GGR 357 H1F Geography of Housing and Housing Policy

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GGR 357 H1F Geography of Housing and Housing
Policy 
Session 9 June 16, 2008 The meanings of home
and attitudes towards homeownership
DR. AMANDA HELDERMAN
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Announcements

• Paper due this Friday before 5pm
• Helderman_at_geog.utoronto.ca
• Drop box _at_ Office of the Department of Geography
• Both digital version (MS WORD only) and hard copy
• Make sure it is clear that it is for Amanda
  Helderman and that it is term work for GGR357H1F
• Summer job/ hard to make the deadline?
• You learned about this date on May 12. You have
  signed up for this course so should be committed
  to your education
• You could turned it in earlier if Friday is
  inconvenient for you
• E-mail digital copy
• Fax hard copy 416-946-3886, make sure it is
  clear that it is for Amanda Helderman and that it
  is term work for GGR357H1F
• Late penalty 5 per day.

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Introduction

• Many meanings of home
• Many meanings of homeownership
• Alternative meanings of the home
• such as economic activities in the home
• Societal developments (individualism)
• Implications for the place housing takes in
  personal lives
• Understanding the meaning of home in developing
  countries and for immigrants
• Consequences for residential relocations, housing
  preferences, and search behaviour

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Meanings of home

• Definitions of housing according to Bourne,
  Dieleman etc.
• Physical aspects shelter, bricks and mortar
• Economic good or commodity housing can be
  exchanged, has value
• Investment good or asset (wealth)
• Sector of the economy
• Social or collective good home base/ node in
  social networks access to other services
• Building block of neighbourhoods and communities
• Bundle of services ?

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Bundle of services

• Physical facility
• Shelter
• Consumption of services public, schools,
  environment etc.
• Location/ accessibility

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Housing services

• Shelter from the elements
• Value or wealth ? equity for owners
• Shelter from taxes (capital)
• Accessibility to services (e.g. schools), work,
  neighbourhood
• Social status
• Rights to privacy, exclusion

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Home

• Material dimensions
• Spatial dimensions
• Meaningful dimensions

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Material dimensions

• Physical state
• State of repair
• Biological/ Chemical exposure
• Costs

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Spatial dimensions

• Immediate environment
• Proximity to schools, recreation, health
  services, employment opportunities

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Meaningful dimensions

• Permanence/ stability
• Social status (housing tenure)
• Prestige
• Pride
• Identity
• Saunders, 1990
• Place to venture out into the world
• Place of economic activity

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New functions of the home as a place for work or
business (Ventakesh et al., 2003)

• Activity Centre (household chores)
• Entertainment Centre (computer games, TV)
• Work Centre (telecommuting, working at home,
  home-based businesses)
• Communication Centre (phone, E-mail)
• Shopping/ Financial Centre (e-shopping)

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New functions of the home as a place for work or
business

• Family Interaction Centre (meeting place for
  household members)
• Information Centre (obtaining info from media)
• Learning Centre (e-learning)
• THE NETWORKED HOME

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Societal developments

• Cultural changes
• Sociological changes Individualism (increased
  autonomy of individuals, both in and outside the
  workplace)
• Labour market developments
• Longer working hours increasingly difficult to
  combine work with household tasks for many
• Status longer work hours to make more money (rat
  race)

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Role patterns

• Trade off families negotiations about tasks in
  the household
• Rigid families traditional role patterns

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Labour market developments

• Changing labour markets
• Flexibility increasing short term labour
  contracts
• Not constantly participating in the labour
  market sabbatical year, not always enough work
  in certain sectors of the economy
• Increasing pressure on the job
• Combining different tasks of dual earners
• Flexible working hours, flextime
• More autonomous approach to work
• More self-employment (start in 50-85 of cases at
  home)

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Economic activities in the home

• Start-ups
• Limited costs, no search costs necessary
• Limited risks, knowledge of the area
• Easy to start, no search efforts necessary
• Home as an incubator for businesses

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Historical approach

• Before the industrial revolution, the home was in
  most cases the place where people spend both
  their work hours and their leisure time
• During and after the industrial revolution, the
  home became the place where people solely ate and
  slept
• The new millennium fast growth of technological
  possibilities such as high-speed Internet making
  telecommuting possible

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Spatial implications of home based businesses

• Home more strongly becomes the centre of the
  entrepreneurs/ households daily urban living
  space
• Work, recreation, social activities all have the
  home as the central node
• The home is the starting point of many activities
  but also the place to venture out into the world
  to undertake various activities

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Hägerstrand

• Problem many competing tasks, in household
  career and in labour career
• The home as the hub in a network of frequently
  visits nodes work place, school, family,
  friends, shopping, recreation...
• There are limits in time and space to what a
  person can do in a day and thus on a regular basis

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Hägerstrand

• Constraints who limit human activity in time and
  space
• Capability constraints (you cant be in multiple
  locations at the same time)
• Coupling constraints (combination of work, care
  and leisure time may be difficult)
• Authority constraints (not everyone is allowed to
  go everywhere at any time opening hours,
  segregation)

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Home based businesses as a solution to time and
place pressures

• Combining tasks made easier
• Time efficiency of working at home (also a cost
  aspect in a way)
• Limited travel time
• Low housing costs for business (often a reason
  for starting a business at home)

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What type of businesses?

