scholarly journals Social policies, financial markets and the multi-scalar governance of affordable housing in Toronto

Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (13) ◽  
pp. 2628-2645
Author(s):  
Beibei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Financial Markets ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Housing Needs ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Low Income Households

While housing has been a central object of financialisation, questions regarding how multi-scalar states shape the financialisation of housing remain under-researched. I address this knowledge gap through a case study of the financialisation of affordable housing in Toronto. By analysing pertinent policy documents, I examine the roles and relationship of the federal, provincial and local states in the financialisation of affordable housing. Two findings are highlighted. (1) Although policies from all levels of government show traits of financialisation – in terms of both the connection between social policy and financial markets, and financialised ideologies prevailing in policy discourses, the extent and pattern of the manifestation of financialisation are distinct. This research thus calls for a nuanced understanding of the state’s role in the financialisation of housing from a multi-scalar perspective. (2) Affordable housing policies usually do not give an explicit definition of ‘affordable’. By scrutinising the policy specifications, I found that the target group is mainly moderate-income, rather than low-income, households. It will be increasingly difficult for low-income households to meet their housing needs.

Failed Markets

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonso Valenzuela Aguilera
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Housing Market ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Financial Capital ◽  
Low Income Population ◽  
The Past ◽  
Politica Publica ◽  
Housing Needs

A confluence between the state, the housing market, and the rationale of financial capital has led to excessive growth of social housing in Mexico in the past two decades. This growth has been one way of channeling excess capital into global financial markets rather than the result of a public policy to address the housing needs of the low-income population. Durante las últimas dos décadas la confluencia entre el estado, el mercado de la vivienda y la lógica del capital financiero ha llevado a un crecimiento excesivo de la vivienda social en México. Este crecimiento ha sido una manera de canalizar el excedente de capital hacia los mercados financieros internacionales en vez del resultado de una política pública para resolver las necesidades de vivienda de la población de bajos ingresos.

The Cost of Low-Hanging Fruit?

2020 ◽  
pp. 132-153
Author(s):  
Emily Becker ◽  
Nathan McClintock
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Nonprofit Organization ◽  
Internal Structures ◽  
Income Neighborhood ◽  
The Cost

Through a case study of a community orchard in an affordable housing neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, we examine how the involvement of an outside nonprofit organization can transform the very notion—and composition—of community. We illustrate how the internal structures and day-to-day practices of a nonprofit privileged participation by more affluent individuals from outside the neighborhood, and ultimately subsumed a grassroots initiative, transforming it in ways that reinforced dominant power relations and created a whiter space within a diverse, low-income neighborhood. We conclude by drawing attention to the growing reflexive awareness of these issues by staff, and to their subsequent commitment to making programmatic changes that have mitigated the momentum generated by nonprofits’ funding requirements and the energy of eager outside volunteers.

Public Housing and Vouchers

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Public Housing ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Housing Subsidy ◽  
Housing Program ◽  
Design Evolution ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Privately Owned ◽  
Low Income Households

Public housing and rental vouchers constitute two distinct forms of housing subsidy in the United States. Public housing, the nation’s oldest housing program for low-income renters provides affordable housing to about 1.2 million households in developments ranging in size from a single unit to multibuilding complexes with hundreds of apartments. The Housing Choice Voucher Program, founded more than 35 years after the start of public housing is now the nation’s largest rental subsidy program. It enables around 2 million low-income households to rent privately owned housing anywhere in the country. Although both programs provide low-income households with “deep” subsidies that ensure they spend no more than 30 percent of their adjusted income on rent, and both are operated by local public housing authorities, they offer distinct advantages and disadvantages. This chapter reviews and compares the two programs, examining their design, evolution, and strengths and weaknesses, including issues of racial segregation and concentrated poverty.

scholarly journals Affordable Housing For Low-Income Masses: A Case Study of A Densely Populated Area in Lagos Metropolis

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Oluranti Olupolola Ajayi ◽  
Olajide Julius Faremi ◽  
Simeon Dele Roger ◽  
Antony Uwaje
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Populated Area

scholarly journals The low-income single-family house and the effectiveness of architects in affecting affordability

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Dulaney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Actual Effectiveness ◽  
Family Housing ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
House Design ◽  
Family House

Architects are increasingly engaged in efforts to provide affordable, owner-occupied housing in the United States. Yet architects’ roles in broadly addressing affordable housing remain marginal as was anecdotally evident by the absence of architects at a recent university-sponsored affordable housing workshop. Apparently, the potential contributions of architects in “the development of innovative approaches and best practices” related to affordable, owner-occupied housing is not always valued to housing policymakers and planners such as those who organized this workshop. This paper speculatively explores the gap between the potential value of architects and their actual effectiveness at realizing widespread relevancy, innovation, and change in improving the quality and attainability of affordable, owner occupied housing and how this gap may contribute to the undervaluation and marginalization of architects’ efforts to address affordable housing needs in the United States. Case studies of several recent U.S. house design competitions exemplify these gaps. Potential strategies for closing these gaps and thus appreciating the value of architects’ efforts in this endeavor are identified.To become central in providing much-needed affordable, owner-occupied housing, architects must make the value of their potential contributions evident. This requires a clear definition of design goals, a rigorous assessment of built projects, and the thorough dissemination of findings and methodologies. Architects must engage those fields to which they have, in the U.S., long relinquished affordable, single-family housing. Architects must demonstrate that qualitative design improvements are not just possible within the frameworks and agendas of those other fields but that good design will better enable the achievement of those extra-disciplinary goals.

