Housing Disadvantage Research Articles

Changing Ethnic Segregation and Housing Disadvantage in Dundee

Dundee has a small black and minority ethnic (BME) population, which has been neglected by previous research, as have BME populations in small towns and cities generally. As in other British cities, the residential locations of the main BME groups are distinct from that of the white population. After briefly reviewing the history of settlement in Dundee, this paper examines the extent to which patterns of ethnic segregation have changed between 1991 and 2001. Some moves towards dispersal and suburbanisation are identified but there are important contrasts between different BME groups. The implications of segregation for housing availability are assessed through Census of Population data. The hypothesis is posed that the consequences of segregation for housing disadvantage are greater in small cities such as Dundee.

Children in Housing Disadvantage in Australia: Development of a Summary Small Area Index

The importance of suitable, affordable housing in promoting the well-being of children is widely acknowledged. However, despite growing interest in geographic differences in child well-being, little is known about the spatial distribution of characteristics associated with housing disadvantage for Australian children. This paper seeks to develop knowledge in this area by creating a headline indicator of child housing disadvantage. It uses spatially disaggregated Census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census of Population and Housing 2006 capturing overcrowding, public housing tenure and dwelling type, and creates synthetic estimates of housing stress using spatial microsimulation techniques. These variables are then combined into a single index of housing disadvantage. Next, the spatial microsimulation techniques and index creation methodology are described, and the results of the validation process, including sensitivity analysis of alternative index creation approaches, are presented.

De‐concentration of Disadvantage and Mixed Income Housing: a Critical Discourse Approach

Despite differences in the history, form, and tenant populations, housing authorities in the UK, USA and Australia have embarked on similar redevelopment projects designed to address social exclusion by replacing areas of concentrated public housing with “mixed‐income” developments. Drawing on examples from Australia, this paper analyses the discourse which supports these redevelopment projects. Elements of the discursive strategy revealed include: the construction of public tenancy as a disadvantage in itself; the creation of particular research categories and objects (such as “estates”) based on selective use of statistics and scale; the generation of binary narratives concerning community life; and constrained forms of consultation and participation. The analysis demonstrates that while purporting to be an anti‐poverty measure, policy directed at de‐concentration of public housing and “mixed income” development forms part of a neo‐liberal agenda of housing reform and fails to address the demonstrated connections between housing and social disadvantage.

Is Homeownership the Answer? Housing Tenure and Indigenous Australians in Remote (and Settled) Areas

This paper examines the relevance of recently floated policy ideas for extending homeownership to remote Aboriginal Australians. It argues that while the housing tenure system in more densely settled Australia is dominated by homeownership, this is not, and cannot realistically be expected to be, the case in remote areas. The paper uses data from the 2001 Census, organized by remoteness geography, to demonstrate the different character of the housing tenure system in remote Australia. The paper argues that homeownership in remote Aboriginal communities is a somewhat unrealistic policy goal, given the underlying income and employment status of Indigenous people in these communities. The paper also argues that there are better measures of Indigenous housing need and disadvantage in Australia than low homeownership rates. It briefly reports on one past failed experiment in Queensland to introduce homeownership to a remote Aboriginal community.

Mental health and housing: making the links in policy, research and practice

This article documents policy developments at local and national level in England that reflect a growing recognition of the role of housing and the built environment in promoting and maintaining mental health. It first considers the evidence for the housing disadvantage experienced by people with moderate and severe mental health problems and the negative impact of poor housing and neighbourhood circumstances on mental health. It goes on to explore the expansion in housing‐related support and housing‐based solutions in the 1990s, and the revived ambition to integrate housing with community care and community cohesion initiatives. It concludes by describing the work of the NIMHE housing reference group in co‐ordinating policy guidance, promoting positive practice in communication and co‐operation between housing and mental health services, and conducting research to fill gaps in current understanding.

Sources of Migrant Housing Disadvantage in Urban China

The increasing level of labor mobility in China challenges the current population-management structure. In particular, recent reforms in urban housing provision seem largely to overlook the needs of the migrant population. In this paper I examine the sources of migrant housing disadvantage in cities. Specifically, I analyze the institutional and socioeconomic factors underlying migrant housing choice and conditions, and how these factors influence migrants differently from the locals. Data are drawn primarily from citywide housing surveys and interviews conducted in Shanghai and Beijing. The findings show that migrants make housing decisions based on whether they intend to settle in the cities, and market-related factors such as income and education have a significant, positive impact on migrant housing conditions. But more importantly, the general disadvantage experienced by migrants has much of its root in the institutional restrictions associated with the hukou system that outweigh the combined effects of socioeconomic factors.

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.

Sojourners versus New Urbanites: Causes and Consequences of Temporary versus Permanent Cityward Migration in Developing Countries

The causes and consequences of the contrasting patterns of migration are important and remain essentially unexplored. Those who regard themselves as sojourners in the city will seek different kinds of housing demand fewer amenities and services behave differently with respect to making friends and joining organizations use accumulated savings for different purposes and respond to different political issues and candidates than will people committed to the city as their permanent home. Where a large proportion of inmigrants regard their stay as temporary patterns of informal and formal urban social organization the nature and degree of demands on urban government and even the physical development of the city will be affected. This will hold regardless of whether the migrants who expect to return to their home places in fact do so. As long as they plan to return their intentions will shape their behavior in the city. Attention in this comparison of sojourners and new urbanites is directed to the following: variation in the permanence of cityward migration (intercountry differences the long run trend toward permanence); causes of variation in the permanence of cityward migration (economic and social consequences levels and patterns of political participation migration patterns and national political dynamics). Clearly the stability of demand for urban labor partly determines the mix of temporary and permanent migrants. Differences in levels of industrialization and the pace of economic growth must account for much of the contrast in migration patterns between South Asia and Africa on the 1 hand and Latin America Taiwan and Korea on the other. Tensions among ethnic groups are a less noted urban factor which may affect the permanence of migration. Urban conditions in general or as they bear on specific groups are only part of the explanation for varying migration patterns. For example except where strong economic discrimination is involved urban economic conditions fail to explain the behavior of atypical streams--temporary or cyclic migrants in places where permanent migration is the norm or permanent migrants in heavily temporary settings. Rural migrants desire and ability to return home after a shorter or longer stay in the city are strongly affected by their access to the land or to alternative sources of rural livelihood by rural kinship structure the importance of age graded social roles the cultural and religious significance of the land and by customs or events which make outcasts of certain groups of people. Rural conditions probably are the most important explanation for the particular forms of temporary migration in different areas but for the behavior of atypical streams. Commitment to the city strongly influences the flow of private savings into urban housing and associated amenities.

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Research often finds significant associations between housing characteristics and child outcomes. These are hypothesized to reflect direct and indirect effects, however it is unclear whether these associations exist across the early life course or how they operate in tandem. We investigate this using multilevel growth curve modelling of Australian panel data, focusing on children’s socio-emotional health over ages four to 15. We find that housing characteristics, namely residential instability, family composition, housing tenure and costs and the physical condition of the home dwelling have small significant associations with children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors that change over the course of childhood and adolescence. Low-income households typically face housing disadvantage on several, though not necessarily all dimensions, potentially adding to the developmental burden on children. The results therefore suggest that housing disadvantage may compound and add to the effects of broader socioeconomic disadvantage on children.