Increasing the Prevalence of Offsite Construction in Housing Association Developments: Conceptual and Pragmatic Challenges

Offsite construction is increasingly being presented as a way to increase housing delivery and reduce the housing crisis. Housing Associations play a pivotal role in the delivery of affordable homes and therefore offsite construction could be beneficial in alleviating the crisis. For offsite construction uptake to increase, the conceptual and pragmatic advantages and challenges surrounding offsite housing in relation to evolving social domestic needs to be explored and understood. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the viability of offsite construction as not only a full-service solution to social housing provision, but an integral strategic partner for meeting the range of specialised fabrication needs for these new properties. A literature review is carried out to explore the conceptual and pragmatic advantages and challenges encountered by HAs adopting offsite construction methods. The paper also investigates which the housing tenures are most suited to offsite construction technology. The paper highlighted that whilst individual case studies and example homes offer one mode of justification for Housing Associations to move forward, it is the cumulative effect of cost savings, sustainability, specialised skill sets, labour reduction, structural innovation, and rate of construction that should be weighed and incorporated into this consideration-making process.

Problems Associated with Informal Settlements in a Planned Neighborhood; A Study of Eagle Island of Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria.

This study examined the problems associated with informal settlements in a planned neighborhood, using Eagle Island Port Harcourt, Rivers State as a study area. To achieve the objectives of this study, a detailed literature was reviewed on informal settlement. The study adopted survey research design as 120 structured questionnaires were designed and administered, eventually, 100 valid responses collected formed the data for analysis. The obtained data came from Eagle Island residents, officials of ministries of lands, Urban Development and Lecturers of Urban and Regional Planning in Rivers State University. In the course of the study it was discovered that the nature and conditions of existed informal settlements were identified as natural ageing of the building, poor sanitation within the vicinity, and poor health condition of the residents. The major associated problems of informal settlements as exposed by the study included increase in illness, forceful eviction, overcrowding, lack of privacy, low quality houses and uncontrolled development, marginality generation and exclusion of the vulnerable, structures demolition without prior notice and without adequate compensation. This study was restricted to Eagle Island Neighborhood, Port Harcourt, Rivers State and the selection of Eagle Island was mainly influenced by accessibility of the researcher and the recent forceful eviction and demolition of structures by the Rivers State Government, consequently the findings of this research will be taken as a representative for the entire country. The study provides detailed comprehensive propoor strategies which will contribute to the integration of informal settlements into a planned neighborhood to include poverty reduction strategies, site and services housing schemes, land regularization, provision of array basic facilities, comprehensive housing schemes and provision of public rental housing alongside the planned development. The study thus recommended that low income housing alongside comprehensive housing scheme should be provided. Similarly there should be provision of low cost public rental housing, provision of interventions in the housing sector among others. Keywords: Informal Settlements, Planned neighborhood, Eagle Island

‘Keeping the children close and the daughters closer.’ Is family housing support in Greece gendered?

The welfare regime of Southern Europe, and Greece in particular, does not adequately cover the needs of its citizens. On the contrary, and within this context, family welfare has to be much more efficient. Moreover, the support received from the family imposes a sense of reciprocity, as receivers are expected to be givers in the future. This reciprocity is assisted mainly by the female members of the kin, defining to a degree their housing practices. Data for this paper is derived from a wider research project investigating young people's housing practices and family strategies through in-depth interviews in Athens, Greece. Bringing gender to the fore, it explores how the housing provision from family is impacted by the receivers’ gender role in connection to family welfare obligations.

Foreshadowing the Civil Rights Counter-Revolution

After overseeing the adoption of two landmark civil rights proposals in 1964 and 1965, the Johnson administration and its allies in Congress sought to implement the third item of its broader agenda: a legal prohibition on racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing. Enacting fair housing legislation, however, proved to be a vexing process. Advocates had to win support from northern White Democrats skeptical of the policy, as well as Republicans who were often (and increasingly) unreliable allies. Fair housing legislation failed in 1966 (89th Congress) but passed two years later, during the 90th Congress. We provide a legislative policy history detailing how, after three tumultuous years, Congress came to enact the fair housing provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Overall, the battle to enact fair housing legislation presaged a dynamic that would take hold as the Great Society gave way to the Nixon years: once federal civil rights policies started to bear directly on the lives of White northerners, they became much harder to pass and implement. It also showcased the moment at which the Republican Party in Congress first moved to the right on civil rights and explicitly adopted a position of racial conservatism.

Housing

This chapter identifies the provision of affordable housing as a key challenge for contemporary welfare states. Rising house prices have undermined many of the mechanisms governments traditionally used to promote housing affordability and have made the challenge of affordability more urgent and more difficult. These forces have also intensified long-standing tensions regarding the role of housing in welfare states, particularly its contribution to achieving two primary distributional aims of social policies: providing a social safety net for the economically vulnerable and mitigating broader social inequalities. Much research on the first aim has focused on policy inputs—particularly social housing provision—rather than on the outcomes they achieve. Consequently, we know less about the affordability benefits generated by social housing than we should. However, in many countries, reductions in exchequer capital subsidies for social housing provision mean that the sector is now largely self-funded from tenants’ rents. Therefore, the large social housing sectors in Western Europe are no longer a guarantee of affordable rents. Subsidies for home ownership are often criticized as a regressive measure, which conflicts with social policy’s equality aim. However, homeowner housing remains the most widely and progressively distributed form of wealth and its contraction in the face of strong house price inflation in recent decades will precipitate increased wealth inequality. Policy responses to this inflation have concentrated on regulating home buyers’ access to mortgage credit, which may impede their ability to buy. Therefore, policies are also needed to improve the supply side of housing and make it more responsive to demand.

Analysis and assessment of housing affordability in the Republic of Kazakhstan

The aim of the study is to study theoretical and methodological approaches to the influence of the state program of housing construction on determining the affordability of housing for the population. Construction objects, as well as housing construction objects, lose their profitability and are not sold after delivery. The resulting decline in demand further aggravates the situation. The study analyzes the provision of housing in the Republic of Kazakhstan, and also makes calculations to determine the affordability of housing in the country. The article discusses the main indicators of the development of the housing construction industry: domestic production and consumption and market size in the Republic of Kazakhstan.The contribution to the development of the housing construction industry comes mainly from investments in the construction industry. The State Program also provides for the construction of rental housing, in accordance with standard projects for the construction of 5 and 9-storey large-panel frame houses using industrial housing technology. One of the most acute social problems in the Republic of Kazakhstan is the availability and provision of housing. This indicator depends on such factors as: the high income stratification of the population, the rate of construction of housing in the country at the regional level. The issues of housing provision in the regions of Kazakhstan were addressed through the implementation of the Regional Development Program 2020 and the state program of infrastructural development “Nurly zher”.