Innovations in Affordable Housing at the Nexus of the Market and the State

Dear Colleagues,

Resources generate affordable housing in the urban environment in two ways: Through some sort of public support or market processes. The results are demand side programs that provide increased purchasing power to households, or units of housing constructed, renovated, or developed by public, non-profit, or private market actors. Since the last part of the 20th century, a shift has occurred in Western countries, transitioning from public support through a welfare state to a neoliberal emphasis, which leverages market-based assets, actors, and techniques to provide affordable housing. The results of such policy change are difficult to measure. In the US, this change has meant that a number of public housing authorities are seeking to re-structure ownership of their public housing, either through formal programs like the Residential Assistance Demonstration (RAD) or through their own asset management strategies. In some European countries, formerly government-supported housing organizations have to act within the market to deliver on their affordable housing mission without robust financial support. With a retrenchment in country-level support, both public and non-profit housing providers are becoming mission-driven organizations with characteristics of public, nonprofit, and private sector organizations. Authors refer to these organizations as hybrids (Billis 2010, Hoffman and Badiane 2012, Nguyen et al. 2012, Smith and Skelcher 2014, Skelcher and Smith 2015). While most authors discuss non-profit or third-sector organizations becoming hybrids (Billis 2010, Smith and Skelcher 2014), authors in the U.S. suggest that quasi-public public housing authorities are also becoming hybrids as they employ private sector methods and financing to meet their public missions (Nguyen et al. 2012). Furthermore, Czischke et al. (2012) go further, arguing that European social housing organizations are beginning to act like social enterprises, which they conceptualize as hybrid entities of varying legal forms that act in accordance to the competing interests of public, market, and community forces and values. This stance at the nexus of these rival interests causes them to take actions that may be entrepreneurial rather than “bureaucratic”, (Czischke et al. 2012, 428) and “conflicts between principles are played out in organizational strategies and day-to-day decisions” (Czischke et al. 2012, 428). As these on-the-ground decisions occur, project by project, understanding the results of these changes for the supply, quality, and accessibility of affordable housing in urban regions becomes challenging.

This Special Issue of Urban Science will contribute to this international literature. We seek papers examining the delivery of affordable housing, including but not limited to, the how housing providers are changing within this neoliberal context, the continuing measurement or impacts of such changes on the supply of housing and its residents, the innovations that are occurring, and recommendations for future action, as well as other related topics. While we seek papers based in a Western context, such efforts also occur in the global south and we welcome these as well.

Prof. Dr. Rachel Garshick Kleit
Dr. Whitney Airgood-Obrycki
Guest Editors

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