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Sustainable housing and the urban poor

Sustainable housing and the urban poor International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 2016 Vol. 8, No. 1, 1–9, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2016.1168825 EDITORIAL a b Peer Smets * and Paul van Lindert a b Department of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Department of International Development Studies, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands (Received 16 March 2016; accepted 17 March 2016) Keywords: sustainability; low-income housing; tenants; owner-occupiers; social innovation; ecology; policies; energy; technology; economy Introduction housing for the urban poor in the Global South. In this introduction, we will discuss some of the most rele- After last year’s adoption of the 2030 Agenda for vant dimensions of urban sustainability relating to Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable low-income housing and then introduce the papers Development Goals (SDGs), the year 2016 promises of this special issue. First, the focus will be on the to be a landmark year for international housing policy relationship between sustainability and low-income agendas. In October, the UN Habitat III Conference housing. Next, housing sustainability will be placed (also referred to as ‘Habitat III’) will be held in Quito, in a systemic framework that is based on ecological Ecuador. After the successful inclusion of Sustainable models. In the third section, it is argued that a cross- Development Goal 11 on urban development and its fertilisation between housing solutions and social ratification in the General Assembly of the UN by innovation fosters housing sustainability. This will heads of state in September 2015, it is now time to be followed by a discussion on urban shelter policies consider how the ambition of making cities and and their implications for a new urban housing human settlements ‘inclusive, safe, resilient and sus- agenda. Finally, the contributions to this volume will tainable’ can be realised. Will ‘Habitat III’ actually be presented. introduce a new paradigm shift that is able to sub- stantially change urban policymaking? And what will the impact be on mainstream housing policies? Target Pursuing sustainable housing in sustainable 11.1 of the Sustainable Development Goal 11 states: cities ‘By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and Popularised by the Brundtland report (WCED affordable housing and basic services and upgrade 1987), sustainable development is commonly slums’. That target alone represents a substantial defined as the long-term balance between society, task. The theme of this special issue is sustainable *Corresponding author. Email: p.g.s.m.smets@vu.nl The foundations of this special issue were laid at the conference ‘At home in the housing market’ of RC43 – the Research Committee on Housing and the Built Environment – of the International Sociological Association in Amsterdam, July 10–12, 2013. © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creative commons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. 2 P. Smets and P. van Lindert the environment and economic growth. However, or governance shifts (Williams 2009; Ferguson due to global warming and its effects, the long- et al. 2014), which are mediated through physical term prospects for the healthy urban habitat are spaces and the built environment (Keivani 2009). under threat from climate change. Climate change In order to unpack the complex relationships is increasingly affecting several countries, and between sustainability and low-income housing in many urban neighbourhoods and even whole cities cities, it is useful to distinguish the following five are threatened by rising sea levels, flooding rivers, relevant fields: ecology and energy; technology tsunamis, hurricanes, heavy rains and severe and production; economy; social considerations drought. These conditions make urban planning and targeted policies (based on e.g. McGranahan more important than in the past as adequate plan- & Satterthwaite 2003; Choguill 2007; Keivani ning, such as risk and water management, can 2009; Williams 2009; Dietz & O’Neill 2013; prevent houses from being built in dangerous Thiele 2013; World Bank 2013). zones. The construction of houses in risk zones – First, low-income urban housing cannot be made such as areas prone to earthquakes and volcanic sustainable unless the themes of ecology and energy eruptions, but also where heavy industry is located are taken into consideration. Sustainability may be or where hazardous materials are stored – must be improved, for example, through interventions that prevented or restricted. Yet, making reliable lower the carbon footprint and through hazard-resili- weather and climate predictions in order to deter- ent measures as well as by urban planning that leads mine the best planning path is difficult for areas to a densification of the built-up area. Moreover, there subject to changeable weather patterns. are many other planning measures that prevent or However, while minimising risk is possible counteract housing situations that are far from sustain- through climate change adaptation or mitigation, ability. The efficient and equitable provision of depending on the available options, funds and calcu- (improved) sanitation, safe water and the collection lations, making decisions on disaster-reduction stra- of solid waste are important elements contributing to tegies is a political task. Yet as a public and communal sustainable settlements, as is the supply of serviced responsibility, governments as well as households land that is suitable for housing the urban poor while must be aware of the consequences and possibilities avoiding urban sprawl: ‘It is crucial that urban plan- for prevention, protection and mitigation (Urry 2011). ning take into account informality (. . .) many devel- Sustainability has also become an important oping cities plan the “official city” and neglect the concept in relation to environmental integrity. spontaneous growth that happens outside the admin- Human intervention results in the pollution of istrative boundary’ (World Bank 2013,p.33). land, air and water, and also the disturbance of Second, technology and production can play an nature’s equilibrium, including the loss of biodi- important role in the development of sustainable dis- versity. Therefore, one should look into ‘alterna- aster-proof building materials. For example, prefab tives to traditional patterns of physical, social and building components can be recycled while locally economic development that can avoid problems produced building materials minimise transport costs. such as exhaustion of natural resources, ecosystem Both measures improve the sustainability of low- destruction, pollution, overpopulation, growing income housing. Depending upon contextual condi- inequality, and the degradation of human living tions, environmental-friendly yet durable and afford- conditions’ (Wheeler 2003, p. 487; cf. Ferguson able construction materials may be produced locally, et al. 2014). Insights concerning environmental based on relatively simple technologies. Bamboo, sustainability can also be applied to low-income timber, adobe bricks, compressed earth blocks