Tenure Preference,Discourse and Housing Debt: Language’s Role in Tenure Stigmatisation

The British housing market has been characterised by a preference for owner-occupation which derives, in part, from the fact that there are many structural (primarily economic) forces that have resulted in tenants being increasingly marginalised. This is particularly true of tenants of local authority housing, which still makes up over 20% of the housing stock of Great Britain. While it may be possible to address these structural forces, and to propose programmes which may reduce the marginalisation, this paper seeks to address whether the stigmatisation of local authority tenants and of their landlords has now also become a problem of discourse itself. The paper seeks to examine this through the language used in relation to arrears of rent and mortgage payments, Drawing on interviews with both tenants and owner-occupiers, the paper suggests that the way in which individuals experience and talk about arrears is in fact relatively tenure neutral. Both owner-occupiers and tenants talked about their arrears in similar ways. This is then contrasted with how housing arrears have been portrayed in the print media. Here the portrayal of the causes and consequences of arrears is not tenure neutral. While owner-occupiers are portrayed as being the victims of forces beyond their control, and the institutional lenders are generally portrayed as seeking to minimise the impact of these forces on the individual borrower, the position for tenants is different. Here the individual is more often portrayed as feckless and a deliberate non-payer. Local authority landlords are similarly portrayed as inefficient at best and corrupt at worst. The paper concludes by suggesting that further marginalisation of those who are not owner-occupiers cannot be fully addressed without understanding that tenure neutrality is not only a question of economics but also one of language.     

Premarital relationships and livelihoods in Ghana

This study is based on interviews with a sample of 400 single women aged 18-25 years from the Fante ethnic group in Cape Coast, Ghana, in 1991, and on focus groups. This case study illustrates the importance of economic and living arrangement support expected from partners in premarital relationships. Support may be for living and maintenance ('chopmoney', provisions, household items, and rent); for financial security (provision of capital); and for clothing and hairdressing. Women did not always require economic support in premarital relationships. Women expect boyfriends to provide 'chopmoney' (money for food and general upkeep) and contribute some money for the rent. Only 36% of sexually active women expected their boyfriends to supply food provisions. Premarital sexual relationships are used to obtain start-up capital. The author refers to evidence that senior government officials engaged in sexual transactions with clients before loans and credit facilities were offered. 87% of sexually experienced women expected their partners to pay for at least part of clothing expenses. The study revealed that there was considerable disparity between women's expectations and actual receipt of economic support. 56% desired, but only 36% received, 'chopmoney' in full. 40% expected their partners to pay for household furnishings in full, while only 10% did so. 55% expected capital, but only 15% received it. The three most frequently received benefits in full were hair dressing, shoes, and dresses. Men provided most non-negotiable items as a means of "boosting their egos." Many young women rely on the support of men in order to improve their status. Ghanaian men control financial resources and economic power. Mothers of adolescent daughters encourage premarital sexual behavior. Prostitution is considered different from sexual exchange relationships. It is argued that gender inequalities and domestic abuse are perpetuated through sexual exchange relationships.     

Subsidized elderly housing: public-private partnerships on the brink

Starting in the early 1960s, the federal government joined with the private-sector housing developers in a partnership: in return for subsidized mortgages and tax benefits, developers would rent to low- and moderate-income tenants. Today, many elderly people live in these "publicly subsidized" units. The initial agreement, however, held out an escape clause: after 15 to 20 years, for-profit developers that wanted to end the partnership could prepay their mortgages, leaving tenants in those buildings "at risk" of rent increases and/or evictions. This article discusses that partnership, its options for dissolution, and the current solutions to the problem of the expiring agreements, including a moratorium, vouchers, and incentives. The compromise legislation responds to all interested parties--owners, current and would-be tenants, local governments, tax-payers--through a multi-stage sequence of dissolution, yet such a finely tuned, acutely sensitive legislative solution may not work easily or efficiently.     

Subsidized Elderly Housing

Starting in the early 1960s, the federal govenunent joined with the private-sector housing developers in a partnership: in return for subsidized mortgages and tax benefits, developers would rent to low- and moderate-income tenants. Today, many elderly people live in these "publicly subsidized" units. The initial agreement, however, held out an escape clause: after 15 to 20 years, for-profit developers that wanted to end the partnership could prepay their mortgages, leaving tenants in those buildings "at risk" of rent increascs and/or evictions. This article discusses that partnership, its options for dissolution, and the current solutions to the problem of the expiring agreements, including a moratorium, vouchers, and incentives. The compromise legislation responds to all interested parties- owners, current and would-be tenants, local governments, taxpayers- through a multi-stage sequence of dissolution, yet such a finely tuned, acutely sensitive legislative solution may not work easily or efficiently.     