• Activities that do not require that much floor
  space (indoors) Compare driving schools, other
  on-the-road
• Many invisible home-based businesses book
  keeping in the attic
• Amount of floor space use is correlated with
  ambition level and growth of the company

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What type of businesses?

• Smaller average income than salaried workers
• Often older households/ individuals
• Duration of residence long
• Business and personal services. Financial advice
• Knowledge sector of the economy
• Taxi drivers
• Few have proper plans to grow beyond the
  home-based business, the situation seems to be
  born from the convenience of easily combining
  tasks inside and outside the home
• Also many agrarians

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What do the homes look like

• Great diversity in types of homes that house
  home-based businesses
• Many are not recognizable as a business
• Small software agencies who work for another
  companies may have a small sign on the building
  but nothing else
• Galleries, nail studios etc who rely on their
  clientele to visit them, may be a bit more
  visible
• If they are visible, they often also are situated
  in a highly visible location relative to roads
  and to other buildings

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Rules and regulations

• Threshold levels lt30 of area home
• No polluting activities in residential areas
• Many older neighbourhoods are simply designed for
  residential purposes only (the legacy of rules
  and regulations from the past)
• Not all government bodies are flexible enough to
  renew building permits where necessary

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Implications for planners

• Diversity
• Mix of functions within home and within
  neighbourhood purposes should be complementary
• Prevention of functionally segregated
  neigbhourhoods in urban centres
• Social cohesion and turnover
• Liveliness (social safety or at least a sense of
  safety)
• Vitality
• Better threshold population/ market for services
  in the neighbourhood

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Implications for developers and planners

• Helpful for planning neighbourhoods?
• Multi-functional building methods
• Flexible building techniques (high ceilings, easy
  to make additions, moveable walls)
• Multiple uses of space
• Existing structure in neighbourhoods determine
  the extent to which home-based businesses are
  succesful enough space for entrepreneurship, not
  just for residential functions
• Tenure structure enough property in private hands

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Implications for developers and planners

• Synergy possible if there are meeting places for
  entrepreneurs face-to-face
• Service points
• Time share offices (meeting customers)
• Specific building styles of multi-functional
  homes?
• Separate entrance for household members and
  clients?
• Flexible rooms/ ceilings

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Implications for developers and planners

• Individual design
• Flexibility in design (family expansion or
  business expansion, continuously renewed building
  permits)
• So far demand from municipalities, not from
  entrepreneurs

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Location specific capital

• Hinders home based businesses to be footloose
• Suppliers
• Sunk investments (machines, adapting home for
  business activities)
• Friends, family, local suppliers
• Personal business contacts

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Location specific capital

• Keep-factors
• Embeddedness (Granovetter, 1985)
• Intangible assets hard to take with you to a new
  place (RISK!)
• Consequence searching locally, minimizing risk.
  Relocation decision not only household decision
  but also a business decision!

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Neo-classical approach to entrepreneurship

• Homo Economicus
• Maximizing profit
• Minimize costs
• Perfect knowledge/ information
• Maximizer

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Behavioural approach

• Homo psychologicus
• Decisions are made in an only partly rational
  fashion
• Satisfier

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Satisfier

• Home based businesses generally less satisfied
  with housing for company than businesses located
  outside the home
• Hard to keep work and private separate

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Consequences for search and relocation behaviour

• Only 7 of home-based businesses is looking to
  relocate within 5 years
• Some studies report 20 are expecting to relocate
  within 2 years, only 10 have concrete plans
  (less than household relocation!)
• Not many home-based businesses generally foresee
  a move in the near future
• Entrepreneurs more often have housing reasons as
  a motive for moving than business reasons

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Relocation behaviour

• If the plans to move are business decisions,
  entrepreneurs do not necessarily want to remain
  home based
• Attachment to the home often prevents the
  business relocation plan to be carried out
• More than half of all home-based businesses who
  want to relocate, want to stay home-based

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Relocation behaviour

• Sunk investments (machines, adapting home for
  business activities) are assumed to represent
  location specific capital that is known to act as
  a keep factor
• But specific investments in the home for the
  business generally do not make a business more
  likely to stay in the same place than other
  businesses who have not made such investments
  while household situation, children do!
• Entrepreneurs demand few specific housing
  characteristics for their business size!

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Relocation behaviour

• A need for space to expand is a push factor
• Housing characteristics may also be push factors
• A small home, a rented home, an apartment all
  make relocation more likely

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Search behaviour

• Home region is appreciated more than other nearby
  regions neighbourhood effect
• Where the entrepreneur is from may be the most
  deciding factor in deciding on a location for the
  business
• Less search costs if entrepreneur focuses on
  his/her own region
• Searching in own region minimizes risk
• Starters are strongly dependent on home
  advantage local external resources (friends,
  family, knowledge of suppliers etc.), does not
  automatically lead to optimal location choice

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Changes in search behaviour

• Location advantages may change during the
  business life course
• At the start, a company is less pre-occupied with
  the question where the business will locate and
  more with how to finance, the product, the
  market, rules and regulations, permits, and
  perhaps employees
• Once started at home, the home often remains
  popular, even if the business (/household!)
  relocates

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In conclusion about home-based businesses

• Location specific investments mostly play a role
  on the household level (schools children) and
  less on the business level (sunk costs)
• Most want to continue as a home-based business
  after a potential relocation
• This suggests that having a home-based business
  is a life style choice rather than an economic
  necessity
• The characteristics of the home also are
  important anchors in neighbourhood economies
  seem to be owner-occupied and large enough to
  accommodate a household and a small business

