As the demand for walkable neighborhoods accessible to amenities has increased for higher-income households, affordable housing—both subsidized and unsubsidized—has been lost from the affordable stock. Previously, while housing and neighborhood conditions varied, the availability of affordable housing in cities was thought to be secure. In other words, losing affordable housing from the stock in cities was not a great concern, both because vacancy rates were high and because, increasingly, the focus was not just on affordable housing, but housing in neighborhoods of opportunity with improved access to schools, jobs and safety. As a result, states and localities need creative solutions to preserving affordability. To provide access to a fast-paced market, many localities have begun to look at rights of first refusal as options. This paper examines one such law, Washington, DC’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) to understand its impact on the preservation of affordable housing. Using a multinomial logit regression model, we find that TOPA was highly effective at preserving affordable housing, particularly in areas where rents were rising. At the same, the particular preservation outcome shifted according to local funding and policy priorities.

Gentrification, the process of rising property values and socioeconomic upgrading in low-income neighborhoods, has long been associated with the displacement of communities of color. Yet questions remain about whether certain institutional features, such as public housing, can stabilize neighborhood racial composition amid gentrification. To address this issue, this study examines census and American Community Survey data with the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Picture of Subsidized Households dataset from 2000–2020. We evaluate whether the presence of Black and Hispanic residents in public housing predicts the persistence of predominantly mixed-race neighborhoods during White-led gentrification. Results show that Black public housing shares only significantly increase the odds of predominantly Black neighborhood stability, while Hispanic shares are increasingly predictive of some mixed Hispanic neighborhood stability. These findings suggest that public housing can function as a conditional institutional anchor, moderating racial change even as broader market forces continue to reshape urban neighborhoods.

As housing costs in urban areas have risen sharply over the past decade, many residents face a difficult choice: remain in increasingly expensive central urban neighborhoods, or move to places on the suburban and exurban fringes that offer more affordable housing options but that are also more auto-dependent and located further from jobs and amenities. In addition to the direct costs associated with these tradeoffs between housing costs and transportation costs, decisions concerning where to move may also impact individuals via their reliance on consumer debt. This article examines the consequences of intra-regional moves for the consumption of mortgage and auto loan debt, focusing on the impact of neighborhood housing costs and spatial accessibility within large urban regions in California. Applying a two-stage neighborhood selection modeling framework to consumer credit panel data reveals the significance of suburban and exurban neighborhoods with low housing costs, which provide a crucial source of affordable homeownership for groups with limited access, but which also increase reliance on auto loans. These findings reveal an important consequence of the growing divides between urban and suburban housing markets, highlighting the possibilities—and risks—of using debt as a mechanism for overcoming regional affordability challenges.

Despite significant literature on access to, and utilisation of, health care, less attention has been given to the agency of rural service users to use, or not use, health services. This paper aims to understand the decisions of residents from two rural communities to use, or not use, health services. Participants were recruited from Neighbourhood Houses in two rural communities in northern Victoria, Australia, located relatively close to a regional centre. Twenty participants with significant socioeconomic needs were included. The study used a qualitative design and constructivist paradigm to undertake semi-structured interviews which were analysed thematically. Three types of decisions to access health services were identified. First, regular users prioritised their health, valued health care, and usually had a trusted healthcare navigator. Second, sometimes users identified barriers to accessing services, primarily not having a trusted GP and cost. Third, avoiders of health services suggested they did not prioritise their own health, it was easier to not attend, they did not believe health services led to better health outcomes, and poverty or other social issues prevented use. Some respondents moved between the three types, being regular users for children and when they had a trusted GP, and sometimes users for themselves or when barriers arose. This study identified the strong role of GPs and the relational aspects of accessing and utilising health care. It calls for stronger engagement with disadvantaged rural residents to build trust in health care among those avoiding health services.

