Changes In Housing Policy Research Articles

Financialization of Housing in Mexico: The Case of Cuautitlan Izcalli and Huehuetoca in the Metropolitan Region of Mexico City

ABSTRACT For more than 30 years, housing in Mexico has been undergoing a transformation that is best studied using INFONAVIT and FOVISSSTE as starting points. Both funds were established in 1972 to implement the constitutional right to decent housing for workers and state employees in Mexico. In their first few years, both funds were responsible for, among other things, granting loans and investigating ways to achieve low-cost but high-quality housing. However, in the aftermath of the debt crisis of 1981, a comprehensive reconfiguration of housing provision was pushed forward. The aim of this contribution is to characterize changes in housing policy and ask whether and in what way they can be described as financialization. We argue that financialization is a political-economic project that has developed in a particular, stepwise form. Building on the stylized distinction between destructive (roll-back) and creative (roll-out) moments of financialization, we try to understand how financialization took hold. Two projects—Cuautitlan Izcalli from the 1970s and Huehuetoca from the 2000s—symbolize this change.

Housing as a Fertility Trap: The Inability of States, Markets, or Families to Provide Adequate Housing in East Central Europe

This article belongs to the special cluster, “Politics and Current Demographic Challenges in Central and Eastern Europe,” guest-edited by Tsveta Petrova and Tomasz Inglot. We explore housing finance and policy in East Central Europe to understand the connection between housing, in particular independent household formation, and the demographic crisis. The combination of high debt-free homeownership rates with illiquid housing finance and limited rental markets produces conditions where housing restricts independent household formation and likely has a restrictive effect on fertility. We first assess the housing regime type in East Central Europe and demonstrate that it closely corresponds to the “difficult housing regime” in Southern Europe, which has well-established negative effects on independent household formation and fertility. Then we present a detailed case study of Hungary, which is a country with very low fertility rates and substantial changes in housing finance and policy over time. In particular, the issue was recently politicized through housing policies centered on household formation to counter the demographic crisis. We present a detailed analysis of policies related to access to housing for young adults through increased access to markets or state housing support schemes. These policies attempted to reduce dependence on families, but after the crisis, we find that these policies reinforce, rather than challenge, dependence on families for housing solutions, thereby limiting independent household formation. While these policies may serve a rhetorical role demonstrating a state response to the demographic crisis, we claim that their impact on fertility can be at most minimal because of stringent restrictions in access that concentrates on upper-middle-income households and limited financial commitment.

Patterns of distributive justice: social housing and the search for market dynamism in Amsterdam

Housing policy changes in the Netherlands have been in line with OECD and IMF policy advice to increase market dynamism by downsizing the large social rental sector. The impact of such policies on households, however, is rarely acknowledged. Therefore, in this article, distributive effects on social housing tenants in Amsterdam between 2004 and 2014 are evaluated against two standards for distributive justice: sufficiency and priority. These standards befit the policy aim to provide adequate (sufficient) housing for households with a certain need (priority). The analysis shows housing policies have amplified the impacts of the global financial crisis on households. The occurrence of sufficiency increased significantly until 2008, but decreased thereafter. In regards of the priority standard more households with a significant need benefitted from social housing after 2008. However, many of these households still do not meet the sufficiency threshold. While spatial patterns remained rather stable, the impact has been greater in the areas with already relatively low residual incomes.

Housing policy and demographic changes: the case of Iran

PurposeHousing is an essential element in the dynamics of urbanization. One of the main reasons for urbanization is population growth. As the population grows, the need for housing also increases. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the links between housing policies and plans and demographic issues in Iran.Design/methodology/approachThe research has been conducted using the qualitative method. First, 14 main indicators of the population that occurred over the past 40 years have been extracted. To investigate the role of demographic indicators in seven main housing plans and policies in Iran, 30 indigenous housing experts have been interviewed. A criteria-based sampling method has been used in this research.FindingsThe results of this study show that demographic developments have been neglected in the formulation of Iranian housing policies and plans. It is also worth noting that the lack of attention to demographic issues a main reason for the failure of housing policies in Iran.Practical implicationsAs an important implication, the present paper revealed that the mere submission of planning to the economists has been associated with an unpleasant consequence in Iran, and now, it is time to use various expertise and sciences in this important process, as well. Certainly, the use of other sciences such as urban planners contribute greatly to the housing promotion of plans.Originality/valueIn the present research, the relationship between housing and population changes has been investigated because of the significance of the housing sector in Iran besides the problems in the implementation of housing plans.