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Developing countries

• Extremely common to have a home-based business in
  many countries in the Third World
• Informal-sector activities
• Cooking, arts and crafts

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Home-based businesses in Third World countries

• More emphasis on shelter
• One in four families use their home for other
  activities than just shelter (economic!)
• Many families only have one room at their
  disposal
• Crowding is a common problem
• Virtually all sectors are represented in the
  informal economy, except heavy industry
• Female-headed households and larger households
  with older, less-educated heads are most likely
  to use their home for income generation
• Important for immigration countries

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Rules and regulations in Third World countries

• Also surprisingly many parallels when it comes to
  official zoning
• In compound houses however, these are largely
  ignored because of the scale of the phenomenon
  and lack of enforcement
• Gvts. deter movers from buying homes if it is
  known that they will want the housing for income
  generation
• If home-based businesses were condoned and
  recognized in building codes and regulations, it
  would make it easier to build housing

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Many parallels between both worlds

• Home-based businesses in the Third World also are
  most often based in larger homes, although
  quality of homes with home-based businesses are
  not as good as regular homes
• Businesses are location specific
• Life style choice/ Way of life
• Decision to move involves not only household
  decision or business decision, but both!

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Meanings of homeownership

• Both in the Western world and the Third World,
  home-based businesses and other such alternative
  meanings of the home are attached to
  owner-occupied homes
• Stability
• Long-term commitment
• Build-up of equity

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Levels of homeownership ()
1991 1996 2001
Montréal 46.7 48.5 50.2
Vancouver 57.5 59.4 61.0
Toronto 57.9 58.4 63.2
Ontario 63.7 64.3 67.8
Canada 62.6 63.6 65.8
2006
53.4
65.1
67.6
71.0
68.4
From census 1991, 1996, 2001 2006 Statistics
Canada
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Meanings of homeownership

• Approximately 68 homeownership in Canada in 2006
• Free market principle dominant in Canada, so
  important to discuss alternative meanings to
  homeownership from the ones we have discussed in
  previous sessions
• Which were

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Individual advantages to homeownership

• Building up equity from a home
• Housing quality/ Neighbourhood quality
• Customized aspects/ alterations
• Control of individual housing situation/
  independence
• Continuity/ stability
• Status
• Emotional value

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Individual disadvantages to homeownership

• Financial risk housing market
• Financial risk labour market position
• Responsibility for maintenance
• Impedes residential relocations
• Financial commitment
• Transaction costs
• Sense of security, personal environment
• Emotional attachment
• Stable households

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Advantages of homeownership for governments

• Stimulate individuals building up equity from
  their homes
• Stimulate capital markets
• Increase supply of higher quality, owner-occupied
  housing stock
• More adequate match of supply and demand
• Flexibility of labour markets? (Oswald, 1999
  Helderman, 2006)

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More links with the labour market

• Housing has a strong link with the labour market
• Since the Second World War, homeownership has
  gained popularity at a steady pace in most
  countries
• In 1989, a down-turn in the market took place
  high levels of arrears, stagnant or falling
  housing prices, and negative equity, particularly
  in the United Kingdom
• Bad personal experiences
• Structural changes occurring in most labour
  markets

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Homeownership and the labour market

• Three perspectives of changing perceptions of
  homeownership
• Cyclical model Features of a depressed market
  are temporary cyclical phenomena that restore
  when the economy recovers
• Pathological model explains changing perception
  like a cyclical phenomena, not only based on
  changes in the economy, but also on personal
  history/ experiences (personal misfortune)
• Combination of the above with a different
  outcome, because there are structural changes

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Structural changes in the labour market

• Result from global competitive technical changes,
  the implementation of government policies to
  secure great deregulation, and so flexibility in
  the labour market
• Increased opportunities for women
• Loss of full-time jobs
• Self-employment
• These minimized challenge for homeownership as an
  ideal, but they represented a turning point for
  mortgagors reassessment of their attitudes to
  owning and being able to pay

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Labour market and housing market

• The reason why work and housing is so interwoven
  is that stability of (future) income is important
  for the long-term commitment that a mortgage
  entails
• Links were found between attitudes towards
  homeownership, the current economic position of
  people, personal experiences, unemployment, and
  their expectations of the economic future
• Not all periods of recession are found to be
  accompanied by less favourable attitudes toward
  homeownership

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Labour market and housing market

• Periods of recession that were not accompanied by
  less favourable attitudes toward homeownership
  and a recovery of these came with larger and more
  structural changes
• This points at the third perspective of changing
  perceptions of homeownership
• Attitudes to homeownership are thus not only
  potentially influenced by access to employment
  and income, they may also be affected by security
  and stability of income

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Security and stability of income

• Trends temporary casual employment, short-term
  contracts, self-employment, propensity to
  unemployment, duration of unemployment, number of
  periods of unemployment
• Structural and cyclical changes interact with
  each other, which makes it very difficult to
  determine how the processes work
• Personal characteristics aging people do not
  like the responsibility of maintenance e.g.

