Experiences Of Tenants Research Articles

Feminist perspectives on housing financialisation: The case of the German social rental housing sector

This paper explores the financialisation of housing in Germany’s social rental housing sector, focusing on the lived experiences of tenants. Drawing on a relational feminist lens, the study examines how macro-level policy shifts, financialised management practices, and tenants’ lived experiences intersect to drive housing precarity. Through the case study of Vonovia, Germany’s largest financialised landlord, the paper illustrates how institutional investors maximise profits by upgrading properties, increasing rents, and displacing vulnerable tenants. The research, based on tenant interviews and document analysis, sheds light on the emotional and material impacts of housing financialisation and the growing disconnect between tenants and their homes. The findings reveal that the financialisation of social rental housing undermines social cohesion, disrupts everyday life, and deepens feelings of alienation and fragmentation

Racism, Power, And Health Equity: The Case Of Tenant Organizing.

Racial disparities in health are among the most disconcerting forms of inequity in the United States. Divergent health outcomes between Americans racialized as White and those racialized as Black, Latinx, and Indigenous do not stem from biological or genetic differences. To the contrary, "race" comes to have concrete consequences through social, economic, and political systems. Yet the political contours of health equity remain especially understudied. This article places the politics of health equity in the foreground through the lens of housing, a critical determinant of health. Drawing on in-depth qualitative evidence rooted in the experiences of tenants who confront health-threatening housing conditions, I examine how people within racially and economically marginalized communities organize to build political power in response to those conditions. By charting how tenants navigate state and local political processes, I demonstrate the possibilities for organized tenants to wield power in ways that help advance health equity in the face of structural racism.

A Local Housing Market in the Great Depression

AbstractHousing figures prominently during economic crises, a notable example being the Great Depression. Because housing is immobile, its market is very localized. In each city, the main agents are closely interconnected. Lenders depend on mortgaged homeowners and landlords to maintain payments; landlords rely on tenants; municipalities need all property owners to pay taxes. The Depression experiences of tenants, homeowners, and federal housing programs are well-appreciated; those of landlords and private lenders much less so. Considering the role of all agents, this case study of Hamilton, Ontario, focuses on owners and private lenders and asks who lost property, to whom, and how. Drawing on land registry and property tax records, city directories, and newspaper accounts, it documents the pattern and trajectory of defaults experienced by homeowners, landlords, and private lenders. Contemporaries and historians have used foreclosures as a measure of distress, but many borrowers defaulted voluntarily. The experience of Hamilton’s homeowners was similar to those in U.S. cities. Local landlords experienced higher rates of defaults than homeowners; private lenders foreclosed less often than lending institutions. Along with municipalities, both learned to be flexible in demanding payments. The high incidence of private mortgages, the stability of lending institutions, and the marginal role of the federal government were distinctively Canadian, but in general Hamilton’s experience is more broadly indicative.

'When the bedbugs come, that's another problem': exploring the lived experiences of bedbug infestations among low-income older adults and service providers who support them.

Older adults in low-income housing communities are more vulnerable to bedbug infestations. Prior research, however, has predominately focused on the effectiveness of integrated pest-management strategies, with little attention given to the lived experiences of tenants struggling with infestations. We used a qualitative approach to explore what it is like to live with and treat bedbug infestations from the perspectives of low-income older adults and service providers. Participants included low-income older adults (n = 58) and service providers (n = 58) who offer supports directly in the buildings. Semi-structured qualitative interviews and focus groups were used to explore the challenges of preparing and treating units for bedbugs, and examine how bedbugs impact access to support services. Bedbugs were a widespread issue, and underlying physical, mental, social, and financial challenges made it difficult for older tenants to prepare their units and access treatment. Tenants also faced bedbug stigma from community services, as many were unwilling to provide services in infested units. Although some service providers utilized strategies to minimize exposure, many were concerned these strategies created additional stigma. Our findings highlight an urgent need to increase public health funding to support older adults with the costs of bedbug elimination and to enhance pest-management strategies through partnerships with health and social service agencies to improve outcomes for older adults.

