Coming in from the Cold: Canada’s National Housing Strategy, Homelessness, and the Right to Housing in a Transnational Perspective

Canada’s National Housing Strategy (NHS) commits the government to eliminating chronic homelessness and promises that realizing the right to housing is a key objective. In this article, we explore how the Canadian government could realize the right to housing in the context of eliminating chronic homelessness. We argue that it is helpful to look at how other jurisdictions have successfully reduced homelessness. In this article we examine Finland and Scotland’s approaches because they offer certain similarities in how homelessness is addressed, yet they also differ, most crucially in how they understand the right to housing. We argue that both of these jurisdictions offer important lessons for Canada to draw on as it seeks to reduce long-term homelessness.

Factors affecting maintenance cost of public buildings: case study of Tanzania Buildings Agency and National Housing Corporation

PurposeThe state of public buildings in Tanzania exhibits evidence of a lack of maintenance and repair. Despite efforts to raise the performance of public buildings, little emphasis is placed on maintenance works and related factors affecting maintenance costs of public buildings, which are often high. This study aims to examine factors affecting maintenance costs of public buildings.Design/methodology/approachThis was a case study involving two government building agencies – Tanzania Buildings Agency (TBA) and National Housing Corporation (NHC). A total of 387 tenants and 29 experts participated in the study. Data were collected using questionnaires and analyzed using Stata version 16 – descriptive statistics feature reporting absolute numbers and frequencies.FindingsBoth tenants and experts ranked building age, poor quality control, building material used, execution of work when it is urgent and inadequate financial resources as major factors affecting maintenance costs of public buildings. In the distinctive rating, tenants ranked resource management as a major factor, while experts ranked ignorance about the property of materials, misuse of buildings and faulty maintenance as major factors.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has some limitations such as geographical coverage which is limited to Dar es Salaam and Dodoma regions, hence missing information from other regions may have different experiences. Additionally, data were collected in a self-reported manner which could bring about information bias.Practical implicationsFindings of this study provide an insight on recent developments on the factors affecting maintenance cost of buildings using two cases of NHC and TBA which are single entities owning a substantial amount of housing units in Tanzania. Factors affecting the maintenance cost of public buildings identified in this study is a threshold for experts to devise strategies for minimizing maintenance costs.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that assessed factors affecting maintenance cost in public buildings run by TBA and NHC from the tenant and expert perspectives.

Wyzwania współczesnej polskiej polityki mieszkaniowej

The article presents the author’s insights into the Polish housing policy in the context of the country’s current housing needs and challenges. Special attention is given to the role of housing policy and citizens’ right to adequate and affordable housing, which are the main determinants of the national housing policy development. The author first defines the housing policy, the principles of its effectiveness, and describes its instruments. Next, she overviews the beginning and the achievements to date of Polish housing strategies and programmes, comparing them with the newest National Housing Programme (NHP). In the final section, the author assesses current housing needs in Poland and identifies how the NHP responds to the challenges of contemporary housing policy. The article draws on national and international statistics and the relevant literature on the subject.

A Review of the Iraqi Housing Sector Problems

Housing is one of the important necessities for people. It comes after food and drink according to Maslow’s pyramid of human needs. It also influences countries’ social cohesion, stability and development and at the same time is affected by their general conditions. Iraq has a housing sector crisis. The county experiences a large housing shortage. The Iraqi National Housing Policy identifies critical challenges in seven housing-related fields: housing production, land management, housing finance, infrastructure, construction materials, housing stock status and slums. This paper aims to present a better understanding of these housing challenges as a first step to the development of appropriate solutions. It presents a critical investigation of the housing sector’s issues through exploring a wide range of literature to build a framework that critically evaluates and identifies the problems. The paper also quantifies the current housing shortage at around 1 million dwellings. Based on the extrapolation of trends towards 2030, it is estimated that Iraq has to build around 230000 dwellings annually to satisfy future demand. Results confirm the importance of the issues identified in the National Housing Policy, which gives it more validity. The paper concludes by proposing a series of measures to address Iraq’s housing challenges.