Social Housing Interventions Research Articles

Preparation of Two Participatory Social Housing Interventions in a Marginalised Roma Community in Romania

The first desegregation efforts in the marginalised and segregated communities in the Pata-Rât area were carried out within the frames of two social housing projects (between 2014–2017 and 2020–2023). Although a housing first methodology would have been more adequate in the context of a marginalised community, given the shortcomings of the Romanian social assistance system, implementation was impossible. In this context, it was necessary to develop a system to access social housing but also to create a reasonably ‘fair process’ at the community level. Thus, in both interventions, the starting point for developing the social housing criteria was to survey the community in order to explore the community members’ preferences regarding the criteria to be considered in the selection of the beneficiary families for the social houses. The surveys covered all the inhabitants of the Pata-Rât area, that is 219 households in the first survey and 282 households in the second. The survey results served as the basis for the development of the criteria for accessing social housing. In this article, we present and discuss the results of the community surveys from 2016 and from 2020, the year of the pandemic outbreak. Differences were found in the prioritisation of criteria, with an increasing preference for those reflecting vulnerability/needs (e.g., number of children, years spent in the community, disability) and decreasing preference for the ones indicating family resources (e.g., employment, income, education). These differences reflect the increase in poverty and loss of resources occurring in the community during this period, due both to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to the relocation of the 35 better-off families in the first Pata-Cluj project.

Social housing as a multi-functional tool: understanding the social housing expansion in Nanjing, China

While the retreat of state from social housing sector has been a mainstream trend worldwide in the past decades under neoliberalism, the Chinese government returned to its role of social housing provision since the year 2007. This triggers an interesting question about why the Chinese government prioritizes housing provision as a major national project in an era of emphasizing economic growth. This article intends to uncover the rationale behind the phenomenon. It gives a concrete understanding of the motivations of social housing intervention at the municipal level in China through reviewing the social housing policies in Nanjing. It is found that the motivations underpinning large-scale social housing supply are complex, which can be related to political pressure, housing equality and economic considerations. This research enriches housing intervention research with a Chinese urban background.

Mumbai e le trasformazioni del suo habitat urbano. Una prospettiva storica sulle problematiche dell'abitare

The research reported here examines, from a historical perspective, the urban transformations that characterized the city of Mumbai since its foundation. First, a brief historical overview of the Indian peninsula, which is distinguished by a multitude of climates, contexts, ethnic groups, cultures, languages, and religions, is outlined. Second, the report focuses on the twentieth century migration patterns in order to better delve into the urbanization processes and features. The Indian urban dimension has grown rapidly and currently the country is the second most populated in the world. Its metropolises show many critical issues and poor housing conditions stand out. Urban informality and precarious housing are common, and they are particularly relevant in the most inhabited urban agglomerations. Mumbai developed on a small group of islands under Portuguese and British control and transformed into a megalopolis in a relatively short time span. Although public authorities became gradually aware of the housing shortage problem, the policies and interventions implemented proved to be inadequate to tackle the issue. The city’s historical and geographical specificities have negatively affected urban development, raising land values and ultimately, jeopardizing social housing interventions. The Slum Rehabilitation Schemes case serves as an example to describe the Mumbai urban habitat and the extreme character that distinguishes it. This analysis also stimulates reflections on the housing issue and its possible developments in similar contexts.

Addressing Social Sustainability in Urban Regeneration Processes. An Application of the Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation

The concept of sustainability is widely seen as fundamental to set up urban and territorial transformations. Sustainable development is a multidimensional and multi-perspective process that deals with the environmental, economic, and social dimensions, with the aim to find a balance among these. Despite this growing attention to sustainability the social perspective has been the less explored of these dimensions and only recently it is receiving consideration due the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aim at creating sustainable and inclusive cities and communities. In the SDGs, specific attention is focused on the improvement of the quality of life of inhabitants through specific actions dedicated to the valorization of cultural resources, to the protection of the environment, and also to promote the involvement of the local communities in setting policies and programs. The final objective is defining projects based on the social needs shared by the communities. This paper aims at exploring the social sustainability related to urban regeneration processes with particular attention to social cohesion and community engagement. Six different urban regeneration strategies, developed for the regeneration of an urban area located in Northern Italy and based on social housing interventions, have been evaluated in accordance with their social impacts on the stakeholders involved. The paper proposes a multi-methodological approach based on the combination of the stakeholder analysis with the NAIADE (Novel Approach to Imprecise Assessment and Decision Environments) methodology, a particular type of Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation. The stakeholder analysis has been applied to identify the actors to involve in the evaluation, whereas the NAIADE methodology has been implemented for the selection of the most preferable strategy. This method allowed the assessment of the different strategies through the comparison and the mediation between the technical and the social rankings, thus considering the stakeholder preferences in the final evaluation. The final result is coherent with the initial purpose and it demonstrates that the inclusion of the stakeholder is fundamental for the achievement of a consensus solution.