‘A city is not a company,a flat is not a commodity’: urban movements and defenders of tenants’ rights in Poland

This article describes urban and tenant movements that have been created in Poland in response to the commercialization of urban space and the complete commodification of the right to housing. On the one hand, spatial segregation in Polish cities was fully approved by the state; on the other hand, it became a source of income for new owners of acquired buildings, who often used criminal methods to intimidate tenants. Brutal evictions encountered social resistance from the emerging tenant movement, non-institutionalized left-wing communities and endangered tenants, who were often pensioners and members of the lower classes. The author mentions undertaken and possible methods of social self-defence such as eviction blockades and rent strikes. He also raises the question of whether urban movements can become part of a broader social movement for systemic change.     

Secondhand tobacco smoke and municipal smokefree ordinances: attitudes of restaurant and bar owners and managers

Understanding the attitudes of restaurant and bar owners and managers toward a smokefree city ordinance can contribute greatly to the success of a smokefree policy campaign. While local opposition to a smokefree policy always arises from restaurant and bar owners, this study of restaurant and bar owners and managers in two Midwestern cities reveals that over two-thirds (67.1%) support a smokefree restaurant policy, and over 40% support a policy that would include bars. Moreover, most prefer the local government to require the city to be smokefree rather than choose to go smokefree on their own: only 1 in 5 would even consider going smokefree independently. The study explains that this is primarily due to widespread and unfounded fears of economic loss. Finally, the article recommends that education campaigns encouraging individual restaurants to go smokefree would be a far less effective strategy than persuading a municipal government to enact a smokefree ordinance.     

An Analysis of Atlanta's Ordinance Prohibiting Urban Camping: Passage and Early Implementation

In November 1996, the Atlanta City Council passed an ordinance to prohibit certain Urban Camping behaviors on public lands. This paper analyzes the development, passage, and early implementation of Atlanta's Urban Camping and Improper Use of Public Places ordinance. The ordinance prohibits lying down, sleeping, regular meal preparation, and storing belongings on public property. The ordinance is controversial because it criminalizes behaviors of homeless individuals who have no private property and therefore no choice but to perform tasks necessary to life on public lands. The ordinance's passage in Atlanta is at least partly the result of a post Olympic private sector growth in power that capitalized on growing concerns about public safety and urban economic vitality. During its first year, the ordinance disproportionately impacted homeless persons. Arrests occurred primarily in parks and during daytime, summer hours. Arrests trends reflect continuing tension between Atlanta's various users of public space.     

The effects of rent restructuring on social housing in English rural areas

This paper discusses the impact of central government's rent restructuring policy on social housing in rural areas in England. It examines the effect that restructuring will have on the rents set by social landlords in a set of case study areas then considers some of the likely impacts on affordability and on new investment in rural social housing. One of the primary aims of rent restructuring policy is to reduce unjustifiable differences between the rents of similar dwellings in the local authority and Registered Social Landlord sectors locally. This aim seems likely to be achieved. In doing so, it is likely that affordability will be reduced in the local authority sector but enhanced for tenants of some RSLs. However, the reduction in real RSL rents that improve affordability may further constrain RSLs’ ability to invest in new social housing in rural areas. The paper concludes that rent restructuring by itself will not materially improve the housing prospects of the less well off in rural areas.     

Firm Ownership and Rent Sharing

In this paper we analyse—theoretically and empirically—how the degree of private versus public ownership of firms affects the degree of rent sharing between firms and their workers. Using a particularly rich linked employer-employee dataset from Portugal, covering a large number of corporate ownership changes across a wide spectrum of economic sectors over more than 20 years, we find that rent sharing is significantly higher in firms with a larger share of private ownership. Estimates from our most preferred empirical specification suggest that an increase in the private ownership share of 10 percentage points increases (on average) the rent-sharing elasticity by 0.0002. Based on a theoretical analysis that incorporates union-firm wage bargaining and efficiency wage effects within the same modelling framework, this result cannot be explained by private firms being more profit oriented than public ones. However, the result is consistent with a scenario whereby privatisation leads to less job security for workers, implying stronger efficiency wage effects.     

STANDARDS: IMPLICIT, EXPLICIT AND MANDATORY

This paper presents evidence on the adoptions by local building commissions of four standards produced by industry groups. It is shown that at least three of the four provisions induce anticipatable income redistributions. It is suggested that these transfers are largely the result of quasi-rents being earned in the post-building code market adjustment period.     

LABOR MARKET SEARCH: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

The theoretical results derived from models of economic search have implications which relate to the structure and performance of labor markets. Utilizing a series of laboratory experiments, we attempt to capture many of the features of workers' search and also the conditions under which labor markets operate. By varying certain of the experimental conditions, we are able to determine the searchers' responses to changes in the terms of unemployment insurance, to the existence of a minimum wage, and to different states of information about the underlying distribution of wages. In most cases the behavior of the searchers is consistent with that predicted by theory.     

