Housing for the poor in a neo‐liberalising just city: Still affordable, but increasingly inaccessible

Abstract

With a comparably high degree of de-commodification in the urban housing market, Amsterdam has been long considered a prime example of a 'European city' and a 'just city'. This paper looks at how the city's housing tenure sectors have changed since the 1990s due to neo-liberalisation processes and specifies effects for housing conditions of the poor. It highlights how restructuring has been driven by policy changes at different scales, and analyses the effects of reform on issues of accessibility and affordability. We identify a gap between insiders and outsiders, with affordability for the poor inside the system not yet deteriorating, but accessibility for poor outsiders emerging as a key problem. In the conclusion we speculate on future developments of the Amsterdam housing market and relate our findings to debates about the 'European city' and the 'just city'.

State-led Gentrification and the Changing Geography of Market-oriented Housing Policies

“…Thus, although the social rental stock remains relatively large and overall shifts in tenure composition have been rather gradual (Figure 2), the accessibility of the social stock has diminished at a rapid pace. As a result, divides between housing market insiders (those who enjoy tenant protection) and outsiders (those struggling to find housing) are reinforced (Kadi and Musterd 2015). Interestingly, this decrease occurred rather evenly across the central and peripheral boroughs.…”

“…In contexts where tenant protection is strong, rent regulation is in place, and relocation is guided, social mixing policies may still have a substantial impact as the structural decrease in affordable rental dwellings available to lower income residents effectively excludes them (Slater 2009). These shifts are especially likely to have a detrimental impact on the housing position of low-income housing market outsiders, as well as those low-income households in direct need of housing (Kadi and Musterd 2015).…”

Gentrification and the suburbanization of poverty: changing urban geographies through boom and bust periods

“…Long average waiting times for social rental housing in Amsterdam (over nine years, but longer in popular areas) make such coping strategies important for outsiders (cf. Kadi & Musterd, 2015). Comparing the two cities, it is interesting to note that a larger share of lowincome households moves into owner occupancy or social rental housing in Rotterdam.…”

“…On the other hand, indirect exclusionary displacement is relatively common due to the state orchestrated sale and liberalization of social rental dwellings and steep price increases in the private rental and owner-occupied sectors (Van Gent, 2013). While insiders enjoy security of tenure and are able to retain relatively low housing costs, outsiders face decreasing options and rising rent burdens (Kadi & Musterd, 2015).…”

Identifying Distributive Injustice Through Housing (Mis)Match Analysis: The Case of Social Housing in Amsterdam

“…Despite the quantity of social housing, rent increase restrictions, and a heightened focus on selecting the appropriate households through filtering, concerns about access to affordable housing and processes of gradual privatization and residualization persist (e.g. Fainstein 2010; Kadi and Musterd 2014;Klomp and Kromhout 2013). Other concerns regard the efficiency of the use and management of available means (Boelhouwer and Priemus 2014;Conijn and Schilder 2011;Hakfoort, van Leuvensteijn, and Renes 2002;Nieboer and Gruis 2014;Priemus 2003).…”