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Consequences of changing labour markets

• Homeownership will remain popular, but may be
  less attractive at times
• Arrears and repossessions may increase at times
• Perhaps a resurgence of a demand for renting will
  occur
• People would like to place capital in other forms
  of investment

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Saunders and the meaning of home

• The most important meaning of home that Saunders
  mostly focuses on in his book A nation of
  homeowners is the desire of people to own a
  desire for its own sake
• Control of own housing situation (emotional
  expression of autonomy)
• Respectability and status (Personal identity!)
• Security (against unemployment)
• Housing as an investment, securing an income in
  retirement

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A desire for its own sake

• Deep-seated and natural disposition to possess
  key objects in the immediate and personal
  environment, although such explanations are
  rarely even considered in the social sciences ()

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Three different types of meaning of home

• Coldly rational meaning (wealth, control,
  autonomy, income)
• Deeply emotional meaning (security, personal
  identity)
• Set of cultural values (desire for possession
  nurtured and sustained in cultural tradition)

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Saunders and the meaning of home

• Independent of other people (classes)
• Blurring of class cleavages
• Search for respectability and status
• Homeownership grew at the expense of private
  rented sector first and public sector second
• Housing represents both a means of shelter and a
  store of wealth

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Reason for increases of homeownership after WWII

• Referred to by Saunders as the homeownership
  revolution or counter-revolution of possession
  during and following the process of
  industrialization and urbanization
• Rising real incomes and dual earners coupled
  with
• the availability of mortgage funds/ interest
  rates, size of deposits, terms over which
  mortgage could be repaid

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Reason for increases of homeownership after WWII

• Landlords selling out to sitting tenants
• Cultural, economic and political factors explain
  spatial variations in the percentage of
  homeownership
• Falling cost of housing construction
• Increased number of women participating on the
  labour market
• Family class identity breaking down, traditional
  proletariat disappearing
• Political will to support homeownership (pressure
  from council tenants, according to Saunders)

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Reason for increases of homeownership after WWII

1. Growth of building societies and collapse of
   private renting
2. Demographic changes (growth, marriage younger)
3. Rising affluence (real incomes increased and so
   did dual earner households)
4. Government financial support
5. Popular values and expectations
6. DESIRE TO OWN

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Increase of homeownership

• Saunders does not deny the effect of gvt support
  for homeownership or the role of economic
  fluctuation, but he doesnt feel like this is the
  most important factor for increase in
  homeownership

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Homeownership is as a natural goal?

• Saunders defies all possible arguments for
  deliberately manipulating the working class into
  homeownership
• Would go against assumption that homeownership is
  a natural goal for people!

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Homeownership is as a natural goal?

• Ideological effects of homeownership are
  encouraged to establish social stability and
  future political support
• Create and reinforce divisions among the working
  class (easier to manage, no strong unions)
• Long term debt would discourage any activity
  against employers
• Encourages workers to withdraw from collective
  life and turn attention to home and the family
• Creates a mass market for consumers (housing as a
  sector of the economy)

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Arguments Saunders for homeownership as a natural
goal

• Government has not intervened in the period of
  the fastest growth of homeownership
• Before the war it was the middle class rather
  than the working class moving into homeownership
  and the middle class never posed a threat to
  social stability and the economic order
• Saunders book was highly criticized when it was
  first published, one-sided view
• Still very often cited work!

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Consequences for search and relocation behaviour

• Saunders perceives the ownership of the home as
  something that the owner-occupier is deeply
  committed to by the ownership itself, and by the
  values he or she attaches to control, autonomy,
  identity, security and investment
• These values invoke attachment to the home and
  therefore are expected to inhibit residential
  relocations

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GGR 357 H1F Geography of Housing and Housing
Policy 

• Session 10
• June 18, 2008
• What should be the role of the state and other
  actors in the public domain?
• REVIEW

DR. AMANDA HELDERMAN
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Is housing on the radar of governments?

• Many countries government influence in the
  housing market straightforward
• Shape of action usually providing social
  housing
• Canadian situation
• The market mechanism is dominant
• Few social housing units
• But many challenges, housing issues on local and
  federal levels such as housing affordability

73
Is housing on the radar of governments?
Source Legislative Assembly Australia
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Is housing on the radar of governments?

• Is it the governments responsibility to
  provide some protection for things the market
  place is saying were not interested in? I dont
  think so.
• Floyd Kvamme, presidents Advisory Council on
  Science and Technology

75
Why interfere in the market?

• Two perspectives of being critical of providing
  social housing in the Canadian situation
• If the market forms the main mechanism on the
  housing market, why interfere? Believe in the
  mechanism
• If it is agreed upon that housing needs of all
  should be met in the market, but the market
  drives up prices so that some groups are pushed
  out of the housing market because not enough
  affordable housing is provided by the market
  mechanism

76
Three purposes for public intervention

• Allocation
• Stabilization
• Growth and redistribution

77
Major issues for implementing housing policy

• Priority given to housing policy
• Direct or indirect subsidies for housing
• Level of intervention (housing value, income
  level)
• Location incentives (y/n) for low-income
  households
• Administrative question which level of
  government?
• Administrative methods and techniques need to
  achieve housing objectives

78
Why take the responsibility?

• Individual well-being/ Population well-being
• Electorate/media outcry
• Economic growth disposable income, access to
  employment, health, and inclusion are issues that
  need to be addressed to foster economic growth
• Childrens health and well-being the new
  generations future education, expectations,
  social engagement, and sense of responsibility in
  the community are impacted
• Housing is a human right (Universal Declaration
  of Human Rights ?)

79
Access to human rights other than housing

• Essential for promotion of sustainable urban
  development, human development and social
  cohesion
• Human development, a process of enlarging
  peoples choices, leads to further realization of
  all human rights economic, social, cultural,
  civil, and political
• Individual and community well-being are
  intertwined, and human development requires
  strong social cohesion and equitable distribution
  of the benefits of progress to avoid tension
  between the two
• Sustainable housing policy is one that creates a
  socially just housing system

80
International context of housing policy

• (See Ch. 27 Gilbert)
• Paragraph 11(1) of the International covenant on
  Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1976
• The present covenant recognizes the right of
  everyone to an adequate standard of living for
  himself and his family, including adequate food,
  clothing and housing, and to the continuous
  improvement of living conditions. The state
  parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the
  realization of this right.

81
International context of housing policy

• 2. Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of
  Human Rights - 1948 (binding rights since 1966)
• everyone is entitled to the economic, social
  and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity
  and the free development of his personality
• Paragraph 25(1) of United Nations Universal
  Declaration of Human Rights
• everyone has the right to a standard of living
  adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself
  and of his family, including food, clothing,
  housing, and medical care and necessary social
  services, and the right to security in the event
  of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood,
  old age or other lack of livelihood in
  circumstances beyond his control

82
International context of housing policy

• 3. United Nations Housing Rights Programme, 2002
  
• UN-Habitat Office of the United Nations High
  Commissioner for Human Rights
• The programme aims to undertake action to ensure
  that governments take appropriate action to
  promote, protect and ensure realization of the
  right to adequate housing

83
(No Transcript)
84
Realization of the right to adequate housing

• Packages of policies and practices rather than
  single right
• Ensuring secure tenure
• Preventing illegal and mass evictions
• Removing all forms of discrimination
• Promoting participation
• Gender equity
• Freedom of information, especially with regard to
  land markets

85
Challenges

• Many laws and regulations in place, but not
  always implemented and enforced
• Often more a statement of social and political
  intention than a feasible objective in the
  foreseeable future
• Shift focus to rented segment of the market
• Owning is not the most logical option at every
  stage of the life course
• Many levels of study and several levels of
  government that do not always match
• Many issues on housing markets are observable on
  a local level, but hard to study and address on a
  federal level
• Make implementing and enforcing the right to
  housing realistic

86
Challenge 2 Why more attention for rented
housing?

• Offers choice/ mobility
• Provides accommodation for low income households
  and households who do not qualify for housing
  subsidies
• Contributes to economic development through
  property development
• Sustains ownership through sub-letting
• May improve urban areas through facilitating
  urban renewal
• Can have a positive effect on female economic
  empowerment

87
Challenge 4 Implementing and enforcing the right
to housing

• Housing rights Legislation - UN-Habitat
• Arrange security of tenure in informal housing
• Protect people from forced eviction
• Prevent discrimination
• Provide affordable housing for the poor
• Arrange accessibility for the disabled
• Address housing restitution
• Focus on habitability
• Target homelessness
• Address land rights

88
Housing tasks in Canada

• Basis of housing policy from the 1960s till the
  mid-1980s has been a focus on the human right to
  adequate housing for all Canadians
• Canada has acknowledged the right to housing, and
  has implemented it, but Canada is not enforcing
  it as well as suggested by UN-Habitat

89
Canadas track record

• Canadians enjoy a singularly high standard of
  living and Canada has the capacity to achieve a
  high level of respect for all Covenant rights
• Absence of an official poverty line make it
  difficult to hold the federal, provincial and
  territorial governments accountable to their
  obligations under the Covenant
• Governments policies have denied people and their
  children adequate food, clothing and housing
• Inadequate legal protection of womens rights

90
Canadas track record

• Aboriginal peoples housing with a lack of safe
  and adequate drinking water and dwellings in need
  of major repair for lack of basic amenities
• Fewer low-income families are eligible for
  benefits
• Canada has allowed the problem of homelessness
  and inadequate housing to grow to such
  proportions that the mayors of Canadas ten
  largest cities declared homelessness a national
  disaster
• Income assistance (provincial social assistance
  and other) have clearly not been enough to cover
  rental costs for the poor

91
Canadas track record

• Limited availability of affordable housing
  creates obstacles for women to escape domestic
  violence
• Minimum wage is not sufficient to have an
  adequate standard of living
• Exacerbated poverty during times of economic
  growth
• 20 of Canadas population is functionally
  illiterate
• Recommendations national programme with
  designated cash transfers for social assistance
  and social services, establish an official
  poverty line, federal and provincial agreements
  to better ensure adequate standards of living

92
Federal housing tasks

• CMHC
• Ministry of Human Resources and Social
  Development (responsible for CMHC)
• Ministry of Public Works and Government Services
• Neither ministries have proper responsibility for
  housing, due to the constitutional responsibility
  for housing

93
Federal level bills and acts

• Bill C-416 House of Commons of Canada, 2001
• Housing Bill of Rights, effective 2003
• Protecting human rights by providing adequate,
  accessible and affordable housing and security in
  its enjoyment, to be achieved by adopting
  financial policies and the establishment of a
  national housing strategy

94
Housing Bill of Rights Adequate

• Legal security of tenure
• Availability of services, materials, facilities,
  infrastructure
• Affordability
• Habitability
• Accessibility
• Location
• Cultural adequacy

95
Housing Bill of Rights 2001

• Right to security of tenure against arbitrary
  eviction
• Right to appropriate housing (special needs)
• Right to safe and healthy environment
• Right to home free of violence, threat of
  violence or other harassment
• Right to enjoy respect of privacy
• Right to economic security resulting from
  protection of rent increases, property tax
  increases or other housing cost increases that
  are
• Sudden or excessive
• Intended to yield unreasonable profit
• Having the effect of diminishing the other rights

96
Enforcement Housing Bill of Rights

• Anyone that contravenes, threatens or takes away
  an individual right
• Fine of not more than 5000 for first offence
• Fine of not more than 10,000 or imprisonment for
  not more than 6 months, or both, for second or
  subsequent offence
• Threatening the rights of more than one
  individual constitutes a seperate offence in
  respect to each individual

97
Implementing Housing Bill of Rights

• Responsible Minister of Public Works and
  Government Services
• Develop and adopt policies to ensure that the
  cost of housing in Canada does not prevent or
  threaten the attainment and satisfaction of other
  basic needs
• Policies must provide for financial assistance
  for rent for those who otherwise are not able to
  afford the right to rental housing established in
  this act and availability of finance and credit
  without discrimination
• Effective monitoring of vulnerable and
  disadvantaged groups

98
Implementing Housing Bill of Rights

• Minister must develop and adopt a national
  housing conference strategy and programs to carry
  it out
• Adequate, affordable, accessible and not for
  profit housing in case of those who cannot
  otherwise afford it
• Housing should reflect the needs of local
  communties...
• ...and should not cost more than 30 of the
  occupants pre-tax income

99
Provincial housing tasks - Ontario

• Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
• Minister John Gerretsen (2003-2007) -gt
• Jim Watson (2007- present)
• Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program
  Agreement (until 2009, fed election year)
• Rent supplements and Housing Allowances
• Rental and supportive housing
• Northern housing
• Homeownership
• The Residential Tenancies Act (2006) replacing
  the Tenant Protection Act (1997)
• Landlord and Tenant Board replaces the Ontario
  Rental Housing Tribunal on January 31, 2007

100
Provincial housing tasks - Ontario

• Ontario Mortgage and Housing Initiative Resource
  Centre
• Social Housing Reform Act, 2000
• Social Housing Business
• Research analysis
• Housing research
• (often carried out by researchers
• at universities)
• Monitoring the affordable rented supply

101
Municipal housing tasks

• Toronto's Affordable Housing Action Plan
• Mayors Housing Summits 2002 2004
• Research and monitoring
• Affordable Housing Committee
• Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program
  2006
• Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program

102
Some of the City of Torontos housing
publications
103
Roles of governments

• Financiers
• Insurers
• Regulators
• Speculators
• Administrators
• Builders
• Landlords
• Destroyers

104
Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program
CAN Financier Insurer Regulator
ON FinancierRegulator
TO FinancierAdministrator(Builder)
105
Local solutions...

• Due to the many levels of government and the
  decentralization of the responsibility for
  housing, it is possible that solutions on the
  individual level contributes to a loss of control
  on the federal level
• Policy drift
• On a local level, it is easier to identify
  housing issues and come to a local solution

106
Different circumstances/ context

• Different ways of intervention in different
  circumstances and different policy instruments
  may still lead to the same housing issues

107
Northwestern Europe

• Traditionally interventionist compared with North
  America
• While leaving developments largely up to the
  market may lead to a lack of affordable housing,
  intervening in housing policy may have the same
  result

108
Example of the Netherlands

• Since the Second World War a change from a free
  market mechanism to close control by government
  agencies
• Modest decentralization zoning authorities,
  design and implementation of building codes,
  condemning buildings
• Passive controls
• Proliferation of policies and programs seems to
  have done little to alleviate existing inequities
• Supply side reactions of investors/owners
  contradict housing policy goals
• Demand side resort to own ingenuity to acquire
  accommodation at an affordable price

109
After WWII

• Temporary emergency controls to deal with
  quantitative housing shortage
• New construction almost had come to a halt
• Many homes destroyed by war action

110
Instruments after WWII

• Controls on investment, prices, wages economic
  reconstruction
• Rent controls housing considered essential for
  the success of economic policy
• Modest construction saving capital for scarce
  investments
• Large loans to nonprofit housing, realizing a
  record high output of low-income rental units
• Cost-reduction subsidies for construction tempted
  investors to build

111
Instruments after WWII

• Would be homeowners were tempted with grants
• The subsidized sector boomed, while the
  non-subsidized private sector decreased
• Compensation of negative cash flows for investors
• Quota system for regional inequalities allotted
  construction permits in proportion to housing
  needs
• Successful policy! Production surpassed the
  targets

112
Exogenous changes

• Demographic
• Income
• Housing shortage thus became more political
• Rents for existing homes increased slowly
• Rents for new homes increased more rapidly due to
  high construction costs
• Mismatch between housing costs for new and
  established households
• Mobility rates depressed, low level of turnover
• Qualitative housing shortage

113
Advantages of large social rented sector

• Large social rented sector remained an acceptable
  option
• Good reputation for a mixed group
• Less stigmatization than in countries with a very
  small social rented sector

114
1960s

• Qualitative shortage diminished which made
  deregulation possible
• Controls were lifted in increasing number of
  municipalities
• Return to free market system to decrease burden
  of housing subsidies that weighed heavily on
  government budget
• Controls not abandoned immediately pricing and
  subsidy systems made more attractive for private
  investors