and housing in the urban Global South. Specifically, interlocking stabilised soil blocks are just some of more attention should be paid to the interplay such materials that may be used in self-managed between technical and social solutions for sustain- housing and in low-cost housing schemes (Hannula able change with respect to behaviour, economic &Lalande 2012; Kessler 2014; UN-Habitat 2014). International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 3 A third important dimension of sustainability governments and funding agencies for home relates to the economy. As such, one should also improvements and settlement upgrades both take into account the limits of the neoliberal models enhance community cohesion and empowerment, exemplified by the recent global financial crisis. and also lead to local employment (Steinberg Today, in some countries massive public housing 2014). schemes are implemented by private construction Finally, targeted policies are needed to companies but within a framework of state-regu- reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent lated housing programmes. In these cases, the pol- man-made hazards as well as to guide sound icy objective of stimulating macroeconomic growth and informed city planning that includes pro- seems to be of greater importance than that of poor measures. Targeted policies are also housing the urban poor. Current housing policies needed for increased collaboration between in China (Li & Driant 2014), Egypt (Soliman national and local state levels which may foster 2014), Brazil (Pasternak & D’Ottaviano 2014)and multi-level governance arrangements between Mexico (Solana Oses 2013; Bredenoord and all relevant stakeholders. Yet, it is pertinent to Cabrera 2014) are exemplary in this respect. Such note that no blueprint solutions or blanket housing schemes often present large vacancies, approaches can solve the housing crisis in a because they have been ‘realized at considerable sustainable way. National and municipal hous- distances from the built-up cities, which makes it ing policies should allow for maximum flexibil- difficult and expensive for prospective residents to ity and diversity. The desired outcome of the get to their jobs, to do their shopping or to pay respective sectoral and specific policies is sus- social visits to their friends and families in town’ tainable housing (see Box 1). (van Lindert et al. 2014, p. 399). Thus, for urban social housing programmes to be economically sus- tainable, it is vital that housing is connected to the Box 1. Sustainable houses city’s main employment centres. Moreover, dwell- Sustainable houses are those that are designed, built ings should offer the possibility of home-based and managed as: economic activities which in turn can stimulate Healthy, durable, safe and secure the development of neighbourhood economies Affordable for the whole spectrum of income (Gough et al. 2003;Wigle 2008). levels A fourth element that is key to sustainable Using ecological low-energy and affordable housing is the social dimension. In this respect, building materials and technology the engagement of community-based organisations, Resilient to sustain potential natural disasters and climatic impacts savings and building groups, or small-scale housing Connected to decent, safe and affordable energy, cooperatives (Ganapati 2014) are also important for water, sanitation and recycling facilities supporting identity formation, social cohesion, ● Using energy and water most efficiently and empowerment and shared ownership. Settlement equipped with certain on-site renewable energy profiling through community-based enumeration generation and water recycling capabilities ● Not polluting the environment and protected from (Arputham 2012;Karanja 2012) not only results external pollution in more authentic information based on local ● Suitably located in terms of jobs, shops, health- knowledge, but also functions as strong mobiliser and child-care, education and other services of residents and prepares them to become engaged ● Properly integrated into, and enhancing, the social, cultural and economic fabric of the local in the early planning stages of housing and settle- neighbourhood and the wider urban areas ment upgrading schemes and in collective negotia- Properly run and maintained, timely renovated tion with the state (Chitekwe-Biti et al. 2014). and retrofitted Connecting the social dimension with the economic Source: UN-Habitat 2012,p. 9 one, community-contracting arrangements by 4 P. Smets and P. van Lindert Sustainability as a system sustainability and low-income housing in cities, particularly regarding the five fields outlined above. Figure 1 illustrates a model based on natural eco- Ecosystems survived over time by adjusting to systems whose existence over time is determined changing circumstances resulting in a search for by ‘sufficient self-directed identity as well as flex- equilibrium between the two opposing poles of ibility to change’ (Lietaer et al. 2010: 5). Here, the efficiency and resilience. The healthiest systems flexibility to change – or resilience – refers to ‘the have an optimum balance between the two capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and extremes, often referred to as sustainability (see reorganize while undergoing change so as to retain the ‘window of viability’ in Figure 1). When the essentially the same function, structure, identity, balance between resilience and efficiency is dis- and feedbacks’ (Walker et al. 2004,p. 4). turbed, the system becomes unstable. Excessive This model can also be applied to housing provi- efficiency leads to fragility, which goes together sion and the complex relationships between with too little diversity and connectivity. Moreover, too much resilience causes stagnation accompanied by excessive diversity and connec- tivity (Lietaer et al. 2010, p. 6). These crashes can also be found in Schumpeter’s creative destruction of capitalism referring to the rise and fall of enter- prises (Caprio and Klingebile, in Lietaer et al. 2010, p. 3). The financial crisis, which started in the US and has spread over many parts across the globe, is already having a detrimental impact here. The tendency when coping with a crisis, from either an economic or housing perspective, is to increase efficiency and to start again from the bottom line up. By doing so, the ‘window of viability’ will not be reached at all. When the focus is placed on creating diversity, a balance between efficiency and resilience can be more easily reached. This is especially true of housing solutions (see graph at bottom of Figure 1). The sustainability model discussed earlier is also useful to understand the relationship between sus- tainability and the provision of low-income housing. A simple example will suffice here. In the past, sites-and-services schemes were seen as a universal solution for dealing with the housing deficit, but in reality, many sites and services were rather deso- lated areas that did not serve their target group. A much more suitable approach is to create a diversity of housing options for the urban poor, as illustrated by Hassan (2014). Once housing diversity is achieved, the likelihood of sufficient housing solu- Figure 1. Housing sustainability and complex flow tions surviving – and thus reaching viability – networks as function of the trade-offs between effi- ciency and resilience. becomes significant. It is in such conditions, sustain- Based on: Lietaer et al. (2009). able shelter solutions can be found. