Housing Careers Research Articles

Restricted Access: The Role of Social Capital in Mitigating Absolute Homelessness among Immigrants and Refugees in the GVRD

The housing patterns of newcomers mark a primary indicator for their successful integration. However, different groups of people have varied access to the stock of housing in Canada. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role that social capital plays in housing trajectories of immigrants with particular attention to the experiences of refugee claimants. In this paper we draw upon the results of a 2004–2005 study on the profile of absolute and relative homelessness among immigrants, refugees, and refugee claimants in the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD). We highlight the importance of social networks in the housing careers of newcomers, and argue that access to social networks varies according to the mode of entry for immigrants (e.g., skilled immigrants vs. refugees). We find that refugee claimants are particularly vulnerable, given their combination of uncertain legal status, lack of official language ability, and unfamiliarity with Canadian society. They are the most likely of all newcomers to “fall between the cracks” of the housing system. We discuss the benefits of social capital for immigrants and refugees, especially the key role that social capital plays in the integration process.

Life Course and Housing Tenure Change in Urban China: A Study of Guangzhou

In the West, homeownership has been seen as the ultimate housing career. It is interesting that in ‘socialist’ China, a major objective of the urban housing reform, which began in 1979, is to privatize the housing stock and promote homeownership. The past few years in particular have witnessed rapid increases in the homeownership rate. The present study seeks to conduct a longitudinal analysis of China's road to homeownership, making use of retrospective life history data collected in 2001 in the city of Guangzhou. The event of interest is the transition from renting to owning. Analysis using Cox's proportional hazards models shows that age is associated with increasing homeownership, as is higher education attainment. Change in marital status is a more important factor causing the housing tenure switch than is marital status per se. The subtle relations among households, work units and the state still affect households’ housing access and tenure choice behaviour. People working in non-state work units tend to be associated with lower tenure change risks. On the other hand, membership of the Chinese Communist Party enhances the tenure switch.

Review: Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles, Manufacturing Culture: The Institutional Geography of Industrial Practice, Unequal City: London in the Global Arena, Egalitarian Capitalism: Jobs, Incomes and Growth in Affluent Countries, Life Events and the Housing Career: A Retrospective Analysis of Timed Effects, the Green City: Sustainable Homes, Sustainable Suburbs, Dropping

Review: Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles, Manufacturing Culture: The Institutional Geography of Industrial Practice, Unequal City: London in the Global Arena, Egalitarian Capitalism: Jobs, Incomes and Growth in Affluent Countries, Life Events and the Housing Career: A Retrospective Analysis of Timed Effects, the Green City: Sustainable Homes, Sustainable Suburbs, Dropping

A Review of: “Life events and the housing career: a retrospective analysis of time effects”

Recension av Peteke Feijten: Life events and the housing career: A retrospective analysis of time effects

Growing Up in Poor Neighbourhoods

Drawing upon qualitative, longitudinal research with ‘socially excluded’ young adults from some of England’s poorest neighbourhoods, the article explores how locally-embedded, social networks become part of the process whereby poverty and class inequalities are reproduced. Networks of family and friends, rooted in severely de-industrialized locales, supported young people as they carved out transitions to adulthood in adverse circumstances. Examples are given in respect of informants’ highly localized housing careers and their longer-term experience of ‘poor work’. Paradoxically, though, while local networks helped in coping with the problems of growing up in poor neighbourhoods and generated a sense of inclusion, the sort of social capital embedded in them served simultaneously to close down opportunities and to limit the possibilities of escaping the conditions of social exclusion. Overall, and contrary to some recent youth sociology, the article stresses the continuing importance of class and place in shaping youth transitions.

The Decline of the Immigrant Home-ownership Advantage: Life-cycle, Declining Fortunes and Changing Housing Careers in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, 1981-2001

In the past, working-age immigrant families in Canada's large urban centres had higher home-ownership rates than the Canadian-born. Over the past 20 years, however, this advantage has reversed, due jointly to a drop in immigrant rates and a rise in the popularity of home-ownership among the Canadian-born. This paper assesses the efficacy of a fairly standard microeconomic consumer choice model, which includes indicators for age, income, education, family type and immigrant characteristics, plus several interactions with time, to explain these changes. It is found that the standard model almost completely explains the immigrant homeownership advantage in 1981, as well as the rise in home-ownership rates over time among the Canadian-born. Even after accounting for the well-known decline in immigrant economic fortunes, however, it is shown that only about half of the 1981-2001 immigrant change in homeownership rates is explained by the standard model.