The Review of Housing Policy Change on October 1st 2019 and the Related Legal Issues

The Review of Housing Policy Change on October 1st 2019 and the Related Legal Issues

Can government stabilize the housing market? The evidence from South Korea

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of government policies in stabilizing the housing market in South Korea. Analysis of condominium prices between 2012 and 2019 in conjunction with housing policy and regime changes reveals that: (1) housing policies effectively restrained the rapid increase of housing prices; (2) market efficiency was also improved; and (3) finally, housing prices approached close to long-run equilibrium. Our findings strongly indicate that government policies can be effective tools to stabilize housing prices, as well as improve market conditions.

From macro-level policies to microlevel practices

In recent decades, gated communities for affluent groups have gained academic attention worldwide. However, in nations with large inequalities such as Mexico, which are also affected by issues of insecurity, corruption, and violence, these enclaves have become more common for middle-income groups. Their existence is usually associated with the search for prestige and exclusivity, along with fear of crime and violence. However, this article focuses on other structural conditions that contribute to the proliferation of these fortified spaces, such as the connections between global economic forces and the changes in national planning, financial, and housing policies since the 1990s. Since then, Mexican peripheries have become more fragmented and disconnected and gated communities have proliferated. This discussion takes place in a context of global polarisation, both in the Global North and South, in which planners have been urged to respond to issues of growing fear, inequality, and violence. This article addresses the contradictions of polarisation, because some Mexicans are defending the right to build walls to protect from insecurity, while there is also social condemnation of the proposed wall by President Trump. The discussion about macro-economic policies in the development of middle-class gated communities in Mexico is helpful in identifying the future risks and challenges that may come from the normalisation of exclusionary places.

Tenure type landscapes and housing market change: a geographical perspective on neo-liberalization in Sweden

Discussions of tenure mix have received renewed interest as many have suggested that neo-liberalization has made way for gentrification of neighbourhoods and increasing segregation. Yet, few scholars have studied country-wide changes in tenure mix, due to the lack of data and appropriate methods. In this article, we propose to use tenure type landscapes to analyse changes in housing policy. We do so while acknowledging the evolution of housing policies in Sweden since 1990. Using individualized and multi-scalar tenure type landscapes to measure change in neighbourhoods, we analyse housing clusters in 1990 and 2012. We show that the tenure landscape in 1990 at the height of the welfare state was fairly diverse and mixed. During the next 22 years, however, the landscape changed to become more homogenized and dominated by ownership through tenure conversions and new housing. We argue that awareness of these changes is essential to understanding present and future segregation and gentrification processes.

Refusing a “City without Slums”: Moroccan slum dwellers' nonmovements and the art of presence

In June 2018, as a result of a program known as “Villes Sans Bidonvilles” (VSB) or “Cities without Slums,” the Kingdom of Morocco declared 58 of 85 cities across the country as slum-free. This paper analyzes the “pockets of resistance” that the Kingdom of Morocco has faced in the implementation of the VSB program. I assert that the contestations and acts of resistance pursued by slum-dwellers are an art of presence – “the ability of the subaltern subjects to assert their collective will in spite of all odds, to circumvent the constraints, utilizing what is possible, and discover new spaces within which to make themselves heard, seen, felt and realized” (Bayat, 2017:111). The art of presence is “the fundamental movement in the life of nonmovements,” therefore I combine the two concepts to argue that slum-dwellers responded to the VSB in incremental/spontaneous and organized/strategic ways, and in doing so they forced the authorities to change their approach against all odds. Using two case studies, I demonstrate how slum dwellers' responses to the rehousing scheme delayed the VSB process by a number of years, and in fact made the authorities offer a resettlement option (recasement) that was preferable to the residents. As slum dwellers resisted the intervention of the state and used tactics of refusal, protest, and grassroots organizing, they turned urban space into a site of contention, and made claims to that space despite being “dispersed, unorganized and atomized” (Bayat, 2017:106). The social ‘nonmovement’ of the slum-dwellers led to tangible benefits for them, and led to the “socialization of the state” through the replacement of the government rehousing program with a resettlement scheme that they preferred. They therein resisted the state's attempt to make them invisible, eradicate their built environment and inculcate them into proper neoliberal development subjects. Their resistance was not a form of radical, insurgent citizenship, but rather a form of “deradicalized dissent” that amended the existing order instead of producing a new one. Against all odds, the art of presence of the slum-dwellers induced a dramatic change in housing policy in their favor.

