Unaffordable Housing Research Articles

Association of housing tenure and unaffordable housing with preterm birth and other adverse birth outcomes in Canada: a population-based study

BackgroundSocioeconomic risk factors are known drivers of adverse birth outcomes. Housing is a key target for policy interventions.ObjectiveTo estimate the associations of housing tenure (renting vs owning) and unaffordable housing...

Rent Burden and Demographic Change Among Veterans: A Research Brief

Housing affordability has worsened considerably over recent decades, and despite some progress, veterans remain relatively overrepresented among the unhoused. Nevertheless, veterans have historically been less impacted by housing affordability problems, whether this stems from factors such as greater access to homeownership, differential labor market returns related to veteran status or differences in the composition of the veteran population compared to non-veterans. In this study, we use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) from 1976 to 2021 to document how housing unaffordability has become a growing problem among veterans who rent. We first demonstrate how the prevalence of housing cost burden among veteran renters has converged with that of the general population over the past four and a half decades. Second, we use a decomposition analysis to identify the factors most relevant to these trends observed over the span of our data, observing that changes in household composition and growing representation of veterans across disability status, race, and gender account for significant components of rising cost burden prevalence. We conclude by reviewing policy solutions tailored to groups who are overrepresented among cost burdened veterans. Overall, we find that “rent eats first” for everyone—veterans and their families included.

How do renters survive unaffordability? Household-level impacts of rent burden in Los Angeles

ABSTRACT Prior research shows that households reduce consumption of basic necessities in response to an increasing rent burden. However, questions remain regarding the interrelated, cumulative tactics renters use to survive amidst declining affordability. We address these critical questions by leveraging data from a door to door household survey in South and Central Los Angeles. First, we find that rent-burdened households (those paying over 30% of their income on rent) were more likely to reduce consumption and that adjustments in many consumption categories had persisted for years. Second, rent-burdened households undertook impactful functional adjustments, including working more hours and altering their homes to accommodate more residents. Severely rent-burdened households were 10.4 percentage points more likely to accommodate additional residents than those paying between 30 and 50% of income toward rent. Finally, we find that many households made both functional adjustments and consumption cutbacks simultaneously, which demonstrates the cumulative hardships caused by housing unaffordability.

Housing unaffordability and adolescent academic achievement in urban China

ABSTRACT Our study, based on longitudinal data from the 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies, analyses the effect of housing unaffordability on the academic achievements of Chinese adolescents aged 10–18. To address the inherent endogeneity issues associated with housing unaffordability, we employ a fixed effects instrumental variable approach. Our findings reveal that housing unaffordability leads to a decline in adolescent Chinese performance by an average of 12%. This negative effect is more pronounced for specific groups: school-zoned housing buyers, rural-to-urban migrant families, girls with brothers, families who rent, lower-income households, older adolescents (aged 13–18), and those residing in less developed regions. Moreover, the results suggest that housing unaffordability adversely affects academic performance indirectly by increasing the likelihood of living in poor-quality housing, diminishing extracurricular academic tutoring and household essential spending, such as food, social capital, and education.

Institutions' dynamics and homeownership aspirations in Ethiopia

The desire to own a home is a common aspiration amongst many. The role of institutions either by enabling or constraining the achievement of the aspirations is very crucial. Unfortunately, the study investigating the impact of these institutional factors on homeownership aspirations was not adequately adequate. Thus, the researchers motivated to analyze the role of institutions for homeownership aspirations. Researchers used qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods to explore the relationship between mortgage access, housing market prices, and homeownership in Sheger City, Ethiopia. The study involved 384 participants, and the results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multinomial regression. The findings suggest that mortgage access and housing prices play a significant role in shaping homeownership aspirations. However, it was apparent that banks prioritize the wealthy, resulting in the housing market neglecting the needs of low-income individuals and families, leading to unaffordable housing options and findings revealed institutions’ dynamics are accompanied by dysfunctions. The multinomial regression analysis revealed that the likelihood of owning a home over renting one increases when housing becomes more affordable which shows market dysfunctions affect aspirations to homeownership. Obtaining a mortgage is also critical, as it significantly improves the chances of aspiring to own a home. The authors suggest that the Municipality reconsider the affordability of mortgage services and housing prices to ensure that homeownership opportunities are distributed fairly.

Housing the poor? Accessibility and exclusion in the local housing systems of Vienna and Milan

AbstractDespite featuring very different housing systems, both in Vienna and Milan a growing number of people struggle to access affordable and decent housing. Even though social housing policies are in place in both contexts, for many the unregulated and often unaffordable private housing market is the only option. Building upon Antonio Tosi’s work, we centre our analysis on the poor and compare how two very different local housing systems create the conditions for their inclusion or exclusion. Through a comparative analysis of the Viennese and Milanese local housing regimes and adopting a mixed methodology, we discuss how both generate conditions of exclusion and who the ones excluded are, which local policies address the poor and how appropriate these are for mitigating housing exclusion. Finally, we indicate some directions for policies aimed at tackling the intersections of poverty and housing exclusion, advocating for a maximization of the ‘sociality’ of housing policies, involving a shift in prioritisation from the middle classes to the most vulnerable groups and the loosening of certain formal access requirements to housing or welfare services that constitute barriers to these groups, where possible.

Victims of studentification? Variegated student experiences of housing precarity and homelessness in Edinburgh

ABSTRACT This paper responds to the call for research on the impacts of the student housing crisis beyond studentification through an analysis of 26 in-depth interviews with students at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, who experienced housing precarity beginning in September 2022. The testimonies provide further evidence that the increasing unaffordability of housing is creating tensions of exclusion and hardship for students, with wide-ranging impacts on mental health and academic attainment. While the extent of this crisis may seem to legitimate increased building of private sector Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) blocks, I question whether this is a rational response to a crisis of affordability.

Modelling the dynamics of urbanization for urban sustainability in West Africa

The West African region, one of the largest urban agglomerations in Africa has over decades experienced rapid rate of urbanization. The urbanization processes have been associated with manifold environmental and socioeconomic challenges including inefficient urban infrastructure, unaffordable housing, poor sanitation and informal settlements. Urban scholars following the rise of urbanization and climate change in West Africa have advocated for policies and programmes towards the reduction of carbon footprints and sustainable human settlements, while emphasizing on the needs to plan for urban sustainability. Yet limited studies have so far analysed the dynamics of urbanization in West Africa, especially in relations to sustainability. Motivated by the evolving debates on urban sustainability, this study contributes to urban planning discourse, by exploring the dynamics of energy consumption, gross domestic product, employment levels and productivity in six countries in West Africa and demonstrate the implications for urban sustainability. Using the Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR)-Mean Group (MG) model, we analysed annual data from 1991 to 2018 of Urban Population Growth, Gross Domestic Product, Energy Consumption, and Greenhouse gas emissions. The study revealed variation across the selected countries in terms of rate of urbanization, productivity, and energy consumption. The results suggest the need for commonalities as well as differentiated approaches towards improving urban environmental quality for urban sustainability. Furthermore, while there is a need to promote green urban infrastructure, concerted efforts are required towards promoting sustainable urban environmental quality.

Impact of Urban Village Redevelopment on the Migration Patterns of Rural Workers in China: A Policy Study

In China, to improve the quality of urbanization development, the government has carried out a series of urban village renovation programs, to achieve sustainable urban development. However, the renovation of urban villages has also caused new social problems, one of them is that many rural migrant workers may choose to return to their hometowns due to the displacement or unaffordable housing and living costs in urban areas. Considering the factors affecting the stay and departure of rural migrant workers, this study will focus on urban housing security policies. By analyzing the different urban village renovation policies and residential housing security policies in Beijing, Shenzhen and Hangzhou, it can be concluded that the policy reasons leading to the loss of rural migrant workers as mainly as follows: inadequate housing security policies with low coverage, policies not reflecting migrant workers' needs, and insufficient government-subsidized housing supply, making affordable urban housing scarce for these workers. Therefore, completing the housing security policy for rural migrant workers and providing them with suitable housing is the key to preventing a larger scale of rural migrant workers leaving urban areas.

