New Municipal Housing Construction, Decision-making, and Risks of Segregation: A Case Study in Rudoltice

Abstract

Czech municipalities were given important responsibilities for housing policies during the post-communist transformation processes after 1989, which resulted in a diversifi cation of strategies. Rudoltice near Lanškroun in Pardubice is a specifi c case of a municipality that chose to prioritise extensive municipal housing construction. The municipality used government subsidies to construct a new neighbourhood called Zámeček, which, with its nearly 1000 inhabitants, caused the local population to double between 2006 and 2009. In this article, the author explores the roots of this large-scale project of municipal housing construction by specifi cally combining its national, regional, and local contexts. The local municipality's decisions and its ambitions and expectations for growth and prosperity were embedded in the micro-regional context of the successful economic transformation and development it had experienced since the 1990s and were made possible by changes in national housing policies and the devolution of policy decisions to the municipalities. Using the concept of (new) socio-spatial formation this article analyses the neighbourhood of Zámeček as a case of residential segregation. It argues that, even though its population is still relatively heterogeneous compared to other segregated localities in the Czechia, the neighbourhood is being shaped by an ongoing process of segregation. The specifi c supply of affordable housing in Zámeček meets a demand for housing from low income households in other regions where municipalities do not provide affordable housing.