Housing Careers for Social Tenants in France: A Case Study

In France, social housing provides a significant proportion of housing services. The present contribution seeks to identify housing careers for social tenants, using event history analysis on a sample of over 40,000 households located in the Lille metropolitan area (in northern France). The data was provided by a local social housing company, and contains extensive geographical information. The analysis was conducted for the metropolitan area and for its three main cities (Lille, Roubaix and Tourcoing). This made it possible to measure the effect of geographical location at both the agglomeration and neighbourhood levels. Our main results are threefold. First, access to better housing depends more on individual characteristics than on residential location; thus, it appears that comparatively favoured households may use social housing to increase their “upward mobility.” Secondly, forced mobility (eviction) depends on household histories and characteristics, but is spatially heavily concentrated. Finally, urban renewal, by increasing the quality of the built environment, tends - at least in some neighbourhoods - to make social housing more desirable (by giving households a stronger incentive to stay). It may thus improve the quality of life of people who are less likely to become homeowners or to access larger/more comfortable houses.

A risky business: experiences of leaving home among young rural women

To access education and training or look for work many rural youth, as young as 15 or 16 years, are encouraged to leave home and move to urban centres where there are greater opportunities. The aim of this paper is to highlight the particular impact rurality and changing social policies have on young rural women in the process of leaving home. Drawing on qualitative data generated in a three‐and‐a‐half year longitudinal study of 26 young women growing up in small rural communities in northern Tasmania, this paper examines the housing careers of these young women to identify the benefits and risks associated with various independent living arrangements. This discussion helps to put some biographical flesh on the bare bones of demographic patterns of leaving home. It also highlights some of the complex interconnections between decisions made in one arena of life, such as leaving home, and consequences in other areas, such as looking for work or continuing with education and training.

Moving patterns in the Greater Oslo region ? some evidence from a cross-section

Moving is by far the most common way to adjust housing consumption. Quantitative knowledge on the moving pattern can therefore teach us much about the typical development of housing demand, or in other words about the steps in housing careers. The paper argues that knowledge of local moving patterns can enhance our understanding of the supply of vacant housing market opportunities. As such the paper relates to the literature on Markov vacancy chain models.The paper uses a cross-section of households as a basis for empirical descriptions of moving matrixes. This type of data yields a censored sample of moves. Censoring is not random and direct estimates of the moving patterns give biased estimates. The reason is that the household sample only reports the last in a sequence of moves. The bias emerges because moves to some destinations (rented units) are more likely to be followed by a new move than moves to other destinations (typically moves into large owner-occupied units). A weighting procedure that gives unbiased estimates of the moving pattern is proposed and applied in the paper.

The first years as independent actors in the housing market: Young households in a Swedish municipality

This study deals with young households at the beginning of their housing career. During the 1990s, a tendency of the young to leave the parental home at a later age than during previous decades was discussed. With extended education, rising housing costs and a shortage of rental housing, difficulties in finding an affordable place to live could be expected to have increased. Parental resources are of increasing importance in times of recession. The aim of this study was to follow the first steps in the housing careers of young individuals in a Swedish municipality and to investigate the time of nest-leaving and the choice of tenure for their first and second moves. Individuals aged 16–25 years in the municipality of Gavle, Sweden, were included in the study. Longitudinal data for the years 1985–1995 were used. To capture changes over time, the nest-leaving situations of two cohorts were compared. Results indicate that the individuals in the 1973 cohort leave home at a higher age than do those in the 1968 cohort. A surprisingly large share move into tenant co-operatives. Such moves, as well as moves into owner occupation, occurred mainly within Gavleborg County. Individuals moving to other municipalities outside the county moved to a larger extent into rental housing.

