Rethinking the Welfare State: The prospects for ... - e-Library

Low-income housing 59
bachelor apartment. 15 Furthermore, as McCrone and Stephens point out, generic “fitness”
indices often do not adequately cover problems which at best can only be assessed
subjectively at the local level, but which have a significant impact on quality of life, such
as dampness in Northern European homes, or humidity due to heat in warmer climates. 16
Consequently, we will employ a relative and flexible definition of adequate housing as
dwellings in which amenities are in good repair, the premises can be heated and cooled to
a comfortable level, residents are protected from exposure to the elements, and in which
overcrowding does not exceed a level tolerable according to local standards.
Rationales for government intervention
As Materu observes, there is a wide diversity of opinion among protagonists of housing
investment for low-income people as to what its actual merits are. 17 Most claims,
however, fall under one or more of the major normative rubrics outlined in Chapter 1,
namely, building social solidarity, promoting economic stability and providing for the
equitable distribution of resources. 18
Building social solidarity
While the constituents of social solidarity are more subjective than those of poverty, and
are harder to measure empirically, it is possible to speak broadly of some of the features
of successful, stable communities: widespread participation in civil society, a sense of
belonging and involvement in one’s community, 19 relative safety from violence and other
criminal activities, and tolerance of ethnic and other differences. Adequate housing is
essential to the cultivation of these characteristics. Without a stable housing arrangement,
families and individuals are unable to participate fully in the communities in which they
reside. 20 The education of children is interfered with when their families must relocate
frequently and abruptly, as well as when they are residing in inadequate housing.
Individuals who do not develop stable links with their communities through sustained
tenure are unlikely to become engaged in the activities of civil society or to advocate for
their own political and economic rights. In Latin America, for instance, Castells reports
that urban social movements based on the recognition of class interests are important
means by which the poor lobby for land rights and infrastructure, means which are not
available when communities are highly unstable, as when their constituencies are
constantly preoccupied with finding temporary housing. 21
The poverty of unstable communities where people are not properly housed often
results in the proliferation of urban violence, while poorly planned communities
geographically reproduce and reinforce preexisting ethnic segregations and tensions. A
1992 study covering 11,793 American housing projects (832,118 units) indicated that
occupancy rates were as follows: 37 percent white tenants, 52 percent black tenants, and
11 percent Hispanic tenants. 22 Of the projects studied, 7,093 “drew at least 80 percent of
their tenants from one racial group, whites in 4,100 and blacks in 2,973.” 23 A 1969 court
decision in Gautreaux v.Chicago Housing Authority 24 found that the concentration of
black residents in poor urban Chicago represented a violation of the Fourteenth