Experiencing housing precarity in the private rental sector during the covid-19 pandemic: the case of Ireland

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.

The role of private landlords in making a rented house a home

The growth of the private rented sector (PRS) since the 2000s in countries with lightly regulated markets has led to significant questions over its ability to provide a homely environment for tenants. Much of the research in this area argues that legal frameworks, lack of regulation and financial motives of landlords are not conducive to the provision of homes which are secure, affordable, good quality and which offer tenants an opportunity to meet their health and wellbeing needs. This is despite legislative changes that seek to raise standards in the sector and promote greater professionalisation. This paper presents findings from an evidence review of research concerning home within the PRS across OECD countries. Rather than focusing on the experiences of tenants, it considers the impacts of landlord and letting agent behaviours on tenants’ ability to make their rented house a home. We argue that landlords and letting agents can play a positive role in helping their tenants create a home, and that this offers benefits for both landlords and renters.

Is the Right to Housing Being Realized in Canada? Learning from the Experiences of Tenants in Affordable Housing Units in a Large Canadian City

Background: Housing is a critical determinant of health and a basic human right. Historically, Canada’s housing policies have not been grounded in a human rights-based approach. In the 1990s, a policy shift prioritized efficiency in government spending and deficit reductions over the provision of many social programs including affordable housing. With various levels of government now acknowledging and recognizing the need for more affordable housing, it is important to understand tenant experiences, perspectives, and needs to ensure policies and practices are supporting individuals appropriately. Methods: In total, 161 individuals participated in this study by completing online or in-person questionnaires. Results: Exploratory analysis of results revealed that although there were some positive benefits to affordable housing, many tenants continued to struggle financially, physically, mentally, and emotionally without adequate supports in place. Conclusions: These findings highlight the need for affordable housing to be part of a system of care that provides supports along a continuum. The results further reiterate that placing a person or family in affordable housing does not guarantee that their lives have improved. Without robust affordable housing models that prioritize the empowerment of individuals and families, housing policies may fail to fulfil the right to safe and affordable housing for Canadians, especially when considering historically marginalized populations.

Understanding tenants’ responses to energy efficiency renovations in public housing in Sweden: From the resigned to the demanding

This study focuses on the experiences of tenants in renovation projects of public housing rental apartments in Sweden. Tenants’ perspectives are under-researched in the context of energy efficiency renovation projects, which is a considerable oversight given the many ways in which such projects impact their lives. The aim of the paper is to reveal rare qualitative insights into tenants’ experiences of, and attitudes towards, energy efficiency renovations in a public housing context and the extent to which they feel motivated and able to influence the renovation project. Participatory observations at tenant meetings were conducted as well as semi-structured phone interviews. An empirically driven typology is developed indicating that tenants have different interests and attitudes regarding energy efficiency renovations. Six different types are identified: the satisfied; the demanding, the conservative, the resigned, the sceptical and the resistant.

‘A pathway to where?’ Inquiry into understanding and reimagining social housing pathways

This report is the final report in a series for the AHURI Inquiry into understanding and reimagining social housing pathways. Housing pathways are the housing experiences of tenants and their households over time and space. They are not linear and may refer to changes in tenure, household form, experiences and attachment. This Inquiry draws on a range of data to understand: 1) how social housing pathways are conceptualised and constructed by operational housing policies and the wider social policy context in Australia; 2) what survey and administrative data tell us about who is moving into and out of social housing; and, 3) the lived experience of people who have moved into, within and/or out of social housing. These findings are brought together in this report to reimagine social housing pathways for positive housing outcomes for current and future tenants.