Social Contribution of Housing on Vulnerable Populations: A Case Study for the Region of La Araucanía

Within the framework of social sustainability, the studies that measure the contribution of houses allocated to the country’s most vulnerable population are limited. This article presents a case study that assesses the contribution of a social housing project to social sustainability in the Region of La Araucanía, Chile. Here, the degree of social contribution for the Amuley Ruka project in Pitrufquén, Region of La Araucanía is determined. In this study, a pre-post assessment was used by triangulating the data obtained in field visits, interviews and document reviews. Thus, appropriate indicators were adjusted to measure multiple evaluation criteria and the measurement scales were standardized. All this makes it possible to determine the vulnerable situation of the beneficiaries, the effects on the context and the criteria to improve. The results obtained clarify the partial and total contribution of the social housing project. It is detected that the criteria “Connectivity and access” and “Family support” do not present significant differences resulting from the project. In addition, the criteria “Community Health and Safety” and “Recreation infrastructure” show a reduction in their contribution with respect to the social housing intervention.

Affordable Housing vs. Urban Land Rent in Widespread Settlement Areas

Social housing constitutes a partial response to the demand for affordable housing. In Europe, there are different forms of social housing, which are distinguishable based on whether they employ a universal or residual approach. The latter is employed by Italian initiatives for social residential construction, the financial instrument of which is the Investment Fund for Housing, a closed-end fund managed by CDP (Cassa Depositi e Prestiti) Investment, which provides public–private partnerships. The main obstacle to the supply of low-cost houses is the high cost of building areas or, in other words, the high urban land rent. The value of building areas is particularly high in urban areas and in widespread settlement areas, for instance, in Northeastern Italy. The main objective of this paper is to identify the trade-off between urban land rent and housing affordability in a social housing intervention in Pordenone (Northeastern Italy). Four different scenarios are developed, the variables of which are: Cost of the area (urban rent), cost of construction works (quality of the buildings), and household income distribution. The results show that achieving the economic and social objectives of a social housing investment simultaneously is not possible in any of the scenarios evaluated. To allow the social groups most in need to access affordable housing would require a reduction of approximately 30% of the estimated cost of a building area.

Social Housing: An Appraisal Model of the Economic Benefits in Urban Regeneration Programs

The decision-making process relating to Social Housing (SH) policies and projects involves social and urban transformations and is consequently linked to urban planning, urban regeneration projects, the dynamics of the real estate market and cooperation between public and private developers. Furthermore, this decision-making process must be supported by assessments relating to economic feasibility and assessments on social and environmental sustainability. The paper illustrates a decision support evaluation model for the implementation of integrated urban redevelopment programs related to Social Housing interventions to be implemented in PPP. The model is based on the search for an economic balance between the interests of the parties involved, with the aim of maximizing the share of housing in SH by minimizing the public contribution quota. The model was developed on a degraded settlement of Public Residential Construction, the subject of a wider urban regeneration program in the Municipality of Reggio Calabria (Italy). Considering the financial feasibility constraint for the developer and the conditions of the local real estate market, with the risk of the investment attached to it, the model makes it possible to verify the economic sustainability and the financial feasibility of the interventions in SH through the estimation of: (i) The profit of the developer/investor; (ii) the trade-in value to be paid to the developer against the investment; (iii) the maximum share of SH to be carried out in development. The research and the results obtained highlight the utility of the model and the ease of use in the programming phase, in relation to urban regeneration programs that involve interventions in SH.

Energy and Water Monitoring for a Large Social Housing Intervention in Northern Italy

In recent years, the awareness of the problem of the performance gap and rebound effect extends the interest in assessing the real operation of buildings, in assessing how buildings match users' needs once they are occupied and in understanding how occupants’ behavior affects the actual building performance. The paper discusses the case study and presents the results of a monitoring campaign of two years of occupancy of a large social housing intervention recently built near Milan, for a total of 152 flats. Data about the thermal energy consumption for heating and cooling, the domestic hot and cold water use and the occupants’ intervention on controlling devices are assessed and presented. The case study is representative of the actual design and construction of high performing multi-family buildings in Italy. All the buildings are class A rated, very highly insulated and ventilated with centralized mechanical ventilation systems with thermodynamic heat recovery. Centralized water-to-water heat pumps supply hot and refrigerated water for heating and cooling and domestic hot water as well. A building monitoring system is installed, able to track energy and water consumption, factors influencing the energy consumption not related to the building characteristics (weather data, operational setting) as well as the overall building performance data. The results show unexpected high energy and water consumption and moreover a large variability of the energy and water consumption pattern among the dwellings and between the years due to the significant influence of the occupants’ behavior and habits.

Exploring the relationship between housing concerns, mental health and wellbeing: a qualitative study of social housing tenants.

BackgroundThe rising prevalence of mental health problems is a growing public health issue. Poor mental health is not equally distributed across social groups and is associated with poverty and insecure housing. An evaluation of a social housing intervention provided an opportunity to explore the connections between housing and wider determinants of health and wellbeing.MethodsWe undertook 44 interviews with social housing tenants over a two-year period to explore their views on housing, health and wellbeing.ResultsPoor mental health was common. The results suggest that perceptions of housing quality, service responsiveness, community safety, benefit changes and low income all have a detrimental effect on tenants’ mental health.ConclusionsSocial housing providers who wish to have a positive impact on the mental health of their tenants need to consider how to best support or mitigate the impact of these stresses. Addressing traditional housing officer functions such as reporting or monitoring home repairs alongside holistic support remains an important area where social housing departments can have substantial health impact. Tackling the complex nature of mental health requires a joined up approach between housing and a number of services.