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 5 Finally, Thiele (2013, p. 198) warns us that ‘[s] left side includes satisfaction of needs, changes in ustainability is Janus-faced and two handed. It is social relations, socio-political capability and gov- future-focused but with an eye to its inheritance. ernance and institutions. Sustainable goals can be And, while it deftly manages the rate and scale of identified by combining soft and hard components change with one hand, it also firmly grasps the of social innovation and sustainable housing. This need to conserve core values and relationships.’ would enable the innovation of interdisciplinary tools for research and policies for affordable and innovative housing solutions. Sustainable housing and social innovation So far, attention has been paid to different dimen- Urban shelter policies: pursuing a new urban sions and interpretations of the concept sustain- agenda? ability. This section will show that sustainable development goes hand-in-hand with social inno- In this century, most rapid urbanisation takes place vation. To obtain sustainable housing, creative in the Global South. Here, cities grow in size and solutions have to be sought as shown by number, which makes it extremely difficult for Mehmood and Parra (2013). These authors see poorer sections of society to find adequate shelter sustainable housing as a multidimensional with security of tenure. This has already led to an approach including the socio-cultural, economic, increasing number of slum dwellers, and it is environmental and institutional aspects of human estimated that their number worldwide will interaction. amount to about two billion by 2030. One of the Table 1 shows the cross-fertilisation between most significant policy challenges of today is how sustainable housing and social innovation. At the to realise the ambition of inclusive cities for all, top of the table, sustainable development refers to including slum dwellers and urban poor outside social vulnerability, economic viability and envir- slum areas which could be achieved through better onmental sustainability. Social innovation on the housing policies for the urban low-income Table 1. Cross-fertilisation potential between social innovation and sustainable housing. Sustainable housing/social innovation Social vulnerability Economic viability Environmental sustainability Satisfaction of Satisfaction of housing Sustainable production and Diversity of habitat solutions; needs needs and basic consumption; neighbourhood- environmental-friendly services and facilities based economies; home-based building materials and economic production technologies Changes in Social inclusion and Sustainable communities; social Socio-ecological transitions of social engagement; social entrepreneurship habitat conditions relations cohesion Socio-political Cooperation in Participatory decision-making based Question the effectiveness of capability communities and with on local knowledge techno-optimism stakeholders; citizens’ movements Governance Identity formation; Adaptive management; microfinance Flexible and adaptive and (social/ empowerment of initiatives; strategic investments governance; densification of cultural) communities; built-up area institutions reflexive governance Source: After Mehmood and Parra (2013, p. 60). 6 P. Smets and P. van Lindert population (UN-Habitat 2015). There is a need for live in rented accommodation’ (Gilbert 2015, p. 1). sustainable housing solutions for the poor in the Indeed, the gross neglect of rental housing on the urban Global South. Unfortunately, affordable policy agendas and the bias towards private home housing is out of reach for millions of low-income ownership is also demonstrated by Fernanda families, as a consequence of their limited Lonardoni and Jean-Claude Bolay’s study of incomes, and because of national and local hous- Florianopolis’ favelas in this issue, confirming ing policies that fail to reach the urban poor: that the expansion of the rental housing market ‘genuinely sustainable houses are those that are characteristically takes place in informal settle- inclusive and affordable for all. Addressing the ments and coincides with dwelling consolidation. issue of affordability is, therefore, a necessary But it should also be recognised that tenants often condition for transformation towards sustainable represent a vulnerable segment of the population. housing’ (UN-Habitat 2012, p. 3). Eva Dick and Torsten Heitkamp, in this issue, point The upgrading of housing and living condi- to a particularly vulnerable group, namely, tempor- tions in existing slums and informal settlements ary migrants with multi-locational livelihoods in is indispensable, while a range of affordable hous- rural and urban areas. They often entirely depend ing alternatives ought to be promoted in order to on their social networks – and no government bring sufficient ‘decent housing solutions’ in par- policy takes their needs into consideration. Below, ticular to the low-income groups. Furthermore, we will introduce all papers in this special issue in moving away from slum deterioration, new slum greater detail. These papers present convincing formation and a severe lack of sufficient housing empirical evidence that housing conditions are production mechanisms represent other challenges very much dependent on the socio-economic, cul- of today. tural and political contexts. In this regard, Choguill Over the past four decades, approaches to low- (2007, p. 147) comments: ‘there is no such thing in income housing have witnessed some remarkable housing as universal “best practice”’. With our plea shifts. Patrick Wakely’s contribution to this issue for more flexibility and diversity in national and convincingly describes how housing paradigms, municipal housing policies, we hope that a greater policies and practices changed initially under the proportion of urban low-income groups will be influence of the so-called self-help school and, accommodated in suitable, affordable, decent and more recently, along with a neoliberal trend of secure housing, which is sustainable for both citi- stimulating private housing markets. Chiodelli zens and cities alike. Hopefully, the new urban (2016), who also focuses on the respective varia- agenda that will be discussed at the Habitat III tions in housing policies, presents a slightly differ- Conference in October 2016 will present clear ent analysis of the respective policies towards the directions to achieve the aforementioned informal city, while agreeing with Wakely and Sustainable Development Goal 11: ‘to make cities other authors (see e.g. Bredenoord & van Lindert and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and 2010; van Lindert 2016) that even with the various sustainable’. shifts in policy approaches, rehabilitation and upgrading of informal settlements, including the Introduction to the papers in this volume provision of tenure security and support to incre- mental housing in existing settlements, still play a All of the items discussed above will be covered in leading role in current housing policy packages. At the special issue, but the emphasis on specific the same time, these authors also concur with topics varies according to the contributors’ different Gilbert (2008, 2014, 2015)inaffirming that rental disciplinary backgrounds, varying from urban plan- housing has always remained the poor relation of ning, architecture, social geography, to sociology. housing policies for the urban poor, even though These papers deal with different countries, namely, ‘across the world, approximately 1.2 billion people Egypt, South Africa, Ghana and Brazil. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 7 Meanwhile, two papers have a global focus. discusses whether the actions of landlords and Overall, this special issue links theory and practice informality reproduction can enable or constrain in such a way that it is useful for academics, and the sustainability of access to shelter and livelihood also for professionals, policymakers and activists opportunities in urban areas. The challenge is how dealing with low-income sustainable housing and to anticipate such informal strategies for a sustain- urban development. able urban future. In his contribution to this special issue, Patrick The contribution of Eva Dick and Thorsten Wakely provides an overview of low-income housing Heitkamp deals with the provision of sustainable paradigms, policies, programmes and projects for the housing regarding transit migration in South Africa post-World WarIIperioduntil the mid-2010s. He and Ghana, and linkages of migrants in urban areas describes the shift from the provision of public hous- with their urban or rural areas of origin. Such migra- ing and removal of slum areas towards unaided and tion may be the result of economic and political aided informal housing processes which would circumstances, but it can also imply income-generat- accommodate the livelihoods of the poorer sections ing activities and a sense of socio-cultural belonging. of society. Later, the focus is more on enabling stra- These authors examine the impact of transit migra- tegies encouraging the urban poor to participate in tion on the urban housing market and related chal- improving their habitat conditions and the private lenges for sustainable housing. Although sector involved in the production of low-income governmental housing in Ghana rarely focuses on housing. These attempts show an increasing need the urban poor, housing for the South African urban for creating sustainable housing policies. poor is subsidised by a housing subsidy system The focus of Ahmed Soliman is on Egyptian through the post-Apartheid Reconstruction and cities where the expansion of the cities increasingly Development Programme (RDP). Though there are leads to conversion of ‘scarce’ agricultural land into many differences between Ghana and South Africa, housing construction sites. To cope with urban both countries do face a lack of transitory housing sprawl, a programme with a participatory approach measures such as out-rental of backyard shacks, has been implemented for 226 Egyptian settlements. house-sharing or peri-urban caretaking and the The paper describes a programme that facilitates a establishment of new informal settlements. A sus- certain sustainable land delivery system for the tainable and community-based development urban poor in the city of Kotor. Soliman shows that requires an active urban government to participate the community-driven process bears fruit once the in this highly dynamic housing sector. government acts as an agent for compatibility and Finally, Noah Schermbrucker, Sheelah Patel, sustainability aiming to save agricultural land and Diana Mitlin and Nico Keijzer describe Slum/ promote unsustainable urban development. This Shack Dwellers International’s (SDI) experiences implies that a government’s role as facilitator is from its Urban Poor Fund International (UPFI); a insufficient. For the sake of sustainability, active fund for housing and infrastructure. SDI seeks to involvement of the government is required. build on what the poor know and do, and to facil- Fernanda Lonardoni and Jean-Claude Bolay itate their leadership through dialogue and negotia- focus on the opportunities of growth and produc- tions with professionals and practitioners in tion and consumption of rental housing in informal development linked to cities at local, national and Brazilian settlements. The authors focus on the international level. The UPFI fund offers possibili- potential of informal rental markets in providing ties in downmarket housing finance, thereby con- shelter and livelihood opportunities for the urban necting the financial sector with the poor. On the poor. The authors use a political economy approach basis of experiences of the SDI affiliates in India to describe and analyse the consolidation of the and South Africa, the paper discusses housing and informal rental housing market and how commodi- infrastructure financing models that are sustainable fication perpetuates informality. This paper and affordable for the urban poor. 8 P. Smets and P. van Lindert Disclosure statement the affordable shelter challenge. In: Bredenoord J, van Lindert P, Smets P, editors. Affordable housing No potential conflict of interest was reported by the in the urban global south: seeking sustainable solu- authors. tions. London: Routledge/Earthscan; p. 117–131. Choguill CL. 2007. The search for policies to support sustainable housing. Habitat Int. 31:143–149. Note Dietz R, O’Neill D. 2013. Enough is enough. Building a 1. This section is based on Smets et al. (2014). sustainable economy in a world of finite resources. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Ferguson B, Smets P, Mason D. 2014. The new political economy of affordable housing finance and urban Notes on contributors development. In: Bredenoord J, van Lindert P, Peer Smets is an Assistant Professor at the Department Smets P, editors. Affordable housing in the urban of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the global south: seeking sustainable solutions. London: Netherlands. His PhD was on housing finance and the Routledge/Earthscan; p. 102–116. urban poor in India (2002). His research mainly focuses Ganapati S. 2014. Housing cooperatives in the developing on urban habitat conditions (housing and its living world. In: Bredenoord J, van Lindert P, Smets P, environment) in low-income neighbourhoods in south- editors. Affordable housing in the urban global ern and western countries, as well as perceptions which south: seeking sustainable solutions. London: determine liveability. He has published on urban segre- Routledge/Earthscan; p. 102–116. gation, housing, housing finance, government bureau- Gilbert A. 2008. Viewpoint: slums, tenants and home- cracy, communities and social life in neighbourhoods. ownership: on blindness to the obvious. Int Dev Plann Rev. 30:i–x. Paul van Lindert is an Associate Professor in human Gilbert A. 2014. Renting a home: the need for a policy geography and international development studies at response. In: Bredenoord J, van Lindert P, Smets P, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. His PhD was on editors. Affordable housing in the urban global migration, urbanization and housing strategies in south: seeking sustainable solutions. London: Bolivia (1991). He has taught at various universities in Routledge/Earthscan; p. 87–101. Latin America and Africa as a Visiting Professor. His Gilbert A. 2015. Rental housing: the international experi- area of experience includes urban development and ence. 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Washington (DC): World and Pakistan. In: Bredenoord J, van Lindert P, Bank. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development Taylor & Francis