115
1960s

• Even though the market weakened at the end of the
  1960s, the construction boom was sustained by
  giving out permits for subsidized housing to be
  realized by the private sector
• This delivered monotonous residential areas with
  high rise multi-family homes, a slowly increasing
  vacancy rate and a diminishing housing shortage

116
1970s

• Deregulation was halted because of political
  changes
• Expensive dwellings de-controlled
• Spatial mismatch between vacancies and housing
  needs
• Newly completed buildings are too expensive b/c
  rising construction utility costs and
  increasing interest rates
• Investors negative cash flows is no longer
  compensated, so they have three options

117
Options investors

• Upgrade property
• Convert to deregulated, expensive housing
• Liquidate portfolios

118
1975

• The quantitative shortage is overcome
• Vacancy rate beyond 2 ?
• Qualitative shortage rising?
• Squatting
• No extensive subsidies and little new
  construction
• Condo-conversion is a concern because owners may
  not lead as much to social stability, equity and
  property maintenance as people think. Regulation
  by permits

119
In conclusion

• The completion of many moderately priced homes of
  relatively high standards, improved the housing
  situation of low medium income households
• This has been a major achievement of this
  governments policy
• Had government not intervened, the housing
  shortage would have led to high house prices
  which would have forced a drop in construction
  for low-income groups

120
Motivation for intervention

• Economic recovery was the motivation for
  intervention. The motive to keep intervening was
  the unbalanced market. Housing was also
  considered important in the functioning of
  society. A shift to the private market would have
  brought about other issues
• Intervention on behalf of lower-income groups is
  possible, but at a price. The majority of the
  Dutch population accepts that price

121
Differences and parallels

• Diff The Dutch have shown an active involvement
  in allocation of housing, have contributed more
  funding and priority to housing policy, which was
  historically determined
• Parall Many similar issues as in Canada have
  played a role such as conversion of rented
  housing, substandard housing quality, emergence
  of social segregation, qualitative shortage of
  housing, inadequate subsidy systems to face
  issues
• Most European countries have a policy of
  large-scale intervention
• But serious problems persist despite this

122
Neither?

• Neither interventionist strategy, nor free market
  approach deals successfully with ALL HOUSING
  PROBLEMS
• Housing remains a persistent and divisive social
  issue in all Western countries, even though they
  are circumstantially and subjectively defined
• All countries have problems with their
  qualitative housing stock
• Failures of the market?
• Originated in government intervention?

THE END
123
REVIEW How to study for the exam

• Focus a bit more on the sessions after the
  midterm
• Slides should tell you which of the readings are
  most important
• A bit more literature related questions than last
  time
• Identify overlap between slides and readings and
  focus on those (sub)topics

124
6 processes of neighbourhood change
REVIEW

• Occupancy turnover and the movements of
  households within the housing stock
• Filtering process and changes in housing quality
• Housing and neighbourhood change arbitrage
• Progression of housing vacancies through the
  stock (vacancy chains)
• Spatial variations in house price changes
• Revitalization and the return-to-the-city
  movement gentrification
• (Bourne, 1981)

125
Filtering
REVIEW

• Any change in the relative position of the
  housing unit or the household in the inventory,
  or matrix, of housing units in the area
  filtering up and filtering down
• History concept Innermost rings in the city were
  occupied by a succession of social groups of
  decreasing income.
• Each zone filtered down over time

126
Arbitrage
REVIEW

• Placed central are the conditions and mechanisms
  that move boundaries between neighbourhoods of
  different socio-economic status and ethnic
  differences in an unstable housing market
• This approach unites elements of neighbourhood
  change with sub-market interrelatinships,
  filtering and housing preferences

127
Vacancy Chains
REVIEW

• Perspective related to filtering
• Directly links housing units involved in
  household relocations
• Vacancy is being displaced with every step
• Weakness of the method chains are short when
  there are a lot of new households and
  in-migrants, and where demolitions take place,
  chains are shorter when new public sector housing
  is constructed

128
Gentrification
REVIEW

• The investment of urban space for the use of a
  more affluent clientele, made possible by
• Demographic shifts (dink, smaller families)
• Employment (dual income) Disposable income and
  share to spend on housing has increased
• Costs suburban housing has increased since the
  1970s, while costs of commuting increased
• Shifts in tastes and housing preferences

129
Mechanisms of gentrification
REVIEW

• Culture approach gentrification is the spatial
  expression of a critical class politics
• Consumer dominance
• Neighbourhoods gentrify because of changing
  tastes and preferences

130
Mechanisms of gentrification
REVIEW

• Economics placed central gentrification is
  caused by the availability of inexpensive real
  estate.
• Rent gap theory many neighbourhoods experienced
  disinvestment in inner-city, leading to a decline
  in potential rent (highest and best use)
• Gentrification takes place where the potential
  rent is far above the actual rent ? supply and
  concentration of devalorized land is necessary
• 1990s recession brought an end to large scale
  gentrification
• Demographics more maturing families interested
  in suburbs

131
Policy issue 1 Housing allocation
REVIEW

• The distribution of housing among social groups
  and households at a given location
• Two principle mechanisms of housing allocation
  through the private market and through the public
  sector
• Private market price as mechanism, determined by
  the ability to pay, efficiency is the main
  objective
• Public domain competition and cooperation as
  mechanisms, based on individual and collective
  needs, equity is the main objective
• Different criteria for same goals (costs, prices,
  stock attributes)