scholarly journals Poverty Suburbanization, Job Accessibility, and Employment Outcomes

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Delmelle ◽  
Isabelle Nilsson ◽  
Providence Adu
Keyword(s):  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Urban Amenities ◽  
Job Opportunity ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
Center City ◽  
Household Incomes ◽  
Block Groups ◽  
Low Income Households

The last decade of urbanization throughout many cities have seen a perceptible shift in the demand for centralized urban amenities while poverty has increasingly decentralized. Yet, the opportunity landscape of these shifting geographies of poverty and prosperity are not well understood. In this article, we examine how access to employment for low-income households has been impacted as a result of these changing geographies. Using a case study on the Charlotte metropolitan area we examine whether the suburbanization of poverty and reinvestment in the center city has reshaped the job opportunity landscape for low-wage residents. The objectives of this article are twofold. First, we calculate and map autobased accessibility from all neighborhoods in the Charlotte metropolitan area to job locations, differentiated by wage categories, in 2010 and 2017 to identify potential changes in the mismatch between low-income households and access to employment. We use a point-level employment dataset for these two years and calculate accessibility originating from census block groups. Second, we estimate the extent to which access to employment has affected employment rates and household incomes at the neighborhood level using a first-difference, spatial two-stage least squares model with instrumental variables. Our findings suggest that changes in accessibility had no significant effect on changes in neighborhood employment rates. However, we find evidence that increasing accessibility for lower-income households could have a positive effect on neighborhood median household incomes. Overall, the polycentric nature of Charlotte appears to have reduced the spatial mismatch between low-income workers and low-wage jobs.

Housing Choice as a Function of Risks Confronting Low-income Households

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-118
Author(s):  
Anand Sahasranaman ◽  
Vishnu Prasad ◽  
Aditi Balachander
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Rental Housing ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Jel Codes ◽  
Rental Markets ◽  
Health And Mortality ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Low Income Households

The design of housing solutions for low-income populations has been one of the most pressing policy concerns in developing countries like India. In this work, we explore the effect of risks confronting low-income households—unemployment, health and mortality—on their choice of housing arrangements. We use simulations to study the evolution of long-term wealth of a stylised low-income household faced with these risks and find that, on average, rental housing significantly reduces the risk of undesirable wealth fluctuations over time. From a policy perspective, this means greater focus and incentives for the development of low-income rental markets using strategies such as provision of rental vouchers, rent-to-own models or long-term leases, in addition to the traditional ownership-based housing strategies. The development of housing solutions encompassing a range of rental and ownership models will be critical to ensuring the availability of safe and affordable housing for all urban residents. JEL Codes: C63, O18

scholarly journals Contradictions of Transit-Oriented Development in Low-Income Neighborhoods: The Case Study of Rosengård in Malmö, Sweden

Urban Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laleh Derakhti ◽  
Guy Baeten
Keyword(s):  
Development Strategy ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Urban Poverty ◽  
Housing System ◽  
Transit Oriented Development ◽  
Significant Development ◽  
Shed Light

Transit-oriented development (TOD) has become a leading model of urban planning worldwide that promises to meet a broad range of local and regional objectives: improving mobility, expanding ridership, attracting investment, reducing urban poverty, improving quality of life, making affordable housing and fostering urban integration. At the same time, the implementation of TOD in many cities has raised concerns about gentrification, displacement, re-segregation, and more polarization. This article aims to shed light on these issues by bringing together previously disparate literature that mentions these contradictions and discusses policymakers’ hopes and critics’ concern for the implementation of a newly started TOD project in a universal housing system in Rosengård—a segregated, low-income neighborhood in Malmö, Sweden. Although policy advocates view the project as a significant development strategy for a more sustainable Malmö, there are also real concerns about gentrification and the potential displacement of low-income residents. Furthermore, the mixed-methods study showes how integration might be achieved, but concerns have arisen about the possible exclusion of the current low-income residents, which brings up issues of inequality, representation of poverty, and marginalization.

Free basic water in Msunduzi, KwaZulu-Natal: is it making a difference to the lives of low-income households?

Water Policy ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 443-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie A. Smith ◽  
J. Maryann Green
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Water Requirements ◽  
African Government ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Kwazulu Natal ◽  
Making A Difference ◽  
Tariff Structures ◽  
Low Income Households

South Africa's past apartheid inequities create unique challenges in achieving water delivery goals. The South African government implemented the free basic water (FBW) policy in July 2001 to ensure all South Africans had access to a basic amount of safe water by 2004. The FBW policy entitles all people to a free lifeline supply of 6000 ls/6 kilolitres (kl) (1 kl = 1000 l) of water per household per month. Despite being heralded as a way of ensuring access of lifeline water services to low-income households, fundamental policy flaws exist. The FBW allocation does not meet the basic water requirements and special water requirements of the majority of low-income households. Low-income households require more than the 6 kl allocation and are thereby expected to pay the full cost for their water service. The affordability crisis has not been addressed as tariff structures and cross-subsidisation mechanisms remain inadequate. The financial sustainability of the FBW policy is reliant on the equitable share, an unconditional grant from national government and user-fees, which the extensive low-income sector cannot afford to pay. The FBW policy is analysed, via a case study, conducted in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, within the Msunduzi municipal jurisdiction, which draws on low-income household experience of the policy.

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