The impacts of housing factors on deprivation in a world city: The case of Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a typical example of a world city that faces escalating poverty and housing problems. Problems related to housing are crucial in determining deprivation. By means of hierarchical linear regression on a representative survey of Hong Kong residents in 2014, this study examines the impacts of household income and housing factors on the deprivation of residents in Hong Kong. The study indicates that income level has a crucial effect on the deprivation level of households; whereas housing cost per capita, living area per capita, and living quarter problems significantly influence deprivation. A small interacting effect exists between household income and housing factors, which do not influence the independent effects of living area per capita and living quarter problems on deprivation. For the public rental housing residents, only the effect of living quarter problem on deprivation is significant, whereas for private rental housing residents, living area per capita and living quarter problem have a significant effect. Among all the models, housing expense per capita is a significant factor only in model for overcrowded households. The study recommends that improving the maintenance and renovation schemes for public and private housing with poor living environment is a good strategy to improve housing conditions and deprivation. The study suggests that anti‐poverty policies must consider strategies and measures that can improve the housing factors, including housing expenses, living density and living quarter maintenance problems, especially for those residents with high living density, such as those living in bed spaces, cubicles, and subdivided flats.     

Weaving nets: Housing and leadership in two Italian cities

As part of local welfare in Italy, housing policies underwent reforms that emphasized the role of local governments—and cities in particular—in the definition of the problem and in the elaboration of possible solutions. Housing is quite neglected in the political debate, but it is increasingly important for responding to citizens' demands in times of economic crisis. This paper reconstructs the policy process in two Italian cities, Turin (1997–2011) and Florence (1995–2011). The paper argues that policy change in housing can be fostered by a local political leadership that invests ideational, relational, and positional resources in policy making to spread new ideas, build networks of public and private actors at the local level, and attract fiscal resources while taking advantage of windows of opportunity at different institutional levels. Moreover, collaboration with local bureaucratic leadership proves fundamental to promoting innovative policies.     

The long-term consequences of youth housing for childbearing and higher education

The lack of housing in areas where young adults have greater opportunities to study and get work complicates young adults’ entry into the adulthood. Difficulties in accessing housing may therefore delay childbearing and may negatively have an effect on education opportunities. To increase housing accessibility, some municipalities have earmarked apartments for young adults. These “youth dwellings” are criticized for being small and not necessarily facilitating family formation and fertility, better suiting students’ needs. We have in this paper compared the long-term pattern of childbearing and education for young adults that entered their housing market through small cheap youth housing with those youngsters that received a rental apartment from the ordinary housing stock. To be able to draw the conclusion that differences in fertility and educational pattern between these two groups comes from the different housing situation and not from differences in in preferences when it comes to childbearing or individual prerequisites for higher education, we have used a geocoded data and information on the individual’s family background as well as a matching technique to create a comparison group that are similar to the treatment group in several aspects. The present results indicate that building affordable housing that is small and space efficient is sufficient and positive if the aim is to promote higher education. Affordable housing is on the other hand not enough to promote childbearing, instead, it seems to inhibit childbearing until there is a possibility of moving on in the housing career. Our result also indicates that the next step need not necessarily be homeownership, as earlier research has indicated. Entering the housing market via youth housing and then being able to move on to rental accommodation in the ordinary housing market also seems to have a positive effect on overall childbearing, although moving to cooperative housing or owned housing has an even larger effect.     

A price worth paying? Accountability,red tape and the regulation of affordable housing

Although it is not a pressing social problem in the same way as, for example, poverty, child abuse, or climate change, red tape causes frustrations for many working in public and private sector organisations, perhaps even more than for the ordinary citizen dealing with large government agencies. This paper will explore some dimensions of this contentious issue. It will consider the positive view of regulation advanced by regulation theorists, and some qualitative researchers associated with this tradition. Drawing on a qualitative research study concerning the regulation of affordable housing in Australia, it examines the nature of administrative burdens. It is suggested that three factors lead to the perception of red tape: whether regulation is seen as making a difference to services beyond accountability; whether the measures used are meaningful; and the resources available for compliance. Qualitative researchers can help those in government seeking to reduce administrative burdens by supplying realistic accounts that address the views and experiences of those subject to regulation.     

