Housing Vouchers, Benefits and Allowances (VBAs): Comparing Rental Tools in the US, England and the Netherlands

Abstract

This paper compares rental housing tools in the US, Britain and the Netherlands in order to determine the best strategy for enhancing rental housing accessibility. In doing so, the authors employ a 'tools approach' of governance paradigm, based on the work of Salamon's The Tools of Governance (2002). Rental housing tools are called housing vouchers in the US, housing benefits in Britain and housing allowances in the Netherlands. Overall, it was found that Britain and the Netherlands can learn from the US on means and ways of designing more efficient and fiscally responsible housing vouchers, benefits, and allowances (VBAs). The US, in turn, can learn from Britain and the Netherlands on means and needs of achieving higher equity and effectiveness. This analysis contributes in a meaningful way by addressing the missing middle link between policies and programs - namely, the tools perspective.Britain, governance, housing allowances, housing benefits, housing vouchers, Netherlands, policy analysis, public management, rental tools, United States,

Interpreting Housing Allowance: The Norwegian Case

“…The parameters of the system vary with location, household type and income (Nordvik and Åhrén 2005), and it is an entitlement: all who satisfy the criteria may receive housing allowances for an unlimited period. This in contrast to the US, where eligible households have to wait in line for rationed housing vouchers (Scanlon and Whitehead 2009); only a little over 30 percent of eligible households at the beginning of the last decade actually received vouchers, Agiro and Matusitz (2011). In contrast to many other countries, the Norwegian system is tenure neutral; eligible households in cooperative-, rented-and owner-occupied housing receive similar support.…”

The impact of the direct payment of housing benefit: evidence from Great Britain

“…Studies in this area have focused on a number of issues including comparing national systems (Agiro & Matusitz, 2011;Kemp, 1990Kemp, , 2007 and eligibility, degree of choice, incentive mechanisms and 'extent of oversight' (Priemus et al, 2005). However, the issue of how subsidies are administered, specifically whether they are paid to tenants (DP) or to landlords (landlord payment), and the consequences of adopting these payment approaches have received very little attention.…”

A lakásfenntartáshoz kapcsolódó pénzbeli ellátások és egyéb társadalompolitikai eszközök kritikai elemzése

“…bérlakás-állományhoz hasonlóan -csak pályázhatnak, illetve "sorban állhatnak" az ellátásra (Schwartz, 2006;Agiro -Matusitz, 2011;Steele, 2012).…”