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Social Housing after the GFC: New Trends across Europe

"Just Another" or A "Genuine" Change in Slovenian Social Housing Strategy?

This paper provides an overview of developments affecting Slovenian social housing after the country’s transition to a market economy. It analyses the Slovenian institutional framework, its functioning and critically evaluates its sustainability. The economic and social impacts of the global financial crisis saw the sector face strong challenges and revealed its weaknesses. A new strategic document was adopted in 2015 to respond to the situation. Although this new document offers a transition to the more sustainable and better provision of social housing in practice, it is still too early for optimism since it would not be the first time in Slovenia that a strategic document has primarily remained only on the declaratory level.
19.6.2017 | Andreja Cirman | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 102-111 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.1.329
Social Housing after the GFC: New Trends across Europe

Social Housing in Italy: Old Problems, Older Vices and Some New Virtues?

Social housing in Italy, its historical and recent developments, and its criticalities are discussed considering both the pre- and the post-crisis period. The main effects of the crisis on Italian households and the exacerbating of housing problems are also analysed. A critical review of the main policy instruments implemented before and after the crisis is provided, with a special focus on new models of intervention. It is not clear how the housing needs of low income households will be addressed in the near future. Traditional public-managed social housing has been left with insufficient resources while the newly-built affordable housing sector is mainly targeting mid-income households. Several new policy instruments have been deployed and billions of euros invested. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to observe a consistent strategy oriented to increasing the level of social protection in the housing domain, beyond the conventional management of “emergencies”. Keywords: economic crisis; housing policy; Italy; social housing.
18.6.2017 | Teresio Poggio, Dmitri Boreiko | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 112-123 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.1.330
Social Housing after the GFC: New Trends across Europe

More Social Housing? A Critical Analysis on Social Housing Provision in Spain

Since the 1950s Spain has developed a set of policies aimed at stimulating ownership through subsidies mainly in the form of interest rates or mortgage quotas to developers and households neglecting other forms of housing provision, for instance social rent. That system provided one off benefit to the developer and/or the purchaser and could not be reused to help other households. The financial crisis in 2008 evidenced the weakness of the Spanish housing system in providing affordable and secure shelter by means other than homeownership. The existent housing provision system failed to avoid the large number of evictions while simultaneously banks became owners of a large amount of empty dwellings. To some extent, the severity of the situation exerted considerable political pressure to devise a new framework for action to alleviate the housing problem in Spain. In this paper based on the post -crisis evidence we argue the need to reformulate approaches to provide adequate and affordable housing for certain collectives in Spain
17.6.2017 | Montserrat Pareja-Eastaway, Teresa Sánchez-Martínez | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 124-131 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.1.331
Social Housing after the GFC: New Trends across Europe

Moving to a New Housing Pattern? New Trends in Housing Supply and Demand in Times of Changing. The Portuguese Case

This article aims to explain the effects of the recent economic and financial crisis on housing conditions and the ability of Portuguese families to access housing. It also intends to discuss how the crisis is reconfiguring the housing patterns, in terms of access to housing and changes in public policies, questioning the predominant mode of access to housing based on homeownership. This article also discusses the role of social housing in the Portuguese housing system and the changes and challenges in this sector coming from the economic and financial constraints of families and the state. This article is structured in three parts. The first is an overview of the Portuguese housing system and social housing in particular, highlighting the conditions and reasons that led to a reduced social housing stock and to the predominance of homeownership. The second part discusses the impact of the crisis on families and the state, trying to demonstrate how the constraints on both are translated into (1) worsening housing conditions, (2) a diversification of groups struggling to access housing in the private market and (3) a reduction of affordable housing, pressing the social housing sector. Finally, the third part is a reflection on the changes that the crisis has had in the orientation of housing policies and their instruments, arguing that the patterns of the Portuguese housing system are changing with emphasis on the need to diversify the housing supply to increasingly diverse groups in housing need.
16.6.2017 | Teresa Costa Pinto | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 131-141 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.1.332
Social Housing after the GFC: New Trends across Europe

The Danish Social Housing Sector: Recent Changes and Future Challenges

With Denmark faring reasonably well through the global financial crisis, the policy changes to the social housing sector caused by the crisis have been limited. Nevertheless, changes have taken place nonetheless both in terms of policy and in the residential composition of the sector which policies are trying to react upon. This means that the sector is at a cross-road as this paper will show. The future remains uncertain; depending to a large extent on the application of the policies already in place and policy reactions to the current challenges.
15.6.2017 | Rikke Skovgaard Nielsen, Christian Deichmann Haagerup | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 142-149 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.1.333
Social Housing after the GFC: New Trends across Europe

The Swedish Housing Market from a Low Income Perspective

After the economic crisis in the early 1990s there was excess supply of housing, but over the last 25 years demand has increased because of rising population, rising incomes and low levels of housing construction. The result has been rising prices and longer queues to (rent regulated) rental housing. The lack of affordable housing has made the situation especially difficult for low-income "outsiders", e.g. immigrant groups and various marginalized groups. In the debate about explanations and policies one can find demand for "more market", e.g. deregulating the rental market, weaken the municipal planning monopoly and cutting back on building regulations. There are also proposals for "less market", e.g. state directives about municipal planning volumes, subsidies to housing construction and more active municipal housing companies. As the current government is weak, most initiatives comes from the local level, e.g. both below market rents for lower income households and planning for more low-cost housing.
14.6.2017 | Hans Lind | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 150-160 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.1.334
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