Denied Citizens of Turkey: Experiences of Discrimination Among LGBT Individuals in Employment,Housing and Health Care

The purpose of this article is to explore experiences of discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) individuals in three domains of social policies: employment, housing and health care — domains in which LGBT individuals are not openly recognized as equal citizens and anti‐discrimination legislation is absent in Turkey. Drawing on qualitative content analysis of the data collected from 14 focus group interviews with 139 LGBT individuals conducted in ten provinces of Turkey in the first half of 2014, this article sheds light on diverse forms of discrimination facing LGBT individuals in employment, housing and health care in a largely under‐researched country. The article concludes that the contemporary understanding of Turkish citizenship and its practice are rooted in heterosexist universalism that does not recognize LGBTs as equal citizens, which, in turn, leads to systematic breaches of LGBTs' social rights in employment, housing and health care. The article shows that even strong and universalistic social policies fail to serve LGBTs on an equal footing with other citizens unless equal citizenship rights of LGBTs and anti‐discrimination principles are recognized and realized.     

The Prevalence of Factors Influencing Decisions Among Elderly Women Concerning Household Possessions During Relocation

This study identified the prevalence of factors influencing elderly women's decisions concerning their living room items during relocation. The 36 participants lived alone in identical one-bedroom apartments and had relocated within one year prior to the time this study was initiated. A structured focused interview consisting of open-ended questions was used to collect the data. Responses to open-ended questions were tape-recorded, transcribed, and content-analyzed. The prevalence of factors influencing decisions to eliminate, retain, and acquire furniture, accessories, and decorative items pertained to the usefulness of items, spatial dimensions, building regulations, family attachments, gifts, and the decorative compatibility of items with the living room.     

Physical Home Environment as a Determinant of Aging in Place for Different Types of Elderly Households

The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between physical housing features and home modifications to aging in place or precipitating a housing transition among elderly households. Data was taken from two waves (1998 and 2000) of the Health and Retirement Survey. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were performed. Residing in a multi-family home without an elevator was a predictor for housing transition for couple households, while residing in a home with small interior modifications was a predictor for remaining in place for single households. Implications for policy makers, health care providers, housing industry and elderly are discussed.     

Living in Affordable Housing and Duration of Tenure: Do Older Adults Stay in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Projects as They Age?

Compliance data for the low-income housing tax credit program in Ohio was examined to identify factors associated with affordable housing tenure. Residents aged 55 and older reported a median tenure duration of 2.7 years. Cox regression was used to explore time until exiting housing, controlling for demographic factors, and the date the housing project was placed into service. Results suggest that duration of tenure was predicted by age and race. Modifications to the state Qualified Allocation Plan guiding development under the low-income housing tax credit program should be considered to promote aging in place in affordable housing. Reasons for exiting and subsequent housing choice should be explored.     

A Cross-National Test of Propositions from the Neo-Pluralist Perspective on Social Security Expenditures

Abstract

Much of the existing literature on cross-national differences in retirement wage policy has focused on the inception of programs and the factors leading to their introduction. The explanations may be less adequate in accounting for post-war changes in social security programs. To interpret the evolution of programs in the postwar period, we stress the importance of divisions among workers themselves. We argue here that such divisions may occur along three fault lines: (1) ethnic, racial, and linguistic differentiation (2) the split between heavily urbanized and other segments of the working population and (3) fractionalization brought about by domination of a single industry. Using a longitudinal design to measure changes in social security expenditures in 34 nations between 1965 and 1983, we test hypotheses asserting that fragmentation among workers is inversely correlated with expanded investment in benefits for workers. We find general support for these hypotheses.     

The Local History of an International Type: The Structural Panel Building in Czechoslovakia

ABSTRACT

Focusing on the state-run system of architectural offices as a mediator between politics and practice, this article considers how the 1948 Communist Party takeover of Czechoslovakia affected architectural practice and the establishment of housing types in the early 1950s. The legacy of a strong local construction industry before 1948 was critical to these developments. At the new Institute of Prefabricated Buildings, created in 1952, architects and engineers continued earlier research on prefabricated construction technologies. Through this work, the Czechoslovak government and its architectural administration soon concluded that its best long-term option for solving the country's housing crisis was the use of structural panel construction. Fifty years later, one in three Czechs still lives in the more than one million apartments built with this technology between 1954 and 1990. Structural panel construction was not a Soviet import; instead it developed out of local wartime experimentation at the Bat'a Shoe Company in Zlín, independently of similar research undertaken in the Soviet Union and other parts of the Eastern Bloc in the same years. Although buildings that look similar were constructed in the region and similar housing types appeared across Europe after the Second World War, this article argues that structural panel technology in Czechoslovakia is an example of local continuities in the building industry, rather than evidence of the homogenization of the postwar European landscape.