132
The public allocation system in Canada
REVIEW

• Welfare pluralism centralized welfare system has
  been superseded a decentralized system
• Proliferation of agents much variation in the
  allocation of public housing, social housing and
  assisted market housing
• Top down ? bottom up
• Policy drift local outcomes may be a far cry
  from program intentions

133
Social housing allocation practices in North-West
European countries
REVIEW

• Production and allocation of housing
  traditionally firmly in the hands of public
  agencies
• Long tradition of housing allocation systems,
  especially of inexpensive part of stock
  historical context
• Some systems offer little freedom of choice and
  long, passive, waiting periods. Transparent,
  results can be checked, more objective, less
  discriminating or exclusive

134
Policy issue 2 Housing affordability
REVIEW

• Consensus on it being one of the main housing
  issues in Canada
• Measure of housing conditions Core housing need
• Two-step process of assessment in relation to
  three standards Adequacy, suitability, (and, if
  one is not met ) affordability
• Spatial differences and their relevance for
  housing market processes (prices, job
  opportunities, local tenure structure of the
  housing stock)
• Levels of scale and studying housing issues

135
Major housing issues
REVIEW

• Housing allocation
• Housing affordability
• Policy tilted towards owner-occupancy
• Challenge many levels of government

136
Underlying factors of affordability problems
REVIEW

• Geography
• Demography (age and number of members household)
• Migration/immigration/ethnicity (limited
  knowledge of housing market and discrimination)
• Income recipients (number of potential income
  earners in household)
• Income source (self-employment, wages and
  salaries etc.) and income polarization
• Employment and gender
• Education (skills and abilities)
• Housing tenure (homeownership insulates from
  price shocks)

137
REVIEW
138
Policy solutions per housing issueHousing
affordability
REVIEW

• No easy solution!
• Symptom of a deeper rooted problem?
• Acknowledgement of the role of poverty is a start
• Obstacles in government policy and market should
  be taken away as much as possible
• Concepts and goals should be defined clearly
• Adjustments in minimum wage (may in some cases
  lead to less jobs though!)

139
Policy solutions per housing issueHousing
affordability
REVIEW

• Offering pool of incentives for which developers
  have to compete quid pro quo
• Continuation of shelter allowances (and to a
  lesser degree rent supplements)
• Tolerating conversion in the direction of cheaper
  rented homes, facilitating renovation, and
  informal housing
• Balanced approach of supply and demand side
  measures, and a more direct commitment of
  governments to affordable housing investments
• Co-ops could be given a more substantial
  influence and role

140
Policy solutions per housing issue housing
allocation
REVIEW

• A clearer distinction between housing access and
  housing allocation
• In stead of leaving allocation completely up to
  the market, focus attention on lower-income
  families that are not served adequately by the
  housing market itself
• More attention for rented housing stock
• Waiting lists are increasingly replaced by
  lotteries, which are said to lead to more
  transparent and fairer allocation

141
Policy solutions per housing issue housing
allocation
REVIEW

• Choice based allocation models seem to be
  positively received by both governments and home
  seekers and could well apply even in a market
  based system, if implemented on target groups
• Third parties have produced good quality
  proposals in the past
• Realization that implications of welfare
  pluralism (policy drift) may not be a bad thing
  in all cases

142
Policy solutions per housing issue many levels
of government
REVIEW

• Municipalities have a good eye for the daily
  practice of housing issues
• Municipalities are also diverse
• Municipalities do not have sufficient funding to
  tackle socio-economic and housing issues of this
  scale
• Provincial funding and regional expertise
• Programs need to meet national goals to be
  successfully implemented, coordinated, and
  enforced

143
Policy solutions per housing issue many levels
of government
REVIEW

• Responsibility is taken on a federal level in the
  international community (United Nations
  declaration of human rights and International
  covenants)

THE END
144
Thank you all!

• Thank you for your presence, input, and efforts
  in and for this course.
• Especially for the fantastic papers that I will
  enjoy reading.
• Good luck with the exam and everything after!

145
Literature

• Doling, J. J. Ford (1996), The new
  homeownership the impact of labour market
  developments on attitudes toward owning your own
  home. Environment and Planning A, pp. 157-172.
• Saunders, P. (1990), How the meek inherited the
  earth. In A nation of homeowners. Chapter 1.
  London Unwin Hyman. p. 11-56.

146
Literature

• Sinai, I. (2001), Intraurban housing mobility in
  a traditional West-African city. Shelter or
  business decision? Urban Studies, 38/3, pp.
  535-540.
• Soldressen, L.S. S.S. Fiorito (1998), An
  exploration into home-based businesses data from
  textile artists. Journal of Small Business
  Management, 36 (2), pp. 33-45.

147
Literature last class

• Bourne, L.S. (1981), The role of government
  housing policies and programs. Chapter 9. p.
  191-213.
• Porter, B. (2005), The right to adequate housing
  in Canada. In J.D. Hulchanski M. Shapcott
  (eds. 2005), Finding room. Policy options for a
  Canadian rental housing strategy. Chapter 3. p.
  69-80.
• Bourne, L.S. (1981), Alternative housing
  systems  quasi-market, socialist and third
  world. Chapter 11. p. 235-249.
• Hulchanski, D. M. Shapcott. (2004), Finding
  room Policy options for a Canadian rental
  housing strategy. Toronto University of Toronto
  Press. Chapters 20-22.