Housing affordability and Toronto's rental market: perspectives from the housing careers of Jamaican, Polish and Somali Newcomers

A key housing issue in Toronto is affordability, especially in the rental market. Since the mid-1990s rents in the private sector have increased at almost twice the rate of inflation with the result that it is extremely difficult for new immigrant households with limited resources to acquire adequate housing. In this paper the rental experiences of three recently arrived immigrant groups – Jamaicans, Poles and Somalis – are evaluated using a housing career strategy. The paper focuses on changes through the housing career and between the three groups for a variety of characteristics related to affordability. The results show that the Poles experienced the least affordability problems and the Somalis had the greatest difficulty affording adequate accommodation. Reasons are suggested for these differences and conclusions reached about the importance of adequate and affordable rental housing in the immigrant integration process.

Special issue editors' introduction: dynamics and diversity: housing careers and segregation of minority ethnic groups

Research into European minority ethnic groups has produced a large body of knowledge on the segregation and concentration patterns of these groups and their housing conditions. Most of these studies have shown that housing conditions and housing market options in many European countries differ for native-born households and minority ethnic groups. Also that minority ethnic groups generally live concentrated in a few urban areas, in most cases in those areas that do not have the best quality of housing and environment. In only a few studies is the internal heterogeneity of minority ethnic groups stressed, and only occasionally have the dynamic aspects of concentration patterns and housing conditions been researched. In introducing this special issue on diverse and dynamic aspects of housing and segregation, we focus firstly on what we have learned from previous studies of segregation in the European context and on the questions that have yet to be answered. We then discuss the information provided by studies on the housing conditions and housing careers of minority ethnic groups, again in the European context. Here we also try to identify some major open questions. In the third part, we focus on an explanation of patterns and possible dynamics in this area.

The Housing Consequences of Living Arrangement Choices in Young Adulthood

This paper documents the consequences of the first living arrangements of young adults after leaving the parental home (without a partner, cohabiting, or married) for their housing situation, whether they rent independently, share accommodation, or own their own homes, both immediately after leaving home and in the first eight years after leaving. Data are analysed from two retrospective life-course surveys conducted in the Netherlands in the 1990s, using multinomial logistic regression models. The paper finds a strong influence of the timing and pathway of leaving on the housing situation immediately after leaving: those nest-leavers who make stronger commitments in their household careers (by cohabiting, or by marrying) are more likely to own a home and less likely to share. Although through the years after leaving home this influence decreases, it remains discernible and significant even eight years after leaving. This is remarkable, given the fluidity of the housing careers of nest-leavers.

Displaced but still Moving Upwards in the Housing Career? Implications of Forced Residential Relocation in the Netherlands

The housing stock is being restructured in many Dutch post-war neighbourhoods. Through demolition and upgrading of social rented housing and the construction of new owner occupied dwellings, the housing stock and the living environment are being improved. This policy has triggered major residential moves in and beyond some neighbourhoods, partly involuntary. Residents whose dwelling is being demolished or heavily upgraded, are usually forced to move elsewhere. Knowledge of the social implications of forced relocation in the Netherlands is limited, especially on experiences and opinions of relocated households. This paper covers research in two recently restructured neighbourhoods. Movers were recruited to share their experiences and opinions in focus groups and interviews. Surprisingly, many movers were able to improve their housing situation, mostly due to their priority rights in the housing market. However, movers who were less able to take advantage of these rights reported a certain degree of degradation. Moreover, it appears that relocation processes must still be improved in order to reduce stress and refine communication with residents.

A life-time of inequality: a structural analysis of housing careers and issues facing older private tenants

While the majority of households in England have become homeowners at the turn of the 21st century, some older people still struggle on low incomes in the less privileged sector of private renting. This article first explores the intertwining of the history of housing policy and provision with the lifecourse histories of individuals, seeking to describe the reasons why some older people are in the private rented sector. It then presents research findings that revealed how some older private tenants experienced different types and degrees of harassment and abuse by their landlords, from verbal and financial abuse to disrepair of property and illegal evictions. Both strands are brought together in looking beyond individual responsibility or culpability to the structural and lifecourse causes of the problems. People's housing choices and destinations are often shaped by a combination of their lifecourse circumstances and external (both economic and institutional) barriers. Where abuse is concerned, a two-tier tenancy system has made ‘regulated tenants’ vulnerable to their landlords; the legal remedies are endemically inappropriate; the housing benefit system is a major source of tension between landlords and tenants; and the modernised private rented sector has allowed no place for those who want secure long-term homes. In summary, this article examines how the law, housing policy and the housing market combine to produce particular problems for older private tenants.