Domicide: displacement and dispossessions in Uppsala, Sweden

ABSTRACT This article investigates the lived experiences of tenants staying put in two neighborhoods undergoing urban renewal processes and increased rent levels in Uppsala, Sweden. The article is drawing on a place sensitive analysis to escape a ‘Euclidean prison’ that we contend underpin many displacement studies; studies that reduce the notion of displacement to only signify out-migration. Such studies often miss both the scope of displacement, and the grievances experienced by tenants following changes in place and space under various urban transformation processes. Through phenomenologically inspired interviews with tenants, we contend that place cannot, as it often is in practices of urban development, simply be understood as coordinates on a map, but has to be understood relationally. Adhering to such a place-sensitive understanding of space our study asks what changes to place and to ‘home’ is experienced by tenants staying put in neighborhoods under increasing displacement pressures. What surfaces is a series of displacements that can be categorized as spatial dispossessions; thematized under subcategories ‘contraction of home’ and ‘withering entitlements’, and temporal dispossessions; categorized under ‘life on hold’ and ‘erasure of history’. These displacements are suffered by tenants who despite displacement pressures have remained throughout the renewal process.

This is our home: Initiating participatory action housing research with refugee and immigrant communities in a time of unwelcome

Community Voices for Housing Equality is a participatory action research group made up of community leaders and social workers whose aim is to address inequality and unfairness in housing by centering the voices of tenants. In this article, the core Community Voices for Housing Equality research team narrates and presents findings from phase one of the project, focused on the experiences of tenants with refugee and immigrant background in Salt Lake County, UT. The authors explain how the project emerged and why, describe the process of facilitating critical community dialogues with tenants, share findings from the dialogues, and describe initial actions taken.

Experiences of Tenants’ Relocation in the Carlton Public Housing Estate Redevelopment, Melbourne

ABSTRACTIn Australia, various regeneration projects of public housing estates which have taken place since the 1990s have led to the relocation of tenants as part of the redevelopment process. Not much is known about the impacts of relocation on public housing tenants’ lives in the Australian context. This paper draws on research completed in 2013 to explore the impacts of relocation on public housing tenants in the Carlton Housing Estate, Melbourne. The study found that improvements to the quality of housing and grounds have obscured some of the social and economic ramifications of estate redevelopment.

‘It’s not a place I like, but I can live with it’: ambiguous experiences of living in state-subsidised rental housing in inner-city Johannesburg

Based on extensive qualitative research in inner-city Johannesburg, this article documents the contradictory experiences of tenants living in state-subsidised social and affordable housing. It shows that this form of housing is assisting in improving integration and undoing some of the spatial legacies inherited from apartheid, and thus enhancing some elements of urban citizenship. However, it also demonstrates that tenants have to endure harsh conditions and financial pressures in order to remain in the inner-city, and live in the area not out of choice but because they feel they do not have any better alternatives. Combined with the strict regulations imposed on them by housing companies, these conditions mean that they generally come to feel detached from the area they are living in and resigned to making the best out of far from ideal circumstances. However, whilst hardships feature prominently in their narratives, they are also not passive or lacking agency. Through the new friendships and support networks they forge, they transform the ways in which inner-city buildings and spaces are experienced. The article thus concludes that experiences of urban citizenship and housing in the inner-city, like the post-apartheid period itself, do not cohere into a single narrative, but represent moments of change, optimism and possibility, as well as difficulty, inequality and hardship.

Deconcentration without Integration: Examining the Social Outcomes of Housing Choice Voucher Movement in Los Angeles County

This article reports on the social experiences of tenants moving from low–income neighborhoods in the City of Los Angeles to a racially mixed, lower poverty suburb—the Antelope Valley—using Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers. Voucher tenants experience significant social exclusion and aggressive oversight. Local residents use racial shorthand to label their black neighbors as voucher holders and apply additional scrutiny to their activity. They aggressively report voucher tenants to the housing authority and police, instigating inspections that threaten tenants’ voucher status. Tenants react to these circumstances by withdrawing from their communities in order to avoid scrutiny and protect their status in the program. These findings illustrate that the social difficulties documented in mixed–income developments may also exist in voucher programs, highlight the ways in which neighborhood effects may be extended to include social experiences, and suggest the limits of the voucher program to translate geographic mobility into socioeconomic progress.

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties