Direct Subsidies and Housing Affordability in Australian Private Rental Markets

10.1068/c0445 ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 759-783 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin A Wood ◽  
Matthew Forbes ◽  
Kenneth Gibb
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Housing Cost ◽  
Microsimulation Model ◽  
Change Of Direction ◽  
Housing Subsidies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Maintenance Systems ◽  
Rental Markets

Many countries have undergone a broad retreat from the use of indirect (supply) subsidies to meet low-income housing-affordability problems, shifting to direct subsidies often linked to means-tested income-maintenance systems. Although the reasons for this change of direction are well documented, the efficacy of direct housing subsidies in terms of tackling affordability remains in question. The authors examine in detail one such system, Australia's Rent Assistance (RA) programme, making use of a microsimulation model of the Australian housing market linked to a model of the social security system. It is found that there is considerable targeting error because many low-income renters are ineligible for direct subsidies. It is also found that RA is relatively ineffective in overcoming affordability problems in high housing cost areas of Australia. Although RA does not of itself contribute much to poverty-trap problems, it may deter unemployed households from moving to areas where job vacancies exist. The authors conclude that future comparative work could usefully analyse the distributional and behavioural impacts of different forms of housing allowances. Moreover, alternative policies could be recalibrated within the microsimulation model in order to examine the first-round impacts of policy design change.

The Arkansas Lottery Scholarship Act

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-136
Author(s):  
Kristopher D. Copeland ◽  
Ketevan Mamiseishvili
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Target Populations ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Lottery Scholarship

State lottery policies have been created to generate additional funds to support public initiatives, such as higher education scholarships. Through 18 participant interviews and document analysis, this study examined how decision makers in Arkansas socially constructed citizens while forming lottery policy. The social construction of target populations theory provides a framework for better understanding how social constructions became embedded into the policy design process. Participants noted that beneficiaries included higher education students and the retail and vendor community. In addition, discussion centered on burdens being placed on people who derive from low income and people who have gambling addiction.

scholarly journals Extremely low-income households, housing affordability and the Great Recession

Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. 1615-1635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C Lens
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Rental Housing ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Median Income ◽  
Section 8 ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Housing Subsidies

The effects of the Great Recession on housing equity and homeownership have been well-documented. However, we know little about how rental households fared and the efficacy of housing subsidies in addressing affordability gaps. This paper examines the extent to which rental housing became less affordable for Extremely Low-Income (ELI) households – those earning less than 30% of the Area Median Income (AMI). I then run regression models to determine the local characteristics most strongly associated with larger affordability gaps, with a focus on whether housing subsidies are effective at combating such gaps. Rental affordability gaps became more pronounced during the Great Recession. In nearly 70% of the counties in my sample, there was an increase from 2007 to 2010 in the number of ELI households per affordable rental unit. Across the country, the increase was 17%, a dramatic increase in only three years. There is considerable variation across the country, with acute affordability crises often concentrated in the South, particularly Florida. Regression models provide compelling evidence that housing vouchers, public housing, and project-based Section 8 subsidies play an important role in limiting the extent to which large numbers of ELI households are competing for a shortage of low-cost rental units. However, these programmes do not respond quickly to local needs – such as those brought about by the Great Recession. A pilot study where local housing authorities had funding to be more agile and responsive would be an important step toward crafting better policy.

Der Drehtüreffekt zwischen Wohngeld und Grundsicherung

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (10) ◽  
pp. 791-817
Author(s):  
Ralph Henger ◽  
Judith Niehues
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Welfare System ◽  
Assistance System ◽  
Housing Subsidies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Individual Household ◽  
Housing Benefit ◽  
Housing Allowances ◽  
Benefit System

Zusammenfassung Für Haushalte mit niedrigen Einkommen können Veränderungen der Haushaltsstruktur oder eine Einkommenserhöhung durch Arbeitsaufnahme oder -ausweitung einzelner Haushaltsmitglieder einen Systemwechsel von der Grundsicherung zum Wohngeld oder umgekehrt nach sich ziehen. Hinzu kommt das Problem, dass das Wohngeldsystem nicht wie die Regelsätze der Grundsicherung jedes Jahr angepasst wird. Durch die Nichtanpassung wechseln Haushalte aus dem Wohngeld in die Grundsicherung hinein oder in den Nicht-Transferbezug. Werden die Wohngeldleistungen im Rahmen einer Reform erhöht, dann werden viele dieser Haushalte wieder ins Wohngeldsystem zurückgeholt. Dieser Wechsel kann als Drehtüreffekt bezeichnet werden. Mit Hilfe von Mikrosimulationsrechnungen wird gezeigt, wie groß der Drehtüreffekt ist. Zudem werden Wirkungen verschiedener Varianten einer möglichen Dynamisierung des Wohngeldsystems abgeschätzt. Abstract: The Swing-Door Effect between Housing Allowances and the Social Assistance System in Germany For low-income households, changes in the household structure or an increase in their income through taking up or expanding work for individual household members may result in a change from the social assistance system (Grundsicherung) to the housing allowances system (Wohngeld) or vice versa. In addition, there is the problem that the housing benefit system is not adjusted every year like the payments in the subsistence welfare system. The non-adjustment cause households to grow out of housing subsidies and into subsistence welfare system. When housing benefits are increased in a reform, many households come back into the housing benefit system. This change can be called the swing door effect. We show with a microsimulation model the size and relevance of this effect. In addition, the decline in the number of recipients and in expenditure is broken down into various components. Also effects of different variants of a dynamization of the housing benefit system are estimated.

Housing Programs

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Kemp
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Ethnic Segregation ◽  
Housing Programs ◽  
The Social ◽  
High Rent ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Building Standards ◽  
The Impact

This article examines the nature and role of housing programs for low-income households in the rich democracies. It first describes the characteristics of housing and why these can be problematic for people living in poverty before discussing the social construction of “the housing question.” It then explores private and public responses to these problematic aspects of housing. Private “solutions” include poor dwelling conditions, undermaintenance, overcrowding, high rent-to-income ratios, and homelessness. Public “solutions” include public health regulations, minimum building standards, rent controls, public housing, housing vouchers, and tax expenditures. The article shows that some public solutions have been regarded as the causes of other “poverty problems”—including high levels of joblessness and ethnic segregation—that have in turn been the subject of policy responses. Finally, it analyzes housing affordability as well as the impact of housing allowances and mortgage subsidies in relation to poverty.

scholarly journals Managing the equilibrium state of housing affordability

2020 ◽  
Vol 164 ◽  
pp. 10047
Author(s):  
Ariadna Kirillova
Keyword(s):  
Equilibrium State ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Coordination Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Accessibility ◽  
Housing Materials ◽  
The Subject

The subject of the study is the organizational and economic aspects of managing the equilibrium state of housing affordability for the population during construction. The analysis shows that despite the successful development of the housing sector and the functioning of the housing market, housing affordability is differentiated, which is manifested in unsatisfactory housing conditions of a significant part of low-income and other established categories of citizens. The aim of the study is to improve the processes of ensuring targeted consistent housing policies already at the construction stage to increase not only market, but also social affordability of housing. Materials and methods include a methodological approach, which involves the construction of a model of interaction between the investor and local authorities during the construction process in order to accelerate the solution of the problem of increasing housing affordability for the low-income citizens on the basis of ensuring the required volumes of housing construction in accordance with the main legislative formats. The optimization of the coordination model of the interests of investors and the municipality during the construction in this social housing cluster is ensured through the implementation of mechanisms to reduce the expenses of investors to obtain a land plot, as well as the proposed measures that increase the social accessibility of housing. The task is to ensure the balance and comprehensiveness of the market and social affordability of housing for various categories of citizens by expanding the list of powers of municipalities and financing their implementation for the construction of social housing facilities.