Augmented informality: South Africa's backyard dwellings as a by-product of formal housing policies

Insufficient and inadequate housing for the urban poor has a long history in South Africa, as in other African cities. Nearly one-fifth of urban households in South Africa reside in an informal dwelling. While most live in informal settlements, significant proportions have erected informal structures (essentially ‘shacks’) in the backyard of another property, a distinctly South African phenomenon. Backyard dwellings have historically been overlooked by housing policies that focus on upgrading and/or eradicating informal settlements. Previously, backyard dwellers were perceived as marginalised, living in appalling conditions and exploited by cavalier landlords. However, the post-apartheid provision of state-funded housing for the poor has altered the nature of backyard housing, creating a new class of cash-poor homeowners who are dependent on income from backyard dwellers' rent, thus ensuring a more equitable power pendulum between landlord and tenant. This paper uses research conducted in a low-income state-subsidised housing settlement in Cape Town to explore the new dimensions of informal backyard housing, both for landlords and tenants, as a consequence of South Africa's formal housing policies.     

Ownership and Control of Farmland: Landlord-Tenant Relations in Wisconsin1

This paper addresses the ownership and control of farmland, presents a conceptual model of landed property, and uses it to examine landlord-tenant relations in Wisconsin. A profile of farmland owners is constructed using survey data from two agricultural counties. Particular attention is paid to who controls farm management decisions on rented land. Results suggest that tenants enjoy much latitude in managing rented land and that relations between landlords and tenants seem satisfactory to both parties.     

Household Structure and Short‐Run Economic Change in Nicaragua

During the economic crises Nicaragua suffered between 2000 and 2002, a conditional cash transfer program targeting poor households began operating. Using panel data on 1,397 households from the program's experimentally designed evaluation, we examined the impact of the program on household structure. Our findings suggest that the program enabled households to avoid reagglomeration during the economic crises, with households in control communities growing more than treated households. These changes were driven primarily by shifts in residence of relatively young men and women with close kinship ties to the household head. In contrast, households that received transfers continued to send off young adult members, suggesting that the program provided resources to overcome the short‐term economic pressures on household structure.     

Family Structure and Economic Success Across the Life Course

This paper examines the role that family structure plays in long-run economic outcomes across the life course. Using nearly 30 years of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we find that youths who grow up with both biological parents earn more income, work more hours each week and are more likely to be married themselves as adults, compared to children raised in single-parent families. Many of these differences continue to be statistically significant even after we control for family income experienced as an adolescent. In addition, the implied size of the income transfer that children growing up with a single parent to equalize lifetime economic outcomes would need—about $42,000—is markedly larger than the income transfers now available to families in USA.     

CONTRACTS AS RENT‐SEEKING DEVICES: EVIDENCE FROM GERMAN SOCCER

Recent theoretical research has identified many ways how contracts can be used as rent‐seeking devices vis‐à‐vis third parties, but there is no empirical evidence on this issue so far. To test some basic qualitative properties of this literature, we develop a theoretical and empirical framework in the context of European professional soccer where (incumbent) teams and players sign binding contracts which, however, are frequently renegotiated when other teams (entrants) want to hire the player. Because they weaken entrants in renegotiations, long‐term contracts are useful rent‐seeking devices for the contracting parties. However, they reduce the likelihood of (mutually beneficial) transfers, which generates a trade‐off in the spirit of Aghion and Bolton (1987). Using a data set from the German “Bundesliga,” our model predictions are broadly confirmed. (JEL L14, J63, L40, L83)     

Social housing mediation: education path for social workers

ABSTRACT

Social mediation constitutes an alternative method to legal proceedings, providing effective support for the management and resolution of the most common types of conflicts between individuals, within families and among neighbours, as well as other types of disputes that can arise from interactions between people. Over the last 20 years, urban areas in Italy with high concentrations of public housing have gradually become zones of social disadvantage in which conflict is widespread, due to a number of different factors. On the local level, some municipalities have started promoting innovative initiatives, thanks in part to the sharing of successful practices, both nationally and internationally. This paper presents the methodology and results of an innovative intervention of social mediation in public housing contexts, carried out in a number of municipalities in the Marche Region with financing provided under two projects of the European Fund for the Integration of non-EU Immigrants. Particular attention is given to training courses for social workers, as well as to actions carried out in public housing neighbourhoods, together with the public housing tenants, in order to manage the various issues related to housing and to prevent and deal with conflicts by reinforcing relations between neighbours.     

Giving Unto Others: Private Financial Transfers and Hardship Among Families With Children

Prior research shows that financial assistance from family and friends is an important source of support for families with children. Research on financial transfers has largely focused on the recipients of transfers, however. In this study, using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n ～ 16,000 person‐waves), the authors examine the association between the provision of financial assistance to family and friends and material hardship. The results from pooled regression and fixed effects models indicate that providing financial transfers is associated with an increased risk of hardship. The most economically disadvantaged groups, single mothers, those in the bottom income tertile, and Black mothers are the most likely to experience hardship after giving a transfer. These findings have important implications for understanding why families may have difficulty meeting basic and essential needs and how social networks may exacerbate the challenges of escaping poverty and establishing economic self‐sufficiency.     

Organizing for Structural Reform:

Over the course of the past two decades, the New Jersey Tenants Organization (NJTO) has won significant structural reform for tenants. This article examines the history of NJTO's campaigns, organizing strategies, leadership structure, and organizational dynamics. This article also assesses the prospects for the future in today's economic and political climate.