Purpose This paper aims to propose a guiding hedonic model for urban transformation and planning efforts by presenting an approach that can be used to examine the changing demands of users and investors following disasters such as pandemics and earthquakes, and their effects on housing prices, through a case study at the neighborhood scale. Design/methodology/approach The housing data and model were developed by synthesizing systematic literature review results and area analysis. Data from major real estate platforms were analyzed using hedonic pricing, with coefficients log-transformed for percentage-based interpretation. Correlation, regression and significance tests were conducted via SPSS 27. Findings The model identified eight statistically significant housing features affecting prices. In the study area, user preferences showed thresholds at buildings over ten floors and older than 15 years. Each additional floor reduced price by 0.17%, and each year of age by 0.9%, while a one-square-meter increase in area raised price by 0.6%. These numerical differences emphasize the contextual nature of housing preferences, suggesting that localized analysis yields more accurate insights for urban renewal and new developments. Research limitations/implications The mathematical findings are limited to the research area and the period during which the data were collected; however, this limitation does not undermine the overall applicability of the model. Originality/value In contrast to other studies using similar methods, this research focuses on the smaller scale of the neighborhood, linking user preferences to the characteristics of the study area through their willingness to pay.

Gentrification has not gained much scholarly attention in Finland, although Helsinki has a long history of preventing concentration of disadvantaged groups through social mix, which in the international literature is closely linked to gentrification. Based on a qualitative case study and policy analysis of Helsinki’s new urban regeneration model, which reinvests in disinvested neighborhoods in the periphery of the city, the article analyzes the role of urban policy in making neighborhoods gentrifiable. This article contributes to the sparse literature of stalling urban regeneration, by analyzing the state interventions in stigmatized residential areas of Mellunkylä and Meri-Rastila, where the regeneration process is mostly stagnant. To attract development of owner occupied housing to the social housing neighborhoods, the city had to intervene both through attempts to raise the image of the areas and through subsidizing the risks for private capital. Despite the affordability crisis, which has been furthered by the state’s austerity measures on affordable housing production and housing allowances, the city persists on increasing property values in the regeneration neighborhoods. With social mix as a corrective measure to segregation, the city thus legitimizes neoliberal urbanism. • Helsinki justifies state-led gentrification with an anti-segregation discourse • Stagnant urban regeneration requires state intervention, symbolical and material • Social mix as a corrective anti-segregation measure legitimizes neoliberal urbanism

In a neighborhood house (named NOVOS hereafter), a critique of the usual way of organizing integration leads to an alternative organizational form that provides integration work. Grounded in structuration theory, our focus is on how a group of knowledgeable activists reflexively designs a prefigurative order informed by this organizational critique. They do so via specific practices and continuous efforts of organizational regulation. The social order at NOVOS is prefigurative, as it is designed to change integration work by providing a consequential alternative, and it is plural, as it is a combination of different types of social systems. We elaborate on the emergence and maintenance of this order as an attempt to address heterogeneous subpopulations and as an attempt at relational positioning via an organizational critique.