Implementing marketisation: comparing Irish activation and social housing

ABSTRACTThis paper contributes to the analysis of policy making processes in the Irish context. It offers original insights into recent policy changes in Irish activation and social housing policy which, over the period of austerity, were subject to significant institutional reshaping and structural reforms including marketisation. A three I’s framework tracing the interaction of key ideas, institutions and interests isolates dynamics informing the implementation of marketisation in these sectors and allows insights into how policy is shaped by key variables including markets, civil society and international actors. Attention is drawn to the different pathways to, and implementation of, marketisation in the different sectors. Marketisation reforms were largely implemented in PES and activation reforms, but marketisation pathways had different fortunes when it came to meeting social housing need. The paper explores why this is the case and suggests issues of scale and degrees of financialisation are important factors informing different pathways to and experiences of marketisation of social policy, with, in both sectors, important consequences for social policy and human rights. Issues of ideology, centralisation, international f(actors), timing and scale are important variables in shaping different pathways to marketisation with consequences for likelihood of political resistance to such processes.

Trends in Homeless Children and Young Adults Seeking Shelter in a Boston Pediatric Emergency Department Following State Housing Policy Changes, 2011-2016.

To describe a trend in emergency department (ED) use by homeless children and young adults before and after a state housing policy change in 2012 and to quantify financial and time costs to the health care system. We retrospectively reviewed de-identified electronic medical records of homeless children and young adults aged 0 to 21 years seeking shelter at an urban tertiary pediatric ED in Boston, Massachusetts, between September 1, 2011, and August 31, 2016. We identified 1078 visits for homelessness by 916 children and young adults. The median number of visits per month increased from 3 before the policy change to 17 after (P < .001). The total hospital charges were $578 351, with a net payment of $214 231, 97% paid by Medicaid. The average length of stay was 8 hours, totaling more than 8500 hours of occupancy. The number of homeless children and young adults who visited a pediatric ED increased significantly following a housing policy change, leading to substantial resource burdens on the ED and Medicaid. Public Health Implications. Policymakers should consider potential health care costs when designing housing policies and consider investing in housing to prevent unnecessary ED visits.

Settling in or moving out? Exploring the effect of mobility intentions on public housing exits

This paper seeks to understand how public housing residents’ mobility intentions affect their actual exits. The results suggest that mobility intentions do have a significant effect on public housing exits. However, the rate of exit among those who intend to move out of public housing was similar to those who did not intend to leave. In addition, tenure had a significant effect on the odds of exiting alluding to issues of duration dependence. However, neighbourhood conditions did not fully explain public housing exits. Our proxy for policy reform had a large effect on the odds of exiting of public housing. This result suggests that changes in housing assistance programmes and urban housing policy could largely account for public housing exits. Overall, the results imply that while public housing residents may have positive and negative mobility intentions, their exits may primarily be due to shifts in housing policy and social welfare programmes versus individual characteristics and neighbourhood conditions.

La política habitacional de Cambiemos: el retorno de la mercantilización de la vivienda social en Argentina

En la elección presidencial de 2015 el gobierno argentino cambió la orientación política del Estado, al pasar de un modelo desarrollista proteccionista hacia uno de libre mercado. El artículo analiza los cambios en la política habitacional de forma comparativa con periodos anteriores, desde una perspectiva histórica, con el objetivo de establecer diferencias y similitudes desde el enfoque de la mercantilización de los servicios sociales. Se concluye que desde hace cuarenta años la política habitacional se encuentra atravesada por una tensión entre las concepciones de la vivienda social como derecho social y como bien de acceso por el mercado, y que el gobierno actual vuelve a este último con rasgos renovados.

Od uniwersalności do selektywności w społecznej polityce mieszkaniowej

Celem artykułu jest ukazanie kierunków zmian w zakresie społecznych polityk mieszkaniowych w krajach Unii Europejskiej. W opracowaniu wskazano na podstawowe warunki prowadzenia skutecznej polityki mieszkaniowej. Zdaniem autora są nimi prawidłowa alokacja społecznego zasobu mieszkaniowego, uwzględniająca warunki wejścia i wyjścia z zasobu społecznego, właściwy wybór grup docelowych zasobu społecznego, dopasowana forma organizacyjna budownictwa społecznego do modelu społecznej polityki mieszkaniowej, w tym określenie warunków i zakresu partycypacji sektora prywatnego w budownictwie społecznym, odpowiedni podział odpowiedzialności za realizację celów społecznych między władzę centralną a władzę lokalną, ustalenie racjonalnych zakresów ochrony prawnej zarówno lokatorów, jak i właścicieli społecznego zasobu mieszkaniowego. Autor wykazuje, że w krajach Unii Europejskiej, w szczególności przez charakter regulacji unijnych, występuje silne przesunięcie z szerokiego do selektywnego wsparcia państwa w sferze mieszkaniowej.

