Desmond King
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198292494
- eISBN:
- 9780191599682
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829249X.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
King examines how interventions of the American federal government—namely, the United States Employment Service (USES), federal mortgage assistance, and public housing programmes—mirrored the ...
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King examines how interventions of the American federal government—namely, the United States Employment Service (USES), federal mortgage assistance, and public housing programmes—mirrored the segregationist order in which they were installed, thus consolidating residential separation by race. According to King, not only did USES discriminate in their job placements but also in its field office facilities and staff; he also shows how the anti‐discrimination policies of the USES were failures and explores the reasons. Next, King traces the evolution of federal public housing and mortgage assistance programmes, focusing especially on the policies of the US Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and responses from organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).Less
King examines how interventions of the American federal government—namely, the United States Employment Service (USES), federal mortgage assistance, and public housing programmes—mirrored the segregationist order in which they were installed, thus consolidating residential separation by race. According to King, not only did USES discriminate in their job placements but also in its field office facilities and staff; he also shows how the anti‐discrimination policies of the USES were failures and explores the reasons. Next, King traces the evolution of federal public housing and mortgage assistance programmes, focusing especially on the policies of the US Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and responses from organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Hong Kong is one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Land supply, property values, and housing provision are inextricably linked with the city’s economic growth and questions of economic ...
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Hong Kong is one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Land supply, property values, and housing provision are inextricably linked with the city’s economic growth and questions of economic equality. In Hong Kong Land for Hong Kong People, Yue Chim Richard Wong traces the history of Hong Kong’s postwar housing policy. He then discusses current housing problems and their solutions, drawing on examples from around the world. Wong argues that housing policy in Hong Kong, with its multiple, often incompatible objectives, and its focus on supply over demand, can no longer satisfy the needs of a diverse and dynamic population. He recommends three simple low-cost policies to promote homeownership and social mobility: sell public rental housing units to the sitting tenants; make subsidized homes more affordable; and reform the public housing program along lines adopted in Singapore, where government-built housing may be resold or leased in a free market. This is the second of Richard Wong’s collections of articles on society and economy in Hong Kong. The first, Diversity and Occasional Anarchy, published by Hong Kong University Press in 2013, examines the growing contradictions in Hong Kong’s economy predicament in historical context.Less
Hong Kong is one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Land supply, property values, and housing provision are inextricably linked with the city’s economic growth and questions of economic equality. In Hong Kong Land for Hong Kong People, Yue Chim Richard Wong traces the history of Hong Kong’s postwar housing policy. He then discusses current housing problems and their solutions, drawing on examples from around the world. Wong argues that housing policy in Hong Kong, with its multiple, often incompatible objectives, and its focus on supply over demand, can no longer satisfy the needs of a diverse and dynamic population. He recommends three simple low-cost policies to promote homeownership and social mobility: sell public rental housing units to the sitting tenants; make subsidized homes more affordable; and reform the public housing program along lines adopted in Singapore, where government-built housing may be resold or leased in a free market. This is the second of Richard Wong’s collections of articles on society and economy in Hong Kong. The first, Diversity and Occasional Anarchy, published by Hong Kong University Press in 2013, examines the growing contradictions in Hong Kong’s economy predicament in historical context.
Kelly Bogue
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447350538
- eISBN:
- 9781447350545
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447350538.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Drawing on first person accounts and participant observation, this book looks in-depth at one of the UK government’s most controversial austerity policies, the ‘Bedroom Tax’. Focusing on the lives of ...