Brief questionnaires have been applied in poor urban populations to monitor their mental health. Mental health outcomes encompass diverse symptoms that differ in cause and functional impact; however, most studies combine these symptoms as if they represented a single construct. Longitudinal validation of health instruments requires understanding the psychometric properties and causal structures between measurement points to distinguish measurement error from true change before interpreting intervention effectiveness. However, the longitudinal psychometric properties of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2) in Latin American social housing populations remain unknown. This study assessed the dimensionality and longitudinal psychometric properties of these instruments in Chilean populations targeted by urban regeneration interventions. To assess the longitudinal psychometric properties of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2) in poor Chilean urban populations undergoing urban regeneration interventions. We analyzed two waves of mental health data (6-month intervals) from 955 residents of social housing neighborhoods in Santiago and Viña del Mar, Chile. We evaluated item-level and scale-level statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, construct validity, test-retest reliability, and longitudinal measurement invariance. Following recent advances in causal inference methodology, we examined measurement error structures via directed acyclic graph principles to understand the causal implications of psychometric findings. Both instruments demonstrated good psychometric properties and construct validity. The three-factor GHQ-12 structure (dysphoria, social dysfunction, loss of confidence) showed an optimal fit (comparative fit index = 0.996, Tucker‒Lewis index = 0.992, root mean square error of approximation = 0.025). Dysphoria exhibited the strongest correlation with the PHQ-2 (r = 0.65) and highest temporal stability (0.60), whereas social dysfunction showed the lowest stability (0.48), suggesting differential sensitivity to environmental interventions. Evidence of a response shift emerged: while configural and metric invariance held across time, scalar invariance was violated (change in comparative fit index = 0.105), indicating systematic changes in item thresholds rather than true mental health changes. The GHQ-12 and PHQ-2 are reliable instruments for longitudinal mental health assessment in poor urban populations. However, scalar non-invariance suggests that residents recalibrate their mental health standards while urban regeneration begins, which has important implications for interpreting intervention effects. Future studies should incorporate measurement invariance testing and latent variable approaches when evaluating complex environmental interventions.

ABSTRACT The neighborhood environment plays a crucial role in supporting children’s well-being and holistic development. Yet, in urban contexts where planning is largely adult-centric, access to safe and inclusive spaces remains unequal, particularly for children living in poverty. In Malaysia, residents of Program Perumahan Rakyat; (PPR), a social housing initiative, face spatial constraints and limited access to child-friendly outdoor environments. The children’s voices are often excluded from designing processes, despite their reliance on local environments for daily activity and growth. Incorporating their perspectives into neighborhood design is essential to reveal children’s everyday constraints, risks, and opportunities that are often invisible within adult-centred decision-making. Therefore, this study explores the needs and preferences of children aged 7 to 12 from three PPR neighborhoods in Kuala Lumpur using a qualitative approach, including focus group discussions and children’s drawings. A total of 23 children participated. Findings led to the development of a child-informed framework with six core pillars: Maintenance, Autonomy, Variety, Inclusivity, Nature, and Sensory (MAVINS), which reflect children’s voices for an ideal outdoor neighborhood environment. The MAVINS framework offers practical guidance for urban planners, housing authorities, and policymakers to design more inclusive neighborhoods that uphold children’s rights and support their holistic development. This study contributes to the discourse on child-friendly urbanism and highlights directions for future research. By foregrounding children’s voices as legitimate design knowledge, this study offers an child-oriented framework for child-friendly urbanism and transferable insights from a Southeast Asian social housing context to international debates on inclusive neighborhood design.

Social cohesion is a central goal of inclusionary housing policy. Classical urban theories highlight the role of social ties in fostering cohesion, yet evidence from public housing indicates more complex underlying mechanisms. This study distinguishes between two types of neighbourhood ties: familiar ties, formed through affective interactions such as friendships, and invisible ties, emerging from routine encounters with familiar strangers. Using a mixed-methods design that combines a survey of 628 tenants with 21 in-depth interviews in 14 public rental housing (PRH) neighbourhoods in Beijing, we examine how different ties shape perceptions of neighbourhood cohesion. The findings show that familiar ties significantly enhance cohesion, whereas invisible ties remain socially inert, offering recognition without translating into meaningful solidarity. Situated in the context of urban China, the study underscores the central role of friendship-based ties in strengthening PRH neighbourhoods. The results suggest that housing policy and neighbourhood planning should prioritise creating conditions for repeated and meaningful interactions that can transform casual encounters into durable relationships and help cultivate more cohesive public housing neighbourhoods.