Redistribution, Growth, and Inclusion: The Development of the Urban Housing System in P. R. China, 1949-2015

This paper explains the development of the urban housing system in P. R. China from 1949 to 2011 with an emphasis on the factors driving housing inequality in each policy period. We argue that the logic underpinning the housing policy had shifted from socialist redistribution to the stimulation of growth in the process of market economy reform and has been shifting toward social inclusionary growth since the 2010s. Over the course of time, two institutional factors (work units and household registration/hukou) have played a key role in determining individual households’ housing opportunities. The role of the work units has gradually waned since the 2000s, but the hukou system continues to be important. In the last part of the paper, we set forth the latest changes in Chinese housing policy. Since 2011, the central government has been striving toward a more comprehensive system of housing provision with the aim of making the housing market more inclusive (though not necessarily more equal). Finally, we express concern about an emerging though embedded source of housing inequality: the unequal distribution of family wealth.

Public choice theory and rental housing: an examination of rental housing contracts in Ghana

This paper extends both the literature on rental housing in Ghana and the global literature on the critique of public choice analyses in terms of focus, methods and positioning. It argues that, contrary to the assumption that all housing policy changes are driven by internal national processes, in the case of Ghana at least, neither tenants (through their use of their greater numbers) nor landlords (through the use of their stronger financial and hence political power) exclusively influence housing policy. Both parties have some power, but landlords use theirs to change rents arbitrarily and decide whom to invite or keep as tenants, whilst tenants seek to use their power by lodging complaints with the state, albeit to little effect as the power of landlords is overwhelming. There is a strong basis to call into question the public choice argument that it is fair for landlords to extract windfall rent from tenants since their efforts or talents do not increase rent.

Telling stories: the role of narratives in rental housing policy change in New Zealand

This paper examines the emergence of the regulation of housing conditions in the private rental sector as a policy issue in New Zealand using an analysis of narratives in media, advocacy and political texts. Narratives are evident in public discourse and are the stories told by interest groups to identify and cast a problem as a policy issue in a way analogous to the beliefs of the speaker. This case study shows that while the narratives used by advocates for policy change were effective in raising the issue, they were ineffective in overcoming a counter-narrative of excessive regulation by the government and concerns of possible rent rises. This opposition to regulation of the private sector by a right-leaning government needs to be more effectively countered by more powerful intersecting narratives, if evidence on the relationship between housing, health and safety is to become the basis for effectively implemented government policy.

Unlocking the Black Box: Analyzing Policy-Makers Narratives of Housing Policy Change in Finland

Housing policy change is typically initiated by housing policy actors. Here, housing policy change is discussed as an institutional change, with institutional constraints playing a role in the change process. At the same time, change is seen as a result of the behaviour of policy actors. The case of Finnish rental housing policy serves as an example when the process of change is analysed from the perspective of housing policy actors. The policy actors produce a narrative of exhaustion of old policy in a new political climate. At the same time, the policy actors also tell a story about how change is made through negotiations and compromises and what types of strategies they use to break institutional constraints. Furthermore, changes in the political power dynamics can help transform an idea into an agenda.

Redistribution, Growth, and Inclusion: The Development of the Urban Housing System in China, 1949-2015

This paper explains the development of the urban housing system in China from 1949 to 2011 with an emphasis on the factors driving housing inequality in each policy period. We argue that the logic underpinning the housing policy had shifted from socialist redistribution to the stimulation of growth in the process of market economy reform and has been shifting toward social inclusionary growth since the 2010s. Over the course of time, two institutional factors (work units and household registration/hukou) have played a key role in determining individual households’ housing opportunities. The role of the work units has gradually waned since the 2000s, but the hukou system continues to be important. In the last part of the paper, we set forth the latest changes in Chinese housing policy. Since 2011, the central government has been striving toward a more comprehensive system of housing provision with the aim of making the housing market more inclusive (though not necessarily more equal). Finally, we express concern about an emerging though embedded source of housing inequality: the unequal distribution of family wealth.

Working longer, caring harder – the impact of ‘ageing-in-place’ policies on working carers in the UK and Sweden

Most developed countries have introduced significant changes in housing and longterm care policies for older people. Simultaneously, there is increasing policy and economic emphasis on extending wo ...