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Drawing on first person accounts and participant observation, this book looks in-depth at one of the UK government’s most controversial austerity policies, the ‘Bedroom Tax’. Focusing on the lives of 31 people in one neighbourhood, it explores the push and pull factors that structure tenants’ behaviour regarding downsizing to smaller properties within a residualised and stigmatised social housing sector. It highlights the meaning of home and the continuing relevance of community and the tensions created when tenants are faced with the threat of displacement and the concomitant loss of social networks and informal structures of welfare that operate in place. While this book focuses on one social policy, it speaks to broader concerns about the value and loss of social housing and how we care for and house our most vulnerable citizens in the midst of neoliberal restructuring. It reflects on the continuing loss of housing benefit support, on-going cuts to the welfare state and what this means for communities and their sense of security and belonging. More broadly, it reflects on how cuts to housing benefit support are undermining the capacity of low income households to secure and maintain housing within a social sector that faces new financial risks and a private rented sector in which the term ‘no DSS’ has made a resurgence. The central argument of this book is that policies such as the Bedroom Tax which undermine secure housing are divisive, heightening resentment about access to housing while leading to increasing housing inequality and urban marginality.Less
Drawing on first person accounts and participant observation, this book looks in-depth at one of the UK government’s most controversial austerity policies, the ‘Bedroom Tax’. Focusing on the lives of 31 people in one neighbourhood, it explores the push and pull factors that structure tenants’ behaviour regarding downsizing to smaller properties within a residualised and stigmatised social housing sector. It highlights the meaning of home and the continuing relevance of community and the tensions created when tenants are faced with the threat of displacement and the concomitant loss of social networks and informal structures of welfare that operate in place. While this book focuses on one social policy, it speaks to broader concerns about the value and loss of social housing and how we care for and house our most vulnerable citizens in the midst of neoliberal restructuring. It reflects on the continuing loss of housing benefit support, on-going cuts to the welfare state and what this means for communities and their sense of security and belonging. More broadly, it reflects on how cuts to housing benefit support are undermining the capacity of low income households to secure and maintain housing within a social sector that faces new financial risks and a private rented sector in which the term ‘no DSS’ has made a resurgence. The central argument of this book is that policies such as the Bedroom Tax which undermine secure housing are divisive, heightening resentment about access to housing while leading to increasing housing inequality and urban marginality.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
The most important issue in designing public housing policy is to have a functioning market that allows households to choose housing tenure, between tenancy and homeownership. This is especially ...
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The most important issue in designing public housing policy is to have a functioning market that allows households to choose housing tenure, between tenancy and homeownership. This is especially important in developing economies with weak institutions that are experiencing rapid urbanization and industrialization, because the choice of housing tenure matters on both economic and social grounds.Less
The most important issue in designing public housing policy is to have a functioning market that allows households to choose housing tenure, between tenancy and homeownership. This is especially important in developing economies with weak institutions that are experiencing rapid urbanization and industrialization, because the choice of housing tenure matters on both economic and social grounds.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0018
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
There was no compelling reason to believe the market was failing or that government intervention to curb speculation was warranted. Speculative activities improve economic efficiency. A better ...
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There was no compelling reason to believe the market was failing or that government intervention to curb speculation was warranted. Speculative activities improve economic efficiency. A better appreciation of the mechanism behind the presale arrangements would lead to a more enlightened view about regulating the market for presale housing units. However, this has not happened. In the past 20 years the government has repeatedly intervened in the market to curb speculation whenever there is a public outcry against property price surges.Less
There was no compelling reason to believe the market was failing or that government intervention to curb speculation was warranted. Speculative activities improve economic efficiency. A better appreciation of the mechanism behind the presale arrangements would lead to a more enlightened view about regulating the market for presale housing units. However, this has not happened. In the past 20 years the government has repeatedly intervened in the market to curb speculation whenever there is a public outcry against property price surges.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0025
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Reforming public sector housing will go a long way towards reviving the natural ebb and flow of life of half the city’s population. It will make inhabitants freer and less frustrated, encourage ...
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Reforming public sector housing will go a long way towards reviving the natural ebb and flow of life of half the city’s population. It will make inhabitants freer and less frustrated, encourage people to move around, and reactivate their natural economic instincts to build and create. It will end the labeling effect of living in the public housing sector. At the very least, the place they now live in will become a community that they will call their home and start investing in rather than treat as a public asset they do not own. A population policy that seeks to attract more talent to Hong Kong can only be beneficial for all if economic growth results from dynamic externalities produced by human capital. To date, there has been more talk than substance. With an aging population knocking on the door, we clearly should be planning for a much larger and better population mix and seek to attract migrants and contracted non-local workers based on their capacity to produce and innovate, rather than merely the assets or spending power they command.Less
Reforming public sector housing will go a long way towards reviving the natural ebb and flow of life of half the city’s population. It will make inhabitants freer and less frustrated, encourage people to move around, and reactivate their natural economic instincts to build and create. It will end the labeling effect of living in the public housing sector. At the very least, the place they now live in will become a community that they will call their home and start investing in rather than treat as a public asset they do not own. A population policy that seeks to attract more talent to Hong Kong can only