No Home for Housing: The Situation of the Commonwealth's Housing Policy Advisory Function

The Commonwealth's policy capacity with regard to housing policy and provision has been erratic and patchy. Partly this is because housing was not traditionally a formal Commonwealth responsibility but something in which Commonwealth governments episodically intervened, and partly it was because Commonwealth ministers often did not exercise demand for policy advice in this area. When policy capacity was exercised it tended to define housing narrowly as a welfare initiative, thereby limiting its conception and excluding other important questions and problems involved with housing as a policy domain. This trajectory meant that the advisory deficiencies of the Commonwealth were often exposed at exactly those times when they were most needed. It also meant that the Commonwealth lacked the detailed knowledge and understanding of housing issues when it was called upon to deliver various programs. The article argues that the Commonwealth needs to adopt a more strategic housing policy that addresses longer term needs as well as the economic, social and environmental consequences of its housing policy.     

Changing the support system for asylum seekers

The issues of asylum and the treatment of asylum seekers have once again hit the headlines in the UK. The recent problems in Kosovo in the former Yugoslavian territory have made the problem of dealing with asylum claims more acute. The past arrangements for asylum seekers have been inadequate and piecemeal and have developed as a result of changes made in 1996 and the subsequent intervention by the judiciary. The cost to the British taxpayer of the pre-1999 Act asylum arrangements has been over 500 million per year, 80 per cent of which has been spent on accommodating and supporting asylum seekers. There is also a huge backlog of cases and current figures are indicative of a system that is unable to cope. It is in the light of these problems that the Government has passed the 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act. This Article examines the changes that will be made to UK asylum law by the 1999 Act and assesses the problems that may be caused by those changes in the areas of housing and other forms of assistance and the effect that these may have on families and children seeking asylum in the UK.     

Changing housing policy: women escaping domestic violence

Domestic violence has risen up the political agenda, as women's action has inspired changes in police, social work and legal practice. At the same time, one of the oldest pieces of legislation that protected women from violence - the Homeless Persons Act of 1977 - has been transmuted into the Housing Act of 1996. This legislation was introduced by a Conservative government, which was anxious to reduce the rights of homeless people to secure permanent accommodation, on the grounds that these rights gave incentives to pregnancy, lone parenthood and economic migrants. New Labour have softened the Housing Act to give more scope to local authorities to respond to homelessness. This article asks: What are the implications of changing homelessness rights under this legislation and subsequent regulations for women's ability to escape violent relationships and find long term solutions to the housing needs which domestic violence creates? How new is New Labour policy as expressed in housing regulations and its policy Green Paper?     

地权诉求、宅基地流转与农村劳动力转移

当前城乡统筹发展实践中农民地权诉求常被忽略,而地权诉求是理解宅基地流转和劳动力转移的关键。本文基于5省11县2192份农户调查问卷数据,采用双变量Probit模型实证分析地权诉求对宅基地流转和劳动力转移的影响效应。研究发现,地权诉求对宅基地流转和农村劳动力转移具有显著影响,其中地权诉求强度具有正向激励作用,地权诉求越强的农户,其宅基地流转和劳动力转移意愿也越强。地权诉求结构作用显著,其收益性诉求起正向激励作用,而保障性诉求起负向激励(抑制)作用。宅基地流转和劳动力转移存在相互作用,而地权诉求是其共同影响因素。论文研究对未来的宅基地流转政策具有参考意义,通过充分理解和尊重地权诉求,构建与地权诉求激励相容的政策方案,共同推动农村宅基地流转和劳动力转移,可实现宅基地流转及其与劳动力转移的和谐性。     

保障性住房政策过程的中央与地方政府关系——政策网络理论的分析与应用

为分析保障性住房政策过程中的中央与地方政府关系,找出问题解决的有效框架,采用案例分析方法,分析了保障性住房政策制定过程中中央部门间的讨价还价、政策执行过程中地方政府及其职能部门以及开发商等营利组织间的利益结盟与变通策略、其他参与主体被排斥等现象。在此基础上,引入政策网络理论,分析网络利益主体与网络利益关系。研究发现:保障性住房与民生密切相关,却积累了太多的"历史赊账";中央与地方政府间的非合作博弈是影响保障性住房政策过程以及政策结果的重要因素;非合作博弈问题需置于政策网络结构环境下去思考,政策网络理论能够提供"解释性"和"建构性"框架。论文研究对未来的保障性住房政策过程以及政策结果有重大实践意义。本文将网络利益分析与网络治理结合在一起,实现了政策网络两个理论流派的应用整合,对该领域的理论研究有重要价值。依据研究结论,保障性住房的政策制定与政策执行必须实现从封闭到开放的转变,为未来"十二五计划"做好铺垫。     

