. My focus is the regulatory framework for the development of boarding houses in Sydney, Australia, contained within the State Environmental Planning Policy (Affordable Rental Housing) 2009 (ARH SEPP). In the midst of a growing housing crisis, the ARH SEPP introduced provisions to stem the loss of older boarding houses and to incentivise new construction. While intended for low-income accommodation, these provisions have increasingly been used for other purposes. The ARH SEPP has enabled new forms of housing for a far more affluent population, sometimes directly displacing low-income residents. Like other laws noted in other studies, the ARH SEPP can be understood as a contributor to the gentrification of various parts of Sydney. Yet there is more at play. Like so many physical spaces in which gentrification takes place, the ARH SEPP has itself changed in character, becoming a space for more privileged users.

Self-builder landlordism: exploring the supply and production of private rental housing in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza

Private rental markets accommodate a significant share of Africa’s rapidly growing urban populations. The vast majority of tenants are accommodated in rental housing supplied by private landlords. Few studies offer insights on the dynamics and logics shaping the supply and production of private rental housing in the context of African cities. This paper contributes to fill this remarkable knowledge gap with a study of the supply and production of private rental housing by self-builder households in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, two of the largest and fastest growing cities in Tanzania. This paper examines the motivations and aspirations of self-builder landlords, the type and quality of rental housing they supply and the logics shaping their investments in housing quality and tenants’ access to services. The paper argues that housing policies should acknowledge the significance of private rental housing in accommodating growing urban populations and the contribution of small landlords, such as the self-builders in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, in the supply and production of private rental housing. Furthermore, any policies seeking to increase the availability and quality of affordable rental housing should be informed by in-depth understanding of the perspectives of such landlords. While concerns regarding lack of protection of tenants’ rights and sub-standard accommodation are often justified, great care is needed, as policies promoting tenants’ rights or enforcing minimum standards could undermine the supply of new rental housing or make rents wholly unaffordable for the poorest tenants.

Improvised rental housing to make cities COVID safe in India

•COVID-19 necessitates relook at existing living conditions in the developing countries, with Indian cities as case study•With 3935 persons per hectare, Dharavi is one of the most crowded slums in the world, with 80% households on rent•Living conditions-socio-economics, neighbourhood circumstances and household crowding significantly abet the pandemic•As COVID recovery, Indian government on July 8, initiated affordable rental housing complexes for urban poor and migrants.•We recommend land monetization, real estate trusts, progressive designs, digital lease management, and tax on second house.

Strategic planning, ‘city deals’ and affordable housing

This research examines international and Australian practice in using place-based planning and funding interventions (i.e. they are targeted at specific areas or regions such as at a particular city or geographical area), such as ‘city deals’, to deliver affordable rental housing near employment centres and to enhance urban productivity.

Hidden homes? Uncovering Sydney’s informal housing market

Australia faces a chronic shortage of affordable rental housing, as do many other nations in the Global North. Unable to access the formal rental sector, lower-income earners are increasingly resorting to share housing and other informal arrangements, sometimes occupying makeshift accommodation or illegal dwellings. This article examines informality in Sydney’s housing market, an important case because of the explicit policy efforts geared towards supporting diverse and higher density housing supply. It draws on analysis of the regulatory planning framework and primary data derived from interviews and focus groups with housing advocates, support workers and building compliance officers from across the metropolitan region. It seeks to understand the drivers of supply and demand within the informal housing market and constructs a typology of informal tenures and dwelling provision. The article contributes new empirical data on the outcomes of planning policies designed to enable flexible housing responses which legitimise some informal practices, and the wider dimensions of informal housing provision within formal urban systems of the Global North.

Realizing housing justice through comprehensive housing policy reform

ABSTRACT A globally connected, locally centred housing justice movement calls for comprehensive reforms of policies that influence the distribution and affordability of housing. To date, this movement has yet to influence U.S. federal housing policy, which has historically prioritized tax expenditures supporting homeownership over affordable rental housing subsidies for low-income households. This paper takes these appeals to housing justice seriously and asks, ‘What would a conception of housing justice offer to housing policy makers seeking to enact comprehensive housing policy reforms designed to shift the balance of federal housing policy priorities away from homeownership towards the satisfaction of low-income households’ basic housing needs?’ I propose a conception of housing justice grounded in the ideal of civic equality, apply civic equality toward the evaluation of current U.S. federal housing policy, and propose a comprehensive national housing policy reform that is consistent with civic equality. The proposed ‘negative housing tax’ extends the idea of a negative income tax to a tax on housing consumption and capital gains from home sales. The revenues generated from the tax provide funds to support a guaranteed monthly housing allowance that would be distributed to those facing the most severe housing needs.

Access to Affordable Houses for the Low-Income Urban Dwellers in Kigali: Analysis Based on Sale Prices

The government of Rwanda recently passed housing development regulations and funding schemes which aim at promoting access to affordable houses for the low- and middle-income Kigali city inhabitants. The existing studies on housing affordability in this city did not yet discuss whether this government-supported programme is likely to promote access to housing for these target beneficiaries. This study applies the price-to-income ratio (PIR) approach and the 30-percent of household income standard through the bank loan to assess whether housing units developed in the framework of affordable housing schemes are, for the target recipients, affordable at all. It relies mainly on housing prices schemes held by real estate developers, data on households’ incomes collected through the household survey and a review of the existing studies and socio-economic censuses reports. Findings reveal that the developed housing units are seriously and severely unaffordable for most of the target beneficiaries, especially the lowest-income urban dwellers, due to the high costs of housing development, combined with the high profits expected by real estate developers. The study suggests policy and practical options for promoting inclusive urban (re)development and housing affordability for various categories of Kigali city inhabitants. These options include upgrading the existing informal settlements, combined with their conversion into shared apartments through the collaboration between property owners and real estate developers, the development of affordable rental housing for the low-income tenants, tax exemption on construction materials, progressive housing ownership through a rent-to-own approach, and incremental self-help housing development using the low-cost local materials.