From camps to social integration? Social housing interventions for asylum seekers in Greece

PurposeThis paper offers an empirical study of the Emergency Support to Integration and Accommodation (ESTIA) programme, as the policy initiative for the provision of housing and social integration for asylum seekers over the last few years in Greece. Greece is a country that is geographically situated on the southern external borders of Europe and has been experiencing a rise in refugee flows since 2015. At a first glance, it seems that ESTIA’s central aim is social integration. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the design and implementation framework of ESTIA essentially promotes the goal of social integration or whether it is merely a gesture that has no real effect.Design/methodology/approachThe field research focussed on an evaluation of the ESTIA programme on the basis of its impact on the social integration of its beneficiaries. This was attempted by examining the attitudes and perceptions of key stakeholders during its design and implementation stages. In order to examine these dimensions, qualitative research methods were developed. In particular, in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants involved in the design and implementation processes of ESTIA.FindingsSocial integration is something much more than providing permanent shelters to asylum seekers. ESTIA has been designed and implemented with a view to providing better temporary housing conditions for its beneficiaries. The rest of the range of actions for their social actions was left to voluntary actions by the implementing agencies, without offering them any financial support – a fact that suggests that the use of the term “social integration” in relation to this programme is disingenuous. Such an intervention does not aim at significant social integration but, primarily, the temporary management of extreme impoverishment. ESTIA can, therefore, be added to the scientific literature as yet another case study where the complex concept of social integration is misused by the EU and European states to legitimise the policies of repression and control of refugee populations.Originality/valueThis is the first field research that examines the design and implementation framework of ESTIA, the most important programme for the social integration of asylum seekers in Greece. The presentation of research findings is expected to make a significant contribution to the improvement of many aspects of the design and implementation framework of ESTIA.

Assessing the Value of Housing Schemes through Sustainable Return on Investment: A Path towards Sustainability-Led Evaluations?

The 2016 United Nations (UN) New Urban Agenda clearly reaffirms the concept that sustainable cities require intertwined environmental and social sustainability. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11—“Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable”—sets (as a primary target) the provision of sufficient affordable housing. Despite the central role that housing plays in ensuring sustainability and the importance of both environmental and social pillars in ensuring sustainable development, current evaluative methods that support decision making on social housing interventions fail to capture all of the socio-environmental value contained in the UN SDG 11. This paper addresses the issue by demonstrating how Sustainable Return on Investment can successfully describe and analyse a range of externalities related to the sustainable value generated by social housing regeneration schemes. To achieve this goal, a single case study strategy has been chosen. Two extant projects—a high-rise housing scheme and an environmental-led program developed by City West Housing Trust (a nonprofit housing association based in the Manchester area)—have been assessed in order to monetise their social and environmental value through different methods. The findings show that, historically, the environmental and social value of regeneration schemes have been largely disregarded because of a gap in the evaluation methods, and that there is room for significant improvement for future evaluation exercises.

Building monitoring system in a large social housing intervention in Northern Italy

Within the framework of the well-known problem of the performance gap, the paper demonstrates how a building monitoring system is able to provide feedback data instrumental to address the ongoing management issues of multi-family buildings in social housing: the need to have a good understanding of what works and what does not in building operation, the need of bills controlling and allocation of individual costs between the occupants, the facility and energy management requirements including the understanding of occupant’s behavior. It adopts a case study approach, discussing the case of a large environmentally friendly social housing intervention consisting in 323 flats, in which a building monitoring system was installed.

The social manager as the guarantor of sustainability in Social Housing interventions

The boost in social housing interventions is the answer to the growing demand for new housing caused by higher social vulnerability in the wake of the economic and financial crisis in Europe. It meets the goal of inclusive growth, as defined in Europe 2020’s growth strategy. This paper deals with this issue starting from an analysis of the social events that are worsening the housing problem in Europe, and which are exasperated by the anti-crisis measures implemented by the Governments of the most financially stricken countries. This paper then highlights the key role played by social managers as the element that guarantees intervention sustainability. The case-study of the Fondazione Housing Sociale demonstrates how the social manager is a key element in social housing interventions.

Mass customization Process for the Social Housing. Potentiality, Critical Points, Research Lines

The demand for lengthening the life cycle of the residential estate, engendered with the economical and housing crisis since the last few years, brings out, in the course of time, the need for conservation and improvement works of the property house performances, through the direct involvement of the users. The possibility of reducing maintenance and adjustment costs may develop into a project resource, consistent to the participation and cooperation principles, identifying social housing interventions. With this aim, the BETHA group of the d’Annunzio University is investigating the potentiality of technological transfer of the ‘mass customization’ process from the industrial products field to the social housing segment, by detecting issues, strategies and opportunities.