The End of Inclusive Resettlement: Experiencing Unaffordability within State Housing Programmes in Salé, Morocco

Since the early 2000s, Morocco’s government is running the Villes Sans Bidonville programme (VSBP) as a literal reference to international policy claims for Cities Without Slums. Initially and in contrast to past, unsuccessful attempts to eradicate the country’s bidonvilles, more inclusive resettlement schemes – participatory and affordable for all – should help to avoid that residents resell resettlement housing and move back to bidonvilles. However, this article shows that with the advancement of VSBP, more recent resettlement has become authoritarian, exclusionary, and unaffordable again. Large numbers of low-income households of one of Rabat/Salé’s last bidonvilles are effectively excluded from accessing resettlement housing, because they cannot afford the construction of a house on their assigned resettlement plot. For many, reselling their plot is the only option to access alternative housing after displacement. Building on narrative and biographic interviews with displaced former bidonville residents who are not living at the resettlement site, this article looks at how displaced bidonville dwellers cope with housing unaffordability. Where do people move why if affordable informal housing is demolished and state-subsidised alternatives are inaccessible? The results show how unaffordable resettlement schemes divide established bidonville communities, leaving the most vulnerable residents behind. Furthermore, they highlight people’s severe constraints, struggles, and uncertainties in seeking to achieve decent residential stability outside stressful rental accommodation.

Integrating developmental neuroscience with community-engaged approaches to address mental health outcomes for housing-insecure youth: Implications for research, practice, and policy

One in three children in the United States is exposed to insecure housing conditions, including unaffordable, inconsistent, and unsafe housing. These exposures have detrimental impacts on youth mental health. Delineating the neurobehavioral pathways linking exposure to housing insecurity with children’s mental health has the potential to inform interventions and policy. However, in approaching this work, carefully considering the lived experiences of youth and families is essential to translating scientific discovery to improve health outcomes in an equitable and representative way. In the current paper, we provide an introduction to the range of stressful experiences that children may face when exposed to insecure housing conditions. Next, we highlight findings from the early-life stress literature regarding the potential neurobehavioral consequences of insecure housing, focusing on how unpredictability is associated with the neural circuitry supporting cognitive and emotional development. We then delineate how community-engaged research (CEnR) approaches have been leveraged to understand the effects of housing insecurity on mental health, and we propose future research directions that integrate developmental neuroscience research and CEnR approaches to maximize the impact of this work. We conclude by outlining practice and policy recommendations that aim to improve the mental health of children exposed to insecure housing.

Case Study: Understanding and Responding to Homelessness Crisis in Chilliwack

This paper presents an in-depth discussion on the breakdown of government programs over the last few decades that have eroded the low-to-middle income housing stock and ballooned housing unaffordability in BC with a focus on Chilliwack. The goals of this paper are twofold, and they include: (1) unpack the causes of homelessness and its implications; (2) examine the current responses to the homelessness crisis. Most of the data collection done to support this analysis is drawn from current news stories and government websites so that the most up-to-date and impactful happenings are incorporated. This article examines the root causes of homelessness followed by the highlights of existing solution efforts and gaps in programs and policies using a case example of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. This paper briefly discusses the recommendations and next step to address the homelessness crisis in BC with a focus on Chilliwack.

Consumption loans consuming homes: intersections of housing precarity and personal overindebtedness

Housing precarity as a condition referring to housing insecurity and unaffordability has been on the rise over the last decade across Europe and beyond. While various studies discuss the character of housing precarity and its links to (subprime) mortgage loans, the role of specific moral economies of debt in enacting housing policies which reinforce housing precarity is less developed in relation to other kinds of loans or the experience of debt enforcement. This article analyses fifty narrative interviews—thirty with debtors and twenty with institutional actors—and employs a processual methodology to highlight the performativity of personal debt and local housing policies. Performativity, enacted and modulated by moral economies of effort, (un)deservingness and (ir)responsibility, contributes to the remaking of housing precarity among indebted people, creating a vicious housing precarity-indebtedness loop. In the conclusion, we highlight the contingent and selective application of local housing policies which exclude the overindebted from municipal housing and discuss possible political and policy actions for overcoming the housing governance which generates this precarity.