Housing Careers in the United States, 1968-93: Modelling the Sequencing of Housing States

The research in this paper focuses on the housing career during a household's life-course. The housing career is the sequence of housing states defined in terms of tenure and the quality/price of the dwellings that households occupy while they make parallel careers in family status and the job market. The research brings out, more than the literature on separate residential moves, that many households are in a stable housing state over long stretches of their life-course. Housing careers are notable for having a relatively simple structure and, in general, an upward trend in quality, price and tenure of the sequence of dwellings occupied. As expected, there is a close relationship between the type of housing career and a household's income and income growth. Regional variation in tenure composition and the price of the stock have a strong influence on the development of the housing careers in different regions.

Accommodating Students

This paper focuses on one aspect of student life, namely housing circumstances. It explores the housing careers and strategies developed by students over the course of their university career, in relation to levels and sources of financial support and aspects of the transition towards independence. It argues that students develop important new skills or adult competencies as they negotiate their way through the housing market, so improving the quality of their accommodation. However, the quality and condition of some student housing was an issue of concern; this was most acutely observed for vulnerable students including those making the first move from the parental home into the private rented sector, and those on limited budgets. There is found to be differential exposure to risk within the student housing market, which is structured by parental affluence and support as well as by the particular labour and housing market contexts of the university locality.

The Resource of Ethnicity in the Housing Careers and Preferences of the Vietnamese Communities in London

This paper briefly outlines the housing careers of Vietnamese households since their arrival in the UK in the late 1970s and draws on a series of focus groups to examine the role that ethnicity has played, and may continue to play, in their housing careers. It notes that the first arrivals lacked the infrastructure of an existing Vietnamese community in the UK and were further disadvantaged by the dispersal policy adopted by the voluntary agencies responsible for their resettlement. The research indicates that ethnicity has been a crucial influence on the housing careers of Vietnamese households, and in particular on the location of the communities. It is argued that it is essential that researchers pay attention to the role of ethnicity as a resource and a constraint within a housing career.

Differentiation in Housing Careers: The Case of Pakistanis in the UK

The paper focuses on intra-ethnic differentiation, rather than inter-ethnic differentiation, which has been a characteristic concern of research on minority ethnic housing. Pakistani housing disadvantage in the UK is complex, in that housing disadvantage is part of a wider pattern. Responding to the tendency in housing research to consider housing issues in a wider context, this paper argues that ethnicity, gender, locality and class have been shown by international researchers to be key factors of intra-ethnic differentiation. The operation of these factors is explored qualitatively using empirical data on housing careers of UK Pakistanis. The discussion demonstrates that these housing careers are markedly differentiated by ethnicity, gender, locality and class, which affect peoples' housing decisions and strategies in various ways. The paper concludes that more effective explanations of persistent housing disadvantage, which can inform more effective policy, are produced by a holistic perspective on housing careers, which explores intra-ethnic differentiation.

Housing Careers: Immigrants in Local Swedish Housing Markets

Immigration to Sweden has changed character between the 1960s and today. Early immigration occurred as a response to labour market need whereas immigrants arriving during the last decade have had difficulties entering the labour market. The aim of this study is to analyse the housing careers of different immigrant groups within different local housing markets. The housing careers of immigrant groups are then compared and related to the housing career of the total population. Earlier studies have shown that the year of immigration is of importance for the type of housing career made as well as the cultural distance between the immigrant group and the Swedish population. The immigrants included in this study have arrived from Finland, ex-Yugoslavia, Chile, Africa, Iran and Turkey, representing the three different phases of immigration to Sweden. The analyses here show that both the structure of the local housing market and time spent in Sweden are important to the housing careers of immigrants.