Sustainable housing and the urban poor

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Abstract

International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 2016 Vol. 8, No. 1, 1–9, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2016.1168825 EDITORIAL a b Peer Smets * and Paul van Lindert a b Department of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Department of International Development Studies, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands (Received 16 March 2016; accepted 17 March 2016) Keywords: sustainability; low-income housing; tenants; owner-occupiers; social innovation; ecology; policies; energy; technology; economy Introduction housing for the urban poor in the Global South. In this introduction, we will discuss some of the most rele- After last year’s adoption of the 2030 Agenda for vant dimensions of urban sustainability relating to Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable low-income housing and then introduce the papers Development Goals (SDGs), the year 2016 promises of this special issue. First, the focus will be on the to be a landmark year for international housing policy relationship between sustainability and low-income agendas. In October, the UN Habitat III Conference housing. Next, housing sustainability will be placed (also referred to as ‘Habitat III’) will be held in Quito, in a systemic framework that is based on ecological Ecuador. After the successful inclusion of Sustainable models. In the third section, it is argued that a cross- Development Goal 11 on urban development and its fertilisation between housing solutions and social ratification in the General Assembly of the UN by innovation fosters housing sustainability. This will heads of state in September 2015, it is now time to be followed by a discussion on urban shelter policies consider how the ambition of making cities and and their implications for a new urban housing human settlements ‘inclusive, safe, resilient and sus- agenda. Finally, the contributions to this volume will tainable’ can be realised. Will ‘Habitat III’ actually be presented. introduce a new paradigm shift that is able to sub- stantially change urban policymaking? And what will the impact be on mainstream housing policies? Target Pursuing sustainable housing in sustainable 11.1 of the Sustainable Development Goal 11 states: cities ‘By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and Popularised by the Brundtland report (WCED affordable housing and basic services and upgrade 1987), sustainable development is commonly slums’. That target alone represents a substantial defined as the long-term balance between society, task. The theme of this special issue is sustainable *Corresponding author. Email: p.g.s.m.smets@vu.nl The foundations of this special issue were laid at the conference ‘At home in the housing market’ of RC43 – the Research Committee on Housing and the Built Environment – of the International Sociological Association in Amsterdam, July 10–12, 2013. © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creative commons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. 2 P. Smets and P. van Lindert the environment and economic growth. However, or governance shifts (Williams 2009; Ferguson due to global warming and its effects, the long- et al. 2014), which are mediated through physical term prospects for the healthy urban habitat are spaces and the built environment (Keivani 2009). under threat from climate change. Climate change In order to unpack the complex relationships is increasingly affecting several countries, and between sustainability and low-income housing in many urban neighbourhoods and even whole cities cities, it is useful to distinguish the following five are threatened by rising sea levels, flooding rivers, relevant fields: ecology and energy; technology tsunamis, hurricanes, heavy rains and severe and production; economy; social considerations drought. These conditions make urban planning and targeted policies (based on e.g. McGranahan more important than in the past as adequate plan- & Satterthwaite 2003; Choguill 2007; Keivani ning, such as risk and water management, can 2009; Williams 2009; Dietz & O’Neill 2013; prevent houses from being built in dangerous Thiele 2013; World Bank 2013). zones. The construction of houses in risk zones – First, low-income urban housing cannot be made such as areas prone to earthquakes and volcanic sustainable unless the themes of ecology and energy eruptions, but also where heavy industry is located are taken into consideration. Sustainability may be or where hazardous materials are stored – must be improved, for example, through interventions that prevented or restricted. Yet, making reliable lower the carbon footprint and through hazard-resili- weather and climate predictions in order to deter- ent measures as well as by urban planning that leads mine the best planning path is difficult for areas to a densification of the built-up area. Moreover, there subject to changeable weather patterns. are many other planning measures that prevent or However, while minimising risk is possible counteract housing situations that are far from sustain- through climate change adaptation or mitigation, ability. The efficient and equitable provision of depending on the available options, funds and calcu- (improved) sanitation, safe water and the collection lations, making decisions on disaster-reduction stra- of solid waste are important elements contributing to tegies is a political task. Yet as a public and communal sustainable settlements, as is the supply of serviced responsibility, governments as well as households land that is suitable for housing the urban poor while must be aware of the consequences and possibilities avoiding urban sprawl: ‘It is crucial that urban plan- for prevention, protection and mitigation (Urry 2011). ning take into account informality (. . .) many devel- Sustainability has also become an important oping cities plan the “official city” and neglect the concept in relation to environmental integrity. spontaneous growth that happens outside the admin- Human intervention results in the pollution of istrative boundary’ (World Bank 2013,p.33). land, air and water, and also the disturbance of Second, technology and production can play an nature’s equilibrium, including the loss of biodi- important role in the development of sustainable dis- versity. Therefore, one should look into ‘alterna- aster-proof building materials. For example, prefab tives to traditional patterns of physical, social and building components can be recycled while locally economic development that can avoid problems produced building materials minimise transport costs. such as exhaustion of natural resources, ecosystem Both measures improve the sustainability of low- destruction, pollution, overpopulation, growing income housing. Depending upon contextual