Unaffordable housing and cancer: novel insights into a complex question.

Unaffordable housing and cancer: novel insights into a complex question.

Shrinking Cities for Economic Growth? Insights From the Housing Sector

This research focuses on examining how the pursuit of economic growth can contribute to urban shrinkage. In contrast to the prevalent definition of urban shrinkage that links population loss to insufficient levels of economic growth, this study examines the case of Coimbra, Portugal, where something different is happening. We hypothesise that Coimbra experiences population loss due to urban policies that promote economic growth through housing speculation. We conclude that the hypothesis is valid using semi-structured interviews and document analysis as data collection methods. The identified phenomenon disproportionately affects younger and vulnerable residents, forcing them to relocate due to unaffordable housing options. However, it benefits the local authority and national government, which collaborate with global economic powers that invest in real estate to accumulate capital. The conformist and legalistic-bureaucratic nature of the Portuguese planning system, evident in Coimbra’s local authority, exacerbates the problem. We emphasise the potentially transformative impact of economic degrowth thinking on housing policy. The implications of this research question the validity of mainstream economic theory as commonly applied to urban planning.

The NB Housing Summit: Solutions to Promote Housing Affordability in the Mid-sized City of Saint John, New Brunswick

Canada is in the midst of a national housing crisis that renders households vulnerable to unstable and unaffordable housing, and various forms of homelessness. New Brunswick is a largely rural Canadian province with three mid-sized cities that have lower housing values than larger Canadian centres. However, affordability is eroding in the province’s housing market, and the rental market offers few options for low-to-moderate-income renters. Simultaneously, visible homelessness and encampments are on the rise. Saint John, one of the mid-sized cities, is a relatively new destination for housing market investment and interprovincial migration, which is leading to higher rents and housing purchase prices. Through an analysis of World Café data collected with 85 individuals (representatives from government, people with lived experience of housing instability, non-profit agencies, housing developers, etc.) in Saint John, New Brunswick, this paper presents locally driven, on-the-ground solutions to the housing and homelessness crises in a mid-sized city.

Abstract 801: Severe housing cost burden and premature cancer mortality by state Medicaid expansion status

Abstract Introduction: The fraction of people living in unaffordable housing in the U.S. has grown, and prior studies have documented a relationship between housing cost burden and worsening health. Medicaid expansion has been suggested to improve housing financial stability by reducing health care costs and improving access to preventative care. However, the role of expanded access to Medicaid on the relationship between housing cost burden and cancer mortality remains poorly understood. We investigated the relationship between county-level severe housing cost burden and premature cancer mortality by state Medicaid expansion status for all cancers and leading sites. Methods: This ecological study used county-level data from 2016-2020 American Community Survey linked with county-level mortality data. Severe housing cost burden measured by percentage of households within a county that spend ≥50% of their income on housing categorized into quintiles (1=lowest, 5=highest) and state Medicaid expansion status (expanded and non-expanded). Age-adjusted cancer mortality rates and adjusted-mortality rate ratio (aRR) were estimated by sex. Results: Across quintiles of county-level severe housing cost burden, age-adjusted cancer mortality rates were largely greater in non-Medicaid expanded states than Medicaid expanded states among women and men. Among counties in the lowest quintile of severe housing cost burden, rates for overall cancer mortality in women were 9% (aRR=1.09; 95%CI 1.05-1.14) higher in non-Medicaid expanded states compared with expanded states. Additionally, among the third quintile of severe housing cost burden, colorectal cancer mortality rate was 8% higher (aRR=1.08; 95%CI 1.02-1.14) in non-Medicaid expanded states. Among men in the lowest quintile of severe housing cost burden, overall cancer mortality rates were 5% (aRR=1.05; 95%CI 1.02-1.09) higher in non-Medicaid expanded states than Medicaid expanded states. Further, among men in counties in the highest quintile of severe housing cost burden, colorectal cancer mortality rate was 8% higher (aRR=1.08; 95%CI 1.05-1.12) and lung cancer mortality was 13% higher (aRR=1.13; 95%CI 1.10-1.15) in non-Medicaid expanded states compared with expanded states. Conclusions: Counties with a lower fraction of households experiencing severe housing cost burden had greater premature cancer death rates within non-Medicaid expanded states than Medicaid expanded states. However, among men rates were also elevated in non-Medicaid expanded states in counties with the greatest severe housing cost burden. Citation Format: Wayne R. Lawrence, Neal D. Freedman, Jennifer K. McGee-Avila, Lee Mason, Yingxi Chen, Aldenise P. Ewing, Meredith S. Shiels. Severe housing cost burden and premature cancer mortality by state Medicaid expansion status [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 801.