Problem, research strategy, and findings There is extensive research on the relationship between gentrification and the displacement of disadvantaged residents from their neighborhoods. In this study, we reassessed gentrification-induced displacement in the city of Columbus (OH) with the additional goal of identifying the characteristics of destination neighborhoods and the houses of those displaced. For this analysis, we used a unique household-level longitudinal data set, the Data Axle Historical U.S. Residential Dataset, and employed hybrid logistic regression modeling to first examine whether gentrification leads to the displacement of low-income households and then to identify where displaced residents settle. Results indicate a strong connection between gentrification and displacement. Furthermore, displaced households typically move to better neighborhoods in terms of poverty, but to worse housing situations. Our findings suggest that households experiencing displacement face affordability challenges and often lack access to subsidized units in their destination neighborhoods. Takeaway for practice Findings from this study demonstrate the importance of anti-displacement measures that are central to enabling low-income households to remain in their neighborhoods. They also reveal the necessity to plan for the aftermath of gentrification-induced displacement. Just as neighborhood choice is critical for displaced low-income households, housing choices are also central to defining when a move is an upward or downward one. Our results suggest that access to affordable and subsidized housing in destination neighborhoods is central to mitigating the long-term negative impact of gentrification-induced displacement on low-income households. Our findings reveal the importance of household-level residential mobility data in determining the full implications of gentrification on vulnerable residents.

Good Neighborhoods, Good Neighbors, Good Jobs?

Scorpions represent a growing public health problem in the state of São Paulo, with the species Tityus serrulatus being the most prevalent. Public cemeteries are considered vulnerable areas with high scorpion collection, which sometimes disperse to adjacent properties. The objective of this study was to implement a complementary mechanism to the scorpion management carried out in cemeteries, aiming to reduce occurrences in properties in their surroundings. An inverted PVC pipe gutter was installed around the entire area of ​​the cemetery, on the inside of the wall. The pipe joints were designed to create a structure that prevented cracks. To correct small gaps between the wall and the pipe installation, it was filled with expanding foam. It has been observed that cockroaches and scorpions are unable to cross the fixed gutter and do not reach homes. Between 2018 and 2021, there were 52 scorpions occurring in the surrounding homes. After this structure was installed, there were no more reports of scorpions in the surrounding houses. The results demonstrated a direct impact, preventing scorpions from escaping from the cemetery and entering neighboring houses, thereby positively impacting the safety of the population. This finding can be incorporated into public policies and the control of infestations of this arachnid, with significant implications for human health.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the spillover effects of neighbouring rents on housing prices. Design methodology approach Treating neighbouring rents as a locational attribute, the authors estimate a price–rent hedonic model using owner-occupied and rental housing transactions from Beijing (2016–2018). In addition, the empirical model shows substantial robustness using instrumental variable-two-stage least squares estimation, Oster’s selection-on-unobservables test and placebo tests. Findings The authors find that a 1% increase in one-quarter-lagged neighbouring rents raises sale prices by about 0.35% in OLS estimation, while the spillover is around 0.23% in instrumental variable (IV) estimation. Furthermore, rental spillovers are heterogeneous – stronger for mid-sized and newer housing units, outside school-district zones and in Chaoyang, Haidian and Shijingshan, while weaker in new-town areas. In addition, exploiting a late-2017 tightening of rental supply, the authors further show that the spillover intensifies thereafter. Practical implications The findings highlight the interconnectedness of the rental and ownership markets and underscore the need for urban housing policy to consider the signals of the rental market. Social implications Policies that optimize and professionalize rental supply can mitigate housing market volatility, moderate house price inflation and enhance market efficiency in transitional housing systems. Originality value The originality lies in regarding neighbourhood housing rents as a locational attribute of housing prices and investigating the neighbouring rental spillovers of housing rents.