condi- inequality, and the degradation of human living tions, environmental-friendly yet durable and afford- conditions’ (Wheeler 2003, p. 487; cf. Ferguson able construction materials may be produced locally, et al. 2014). Insights concerning environmental based on relatively simple technologies. Bamboo, sustainability can also be applied to low-income timber, adobe bricks, compressed earth blocks and housing in the urban Global South. Specifically, interlocking stabilised soil blocks are just some of more attention should be paid to the interplay such materials that may be used in self-managed between technical and social solutions for sustain- housing and in low-cost housing schemes (Hannula able change with respect to behaviour, economic &Lalande 2012; Kessler 2014; UN-Habitat 2014). International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 3 A third important dimension of sustainability governments and funding agencies for home relates to the economy. As such, one should also improvements and settlement upgrades both take into account the limits of the neoliberal models enhance community cohesion and empowerment, exemplified by the recent global financial crisis. and also lead to local employment (Steinberg Today, in some countries massive public housing 2014). schemes are implemented by private construction Finally, targeted policies are needed to companies but within a framework of state-regu- reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent lated housing programmes. In these cases, the pol- man-made hazards as well as to guide sound icy objective of stimulating macroeconomic growth and informed city planning that includes pro- seems to be of greater importance than that of poor measures. Targeted policies are also housing the urban poor. Current housing policies needed for increased collaboration between in China (Li & Driant 2014), Egypt (Soliman national and local state levels which may foster 2014), Brazil (Pasternak & D’Ottaviano 2014)and multi-level governance arrangements between Mexico (Solana Oses 2013; Bredenoord and all relevant stakeholders. Yet, it is pertinent to Cabrera 2014) are exemplary in this respect. Such note that no blueprint solutions or blanket housing schemes often present large vacancies, approaches can solve the housing crisis in a because they have been ‘realized at considerable sustainable way. National and municipal hous- distances from the built-up cities, which makes it ing policies should allow for maximum flexibil- difficult and expensive for prospective residents to ity and diversity. The desired outcome of the get to their jobs, to do their shopping or to pay respective sectoral and specific policies is sus- social visits to their friends and families in town’ tainable housing (see Box 1). (van Lindert et al. 2014, p. 399). Thus, for urban social housing programmes to be economically sus- tainable, it is vital that housing is connected to the Box 1. Sustainable houses city’s main employment centres. Moreover, dwell- Sustainable houses are those that are designed, built ings should offer the possibility of home-based and managed as: economic activities which in turn can stimulate Healthy, durable, safe and secure the development of neighbourhood economies Affordable for the whole spectrum of income (Gough et al. 2003;Wigle 2008). levels A fourth element that is key to sustainable Using ecological low-energy and affordable housing is the social dimension. In this respect, building materials and technology the engagement of community-based organisations, Resilient to sustain potential natural disasters and climatic impacts savings and building groups, or small-scale housing Connected to decent, safe and affordable energy, cooperatives (Ganapati 2014) are also important for water, sanitation and recycling facilities supporting identity formation, social cohesion, ● Using energy and water most efficiently and empowerment and shared ownership. Settlement equipped with certain on-site renewable energy profiling through community-based enumeration generation and water recycling capabilities ● Not polluting the environment and protected from (Arputham 2012;Karanja 2012) not only results external pollution in more authentic information based on local ● Suitably located in terms of jobs, shops, health- knowledge, but also functions as strong mobiliser and child-care, education and other services of residents and prepares them to become engaged ● Properly integrated into, and enhancing, the social, cultural and economic fabric of the local in the early planning stages of housing and settle- neighbourhood and the wider urban areas ment upgrading schemes and in collective negotia- Properly run and maintained, timely renovated tion with the state (Chitekwe-Biti et al. 2014). and retrofitted Connecting the social dimension with the economic Source: UN-Habitat 2012,p. 9 one, community-contracting arrangements by 4 P. Smets and P. van Lindert Sustainability as a system sustainability and low-income housing in cities, particularly regarding the five fields outlined above. Figure 1 illustrates a model based on natural eco- Ecosystems survived over time by adjusting to systems whose existence over time is determined changing circumstances resulting in a search for by ‘sufficient self-directed identity as well as flex- equilibrium between the two opposing poles of ibility to change’ (Lietaer et al. 2010: 5). Here, the efficiency and resilience. The healthiest systems flexibility to change – or resilience – refers to ‘the have an optimum balance between the two capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and extremes, often referred to as sustainability (see reorganize while undergoing change so as to retain the ‘window of viability’ in Figure 1). When the essentially the same function, structure, identity, balance between resilience and efficiency is dis- and feedbacks’ (Walker et al. 2004,p. 4). turbed, the system becomes unstable. Excessive This model can also be applied to housing provi- efficiency leads to fragility, which goes together sion and the complex relationships between with too little diversity and connectivity. Moreover, too much resilience causes stagnation accompanied by excessive diversity and connec- tivity (Lietaer et al. 2010, p. 6). These crashes can also be found in Schumpeter’s creative destruction of capitalism referring to the rise and fall of enter- prises (Caprio and Klingebile, in Lietaer et al. 2010, p. 3). The financial crisis, which started in the US and has spread over many parts across the globe, is already having a detrimental impact here. The tendency when coping with a crisis, from either an economic or housing perspective, is to increase efficiency and to start again from the bottom line up. By doing so, the ‘window of viability’ will not be reached at all. When the focus is placed on creating diversity, a balance between efficiency and resilience can be more easily reached. This is especially true of housing solutions (see graph at bottom of Figure 1). The sustainability model discussed earlier is also useful to understand the relationship between sus- tainability and the provision of low-income housing. A simple example will suffice here. In the past, sites-and-services schemes were seen as a universal solution for dealing with the housing deficit, but in reality, many sites and services were rather deso- lated areas that did not serve their target group. A much more suitable approach is to create a diversity of housing options for the urban poor, as illustrated by Hassan (2014). Once housing diversity is achieved, the likelihood of sufficient housing solu- Figure 1. Housing sustainability and complex flow tions surviving – and thus reaching viability – networks as function of the trade-offs between effi- ciency and resilience. becomes significant. It is in such conditions, sustain- Based on: Lietaer et al. (2009). able shelter solutions can be found. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 5 Finally, Thiele (2013, p. 198) warns us that ‘[s] left side includes satisfaction of needs, changes in ustainability is Janus-faced and two handed. It is social relations, socio-political capability and gov- future-focused but with an eye to its inheritance. ernance and institutions. Sustainable goals can be And, while it deftly manages the rate and scale of identified by combining soft and hard components change with one hand, it also firmly grasps the of social innovation and sustainable housing. This need to conserve core values and relationships.’ would enable the innovation of interdisciplinary tools for research and policies for affordable and innovative housing solutions. Sustainable housing and social innovation So far, attention has been paid to different dimen- Urban shelter policies: pursuing a new urban sions and interpretations of the concept sustain- agenda? ability. This section will show that sustainable development goes hand-in-hand with social inno- In this century, most rapid urbanisation takes place vation. To obtain sustainable housing, creative in the Global South. Here, cities grow in size and solutions have to be sought as shown by number, which makes it extremely difficult for Mehmood and Parra (2013). These authors see poorer sections of society to find adequate shelter sustainable housing as a multidimensional with security of tenure. This has already led to an approach including the socio-cultural, economic, increasing number of slum dwellers, and it is environmental and institutional aspects of human estimated that their number worldwide will interaction. amount to about two billion by 2030. One of the Table 1 shows the cross-fertilisation between most significant policy challenges of today is how sustainable housing and social innovation. At the to realise the ambition of inclusive cities for all, top of the table, sustainable development refers to including slum dwellers and urban poor outside social vulnerability, economic viability and envir- slum areas which could be achieved through better onmental sustainability. Social innovation on the housing policies for the urban low-income Table 1. Cross-fertilisation potential between social innovation and sustainable housing. Sustainable housing/social innovation Social vulnerability Economic viability Environmental sustainability Satisfaction of Satisfaction of housing Sustainable production and Diversity of habitat solutions; needs needs and basic consumption; neighbourhood- environmental-friendly services and facilities based economies; home-based building materials and economic production technologies Changes in Social inclusion and Sustainable communities; social Socio-ecological transitions of social engagement; social entrepreneurship habitat conditions relations cohesion Socio-political Cooperation in Participatory decision-making based Question the effectiveness of capability communities and with on local knowledge techno-optimism stakeholders; citizens’ movements Governance Identity formation; Adaptive management; microfinance Flexible and adaptive and (social/ empowerment of initiatives; strategic investments governance; densification of cultural) communities; built-up area institutions reflexive governance Source: After Mehmood and Parra (2013, p. 60). 6 P. Smets and P. van Lindert population (UN-Habitat 2015). There is a need for live in rented accommodation’ (Gilbert 2015, p. 1). sustainable housing solutions for the poor in the Indeed, the gross neglect of rental housing on the urban Global South. Unfortunately, affordable policy agendas and the bias towards private home housing is out of reach for millions of low-income ownership is also demonstrated by Fernanda families, as a consequence of their limited Lonardoni and Jean-Claude Bolay’s study of incomes, and because of national and local hous- Florianopolis’ favelas in this issue, confirming ing policies that fail to reach the urban poor: that the expansion of the rental housing market ‘genuinely sustainable houses are those that are characteristically takes place in informal settle- inclusive and affordable for all. Addressing the ments and coincides with dwelling consolidation. issue of affordability is, therefore, a necessary But it should also be recognised that tenants often condition for transformation towards sustainable represent a vulnerable segment of the population. housing’ (UN-Habitat 2012, p. 3). Eva Dick and Torsten Heitkamp, in this issue, point The upgrading of housing and living condi- to a particularly vulnerable group, namely, tempor- tions in existing slums and informal settlements ary migrants with multi-locational livelihoods in is indispensable, while a range of affordable hous- rural and urban areas. They often entirely depend ing alternatives ought to be promoted in order to on their social networks – and no government bring sufficient ‘decent housing solutions’ in par- policy takes their needs into consideration. Below, ticular to the low-income groups. Furthermore, we will introduce all papers in this special issue in moving away from slum deterioration, new slum greater detail. These papers present convincing formation and a severe lack of sufficient housing empirical evidence that housing conditions are production mechanisms represent other challenges very much dependent on the socio-economic, cul- of today. tural and political contexts. In this regard, Choguill Over the past four decades, approaches to low- (2007, p. 147) comments: ‘there is no such thing in income housing have witnessed some remarkable housing as universal “best practice”’. With our plea shifts. Patrick Wakely’s contribution to this issue for more flexibility and diversity in national and convincingly describes how housing paradigms, municipal housing policies, we hope that a greater policies and practices changed initially under the proportion of urban low-income groups will be influence of the so-called self-help school and, accommodated in suitable, affordable, decent and more recently, along with a neoliberal trend of secure housing, which is sustainable for both citi- stimulating private housing markets. Chiodelli zens and cities alike. Hopefully, the new urban (2016), who also focuses on the respective varia- agenda that will be discussed at the Habitat III tions in housing policies, presents a slightly differ- Conference in October 2016 will present clear ent analysis of the respective policies towards the directions to achieve the aforementioned informal city, while agreeing with Wakely and Sustainable Development Goal 11: ‘to make cities other authors (see e.g. Bredenoord & van Lindert and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and 2010; van Lindert 2016) that even with the various sustainable’. shifts in policy approaches, rehabilitation and upgrading of informal settlements, including the Introduction to the papers in this volume provision of tenure security and support to incre- mental housing in existing settlements, still play a All of the items discussed above will be covered in leading role in current housing policy packages. At the special issue, but the emphasis on specific the same time, these authors also concur with topics varies according to the contributors’ different Gilbert (2008, 2014, 2015)inaffirming that rental disciplinary backgrounds, varying from urban plan- housing has always remained the poor relation of ning, architecture, social geography, to sociology. housing policies for the urban poor, even though These papers deal with different countries, namely, ‘across the world, approximately 1.2 billion people Egypt, South Africa, Ghana and Brazil. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development 7 Meanwhile, two papers have a global focus. discusses whether the actions of landlords and Overall, this special issue links theory and practice informality reproduction can enable or constrain in such a way that it is useful for academics, and the sustainability of access to shelter and livelihood also for professionals, policymakers and activists opportunities in urban areas. The challenge is how dealing with low-income sustainable housing and to anticipate such informal strategies for a sustain- urban development. able urban future. In his contribution to this special issue, Patrick The contribution of Eva Dick and Thorsten Wakely provides an overview of low-income housing Heitkamp deals with the provision of sustainable paradigms, policies, programmes and projects for the housing regarding transit migration in South Africa post-World WarIIperioduntil the mid-2010s. He and Ghana, and linkages of migrants in urban areas describes the shift from the provision of public hous- with their urban or rural areas of origin. Such migra- ing and removal of slum areas towards unaided and tion may be the result of economic and political aided informal housing processes which would circumstances, but it can also imply income-generat- accommodate the livelihoods of the poorer sections ing activities and a sense of socio-cultural belonging. of society. Later, the focus is more on enabling stra- These authors examine the impact of transit migra- tegies encouraging the urban poor to participate in tion on the urban housing market and related chal- improving their habitat conditions and the private lenges for sustainable housing. Although sector involved in the production of low-income governmental housing in Ghana rarely focuses on housing. These attempts show an increasing need the urban poor, housing for the South African urban for creating sustainable housing policies. poor is subsidised by a housing subsidy system The focus of Ahmed Soliman is on Egyptian through the post-Apartheid Reconstruction and cities where the expansion of the cities increasingly Development Programme (RDP). Though there are leads to conversion of ‘scarce’ agricultural land into many differences between Ghana and South Africa, housing construction sites. To cope with urban both countries do face a lack of transitory housing sprawl, a programme with a participatory approach measures such as out-rental of backyard shacks, has been implemented for 226 Egyptian settlements. house-sharing or peri-urban caretaking and the The paper describes a programme that facilitates a establishment of new informal settlements. A sus- certain sustainable land delivery system for the tainable and community-based development urban poor in the city of Kotor. Soliman shows that requires an active urban government to participate the community-driven process bears fruit once the in this highly dynamic housing sector. government acts as an agent for compatibility and Finally, Noah Schermbrucker, Sheelah Patel, sustainability aiming to save agricultural land and Diana Mitlin and Nico Keijzer describe Slum/ promote unsustainable urban development. This Shack Dwellers International’s (SDI) experiences implies that a government’s role as facilitator is from its Urban Poor Fund International (UPFI); a insufficient. For the sake of sustainability, active fund for housing and infrastructure. SDI seeks to involvement of the government is required. build on what the poor know and do, and to facil- Fernanda Lonardoni and Jean-Claude Bolay itate their leadership through dialogue and negotia- focus on the opportunities of growth and produc- tions with professionals and practitioners in tion and consumption of rental housing in informal development linked to cities at local, national and Brazilian settlements. The authors focus on the international level. The UPFI fund offers possibili- potential of informal rental markets in providing ties in downmarket housing finance, thereby con- shelter and livelihood opportunities for the urban necting the financial sector with the poor. On the poor. The authors use a political economy approach basis of experiences of the SDI affiliates in India to describe and analyse the consolidation of the and South Africa, the paper discusses housing and informal rental housing market and how commodi- infrastructure financing models that are sustainable fication perpetuates informality. This paper and affordable for the urban poor. 8 P. Smets and P. van Lindert Disclosure statement the affordable shelter challenge. In: Bredenoord J, van Lindert P, Smets P, editors. Affordable housing No potential conflict of interest was reported by the in the urban global south: seeking sustainable solu- authors. tions. London: Routledge/Earthscan; p. 117–131. Choguill CL. 2007. The search for policies to support sustainable housing. Habitat Int. 31:143–149. Note Dietz R, O’Neill D. 2013. Enough is enough. Building a 1. This section is based on Smets et al. (2014). sustainable economy in a world of finite resources. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Ferguson B, Smets P, Mason D. 2014. The new political economy of affordable housing finance and urban Notes on contributors development. In: Bredenoord J, van Lindert P, Peer Smets is an Assistant Professor at the Department Smets P, editors. Affordable housing in the urban of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the global south: seeking sustainable solutions. London: Netherlands. His PhD was on housing finance and the Routledge/Earthscan; p. 102–116. urban poor in India (2002). His research mainly focuses Ganapati S. 2014. Housing cooperatives in the developing on urban habitat conditions (housing and its living world. In: Bredenoord J, van Lindert P, Smets P, environment) in low-income neighbourhoods in south- editors. Affordable housing in the urban global ern and western countries, as well as perceptions which south: seeking sustainable solutions. London: determine liveability. 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Journal

International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jan 2, 2016

Keywords: sustainability; low-income housing; tenants; owner-occupiers; social innovation; ecology; policies; energy; technology; economy

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