18世纪末至20世纪初吧城华人社会房屋租赁问题研究——以《公案簿》第1-14辑资料为中心

18世纪末到20世纪初,不断到吧城的华人新客给当地房屋租赁市场带来潜在商机,一些具有投资意识的商人、宗族负责人和少数土著等群体开始涉足房屋租赁行业,出租房屋赚取租金。吧城华人大多限于资金而选择租房自住或做商铺,租房程序较为简单,大致包括租赁双方协商议定房租、签订合约,有时也会由中间商居间沟通达成租房协议。为了保证租房收益,房屋所有者会采取交纳押金、约定租期和交租方式、指定收租代理人以及申请吧国公堂调解等方式来控制经营风险。     

Rooms for Improvement: A Qualitative Metasynthesis of the Housing Choice Voucher Program

This article synthesizes housing subsidy voucher research to explain why, when in theory vouchers enable users to move out of poor neighborhoods, in practice they often do not. This qualitative meta-analysis presents an examination of the assumptions of the program and their relationship to empirical findings.

Two themes emerged from this synthesis: market barriers and product problems. Data from a variety of studies and contexts portray recipients struggling to use vouchers in the private rental market due to market barriers, including lack of public transportation and the presence of discrimination. Product problems constrained freedom of choice about where to move and when to make a housing transition. These constraints manifest as compromised housing quality and low voucher utilization. This synthetic view cannot account for all outcomes or exceptional cases, but results suggest where participant experiences are generalizable and attributable to features of the housing market and structure of the program itself.     

Cores and Peripheries: Spatial Analysis of Housing Choice Voucher Distribution in the San Francisco Bay Area Region, 2000–2010

This study uses spatial regressions and spatial statistics to examine the changes in the distribution of Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) households within an expanded San Francisco Bay Area region. From 2000 to 2010, the density of HCV households grew disproportionately across the region, and areas of significant increase emerged in both the region’s urban cores and its rural periphery. Furthermore, the destination communities shared a set of common characteristics. In 2010 HCV households were more likely to locate in areas with lower housing prices, lower percentages of educated people, higher rates of poverty, and higher percentages of African American households when compared with the region as a whole. These findings suggest that voucher holders locate where housing is affordable. We conclude that in regions with tight housing markets, supply matters. This study also introduces housing researchers and policy makers to a methodological approach that addresses what is known in geostatistics as a change of support problem.     

The Pork Barrel Politics of the Towns Fund

The article reviews the selection of towns in England under the Town Deals scheme, a funding scheme set up in the summer of 2019. Under the scheme, 101 towns in England were selected from a long‐list of 541 towns to bid for funding to improve local infrastructure. The findings show that Conservative‐held areas (and in particular marginal Conservative‐held areas) were much more likely to be selected for the scheme, and that this association remains—even when controlling for the ranks that civil servants awarded towns on the basis of qualitative and quantitative criteria. The findings call into question ministers’ commitment, under to the Nolan principle, to take decisions ‘impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias’.     

Housing and populism

Abstract

The recent success of populist candidates in the UK and Continental Europe has sparked a major debate between those who view populism as a reaction of the economically ‘left behind’ and those who view it as a cultural ‘backlash’ by groups with declining social status, pointing to stark divisions between urban and rural areas, core and periphery. This paper bridges the economic and values-based approaches to populism by arguing that the geography of wealth inequality offers a convincing explanation for the pattern of populist vote share. Drawing on fine-grained house price data in the UK and France, it is shown that the pattern of house prices ? even within small districts ? plays a major part in shaping support for Brexit and Marine Le Pen. The findings illustrate how longstanding variation in local wealth shapes the geography of discontent and drives populist appeal. Populism, the article concludes, is primarily a politics of place, and place is a product, in part, of the housing market.