Taphonomic Changes of the Skeletal Remains from the Winchester Anatomized Site, Massachusetts

Due to their proximity and association, cats play a dual role in humans' lives, serving as common companion animals as well as strays. However, they also serve as a significant reservoir for various parasites, including gastrointestinal (GI) parasites. The global prevalence of GI parasites in cats is relatively high, raising concerns about their potential transmission to humans and the risk of causing diseases. Cat droppings are frequently found contaminating the environment and, admittedly, more often in low-income housing areas, posing additional risks to this marginalised group. Therefore, this study aimed to survey the preliminary environmental prevalence of GI parasites in the faecal samples of cats collected from urban poor neighbourhoods in Klang Valley, Malaysia. A total of one hundred cat faecal samples were collected from 10 low-cost housing neighbourhoods across Klang Valley, Malaysia. The samples were then screened using direct smear, concentration techniques, and Harada-Mori to determine the parasitic prevalence. The overall prevalence was 73.0% (n=73), with at least one parasite species infecting the cats. A total of six GI parasites were recovered, including Hookworm (n=63, 63.0%), Toxocara spp. (n=26, 26.0%), Cystoisospora spp. (n=7, 7.0%), Ascaris spp. (n=2, 2.0%), Balantidium coli (n=1, 1.0%), and Trichuris spp. (n=1, 1.0%). Understanding the prevalence of these parasites is crucial, particularly in marginalised communities where poor environmental hygiene and overcrowding are prevalent, to ensure that appropriate preventive and control measures are implemented due to the zoonotic potential of these infections.

This article – part of a six‐year ethnographic research project – aims to deconstruct and ‘decolonize’ essentialized notions of adolescence and youth, primarily through the application of the category of intersectionality. The research focuses on a series of educational initiatives implemented in San Siro, one of Milan's largest public housing neighbourhoods, where half of the population comprises large families with migratory backgrounds, mainly from North Africa. Following a prolonged period of youth policy vacuum, San Siro has recently re‐emerged in public discourse due to the national and international success of a local group of rappers, which simultaneously contributed to a surge in social fear. In response to this fear, public institutions decided to allocate new funding for youth welfare. The research, conducted among a group of teenagers within and outside of schools, as well as within some social services, demonstrates the fluctuating attachments these young people have to their neighbourhood and their varying aspirations towards the future. Their narratives suggest a relativistic construction of the notions of adolescence and youth that can account for the diversity that characterizes San Siro, between individual agency and structural constraints.

This commentary explores the renewed significance of the neighbourhood scale in tenant organising amid the rise of global corporate landlords. Historically, tenant unions have been embedded in neighbourhood spaces and relations in various ways. Today, neighbourhoods serve as vital sites of resistance, offering rootedness against increasing displacement pressures and providing organising spaces for dwellers of dispersed property portfolios. However, neighbourhood-based organising continues to face political ambiguities and structural limitations, raising strategic questions about how local struggles connect to broader tenant movements. This discussion is grounded in the experience of Barcelona’s neighbourhood housing unions, examining their evolving repertoires of contention and organisation – including anti-eviction blockades, the formation of neighbourhood-based ‘communities of struggle’, and practices of coordination and confederation.

In this article, we adopt a social contextual approach to examine how knowledge about local politics varies both across and within cities, arguing that certain spatial and demographic features of neighborhoods will be associated with patterns of knowledge. To test these claims, we draw on a novel dataset of roughly 3,000 Americans, with two features making it particularly appropriate for studying local political knowledge. First, the survey presents respondents with a battery of political knowledge questions tailored to the individual's city. Second, the survey samples individuals from 20 cities which are collectively representative of the universe of medium-size and large American cities. Using these data, we analyze both individual and contextual explanations for local political knowledge — and compare those findings to patterns of national political knowledge. We find that social context influences local knowledge — but not national knowledge — most prominently through the age of neighborhood housing stock.

This paper aims to highlight the potential application of Renewable Energy Community (REC) concept in large Affordable and Public Housing neighbourhoods, particularly those in the European cities’ suburbs developed between the 1970s and the 1990s, in order to achieve carbon neutrality and mitigate barriers to energy provision for low-income groups. The research aims to provide a qualitative overview of energy community policies and initiatives at the European level. By identifying common approaches and strategies that are framing the development of best practices in the European and Italian contexts, it explores the characteristics that enable an Energy Community to act as a driver of local sustainable transformation and social cohesion.