Housing affordability sets us apart: The effect of rising housing prices on relocation behaviour

Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 004209802094348
Author(s):  
Tim Winke
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
Real Estate Market ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Housing Cost ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Time Dynamics ◽  
Quasi Experimental

Life course events such as new offspring or job loss affect a household’s demand for housing. At the same time, dynamics in the real estate market constrain where households find affordable housing. In a quasi-experimental design, this study examines the effect of increasing local housing prices on the relocation behaviour of low- and medium-income households. Difference-in-difference panel regressions using propensity score matching show that with rising local rental prices, low-income households are more likely to remain in their current housing and sustain higher levels of housing cost burden. If they move, they relocate further out of the city centre and to neighbourhoods with high unemployment rates. Rising housing markets facilitate socio-spatial segregation as middle-income households remain in economically better-off neighbourhoods. The findings highlight the additional costs of increasing housing prices in terms of the misallocation of housing and the spatial concentration of vulnerable households at the outskirts of cities.

HouseMate: A proposed national institution to build new homes and sell them cheap to any citizen who does not own a home

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Murray
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Housing System ◽  
Public Intervention ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Social Challenge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rental Markets ◽  
Policy Priority ◽  
Low Income Households

• In a world of unequal wealth and incomes, market provision of housing usually fails to provide quality housing options to young and low-income households. Like other necessary goods characterised by monopoly, like healthcare and pharmaceuticals, access to them via pricing creates inherent social challenges.• Historically, the social challenge of unequal access to housing was solved with public intervention to offer non-market housing at lower regulated price to first time buyers and renters.• The proposed HouseMate program is a 21st century housing supplier, copying the best features of Singapore’s successful housing system. • It will sell new homes to eligible Australian citizens at construction cost price, offering them a discounted mortgage, with purchasers able to pay deposit and repayments using their compulsory super contributions. • This new housing alternative will operate in parallel with the private purchase and rental markets. HouseMate owners will have all the rights and obligations of private homeowners, but with a mandatory occupancy period. • The design of HouseMate addresses all the key housing policy challenges in Australia, includingohigh deposit hurdles for first homebuyers,ouncertainty and high rents for low-income households,oyounger households tying up income in super when homeownership is a higher priority for retirement, oprice effects and inefficiencies of demand-only subsidy programs to homebuyers (like FHB grants) and renters (NRAS payments), and olimited innovation of design and construction in private housing markets.• If secure, low-cost housing via homeownership is a policy priority, there is no reason not to try the HouseMate program.

Food insecurity and housing affordability among low-income families: Does housing assistance reduce food insecurity?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Bo Kyong Seo ◽  
Gum-Ryeong Park
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Housing Cost ◽  
Cost Burden ◽  
Housing Assistance ◽  
Cash Assistance ◽  
Poor Families ◽  
Housing Cost Burden ◽  
Low Income Families

Abstract Objective: Given the competing needs for food and housing under the limited household income among poor families, there is lack of research on the associations between housing affordability and food insecurity. This study examines how housing cost burden affects food insecurity of low-income families and whether decreased housing cost enhance food security. Design: Longitudinal data from the Korean Welfare Panel Study, of which the final sample for the analysis consisted of 31,304 household-level observations from 5,466 households based on 12 waves (2007-2018) Setting: South Korea Participants: Low-income households in the lowest 40% of household income distribution Results: 19.3% had food insecurity, and housing cost burden was associated with food insecurity. While in-kind housing assistance and in-cash assistance from all sources were likely to reduce food insecurity partially through influencing housing cost burden, in-cash housing assistance was associated with higher likelihood of food insecurity. Conclusions: Housing cost burden potentially limits food access among poor families, and housing assistance, particularly public housing and sufficient in-cash assistance, are conducive to alleviating food insecurity.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document