Urban Housing Systems in Times of Crisis

Abstract

Bigger cities represent a housing situation that is quite distinct from that of other areas. They have been the primary target of national construction efforts and more generally of interventions in the housing stock, with the result that they show the visible remnants of past housing policies, arranged next to or on top of each other, like ancient settlements uncovered by archaeologists. The rental sector and particularly social housing are strongly over-represented, as are areas with concentrations of the socio-economically deprived and the socially vulnerable. Yet the scope for local interventions in the field of housing is relatively limited compared to the other policy fields described in this book,¹ especially at a time of public stringency. As the level of housing distress rises, paradoxically, so has the inability of local welfare policies to deal with it. This is due to the fact that housing policies have a limited potential to affect the housing situation, due to the basic inflexibility of the housing stock, and much of the space for policy making has been taken up by national or regional, rather than local, governments.