GEOWEALTH-US: Spatial wealth inequality data for the United States, 1960–2020

Wealth inequality has been sharply rising in the United States and across many other high-income countries. Due to a lack of data, we know little about how this trend has unfolded across locations within countries. Examining the subnational geography of wealth is crucial because, from one generation to the next, it shapes the distribution of opportunity, disadvantage, and power across individuals and communities. By employing machine-learning-based imputation to link national historical surveys conducted by the U.S. Federal Reserve to population survey microdata, the data presented in this article addresses this gap. The Geographic Wealth Inequality Database (“GEOWEALTH-US”) provides the first estimates of the level and distribution of wealth at various geographical scales within the United States from 1960 to 2020. The GEOWEALTH-US database enables new lines of investigation into the contribution of spatial wealth disparities to major societal challenges including wealth concentration, income inequality, social mobility, housing unaffordability, and political polarization.

Landlord opposition to rent control and the politics of class monopoly rent

Housing costs have soared in the United States and beyond in recent years, leading to growing calls for rent control among tenant rights advocates and legislators. This push to enact rent control has been met with substantial opposition by landlord associations, an opposition which is mobilized by long-standing arguments by economists rooted in neo-classical economic principles. The article extends existing criticism of one particular facet of this opposition: the argument that rent control will only worsen any housing crisis as rents increase due to landlords actively reducing supply. We argue that this argument amounts to the pursuit of something that mainstream economists have long ignored or disavowed to counter-act the intended purpose of rent control: class monopoly rent. By drawing on evidence from the statewide rent control legislation passed in Oregon in 2019, we engage with scholarship on the sociology of housing markets and Marxian rent theory to reveal that landlords acting as a collective voice through landlord associations to advance this argument effectively constitutes the discursive deployment of class monopoly power as a political strategy to lobby against tenant rights proponents. As such, we argue that landlords effectively engage in a “politics of class monopoly rent” which functions as a discursive weapon against tenant rights activists and low-income renters otherwise held captive in unaffordable housing markets. We offer this article as a resource for tenant rights activists and legislators who must inevitably confront this opposition in the process of mobilizing rent control legislation.

Severe housing cost burden and premature mortality from cancer.

Unaffordable housing has been associated with poor health. We investigated the relationship between severe housing cost burden and premature cancer mortality (death before 65 years of age) overall and by Medicaid expansion status. County-level severe housing cost burden was measured by the percentage of households that spend 50% or more of their income on housing. States were classified on the basis of Medicaid expansion status (expanded, late-expanded, nonexpanded). Mortality-adjusted rate ratios were estimated by cancer type across severe housing cost burden quintiles. Compared with the lowest quintile of severe housing cost burden, counties in the highest quintile had a 5% greater cancer mortality rate (mortality-adjusted rate ratio = 1.05, 95% confidence interval = 1.01 to 1.08). Within each severe housing cost burden quintile, cancer mortality rates were greater in states that did not expand Medicaid, though this association was significant only in the fourth quintile (mortality-adjusted rate ratio = 1.08, 95% confidence interval = 1.03 to 1.13). Our findings demonstrate that counties with greater severe housing cost burden had higher premature cancer death rates, and rates are potentially greater in non-Medicaid-expanded states than Medicaid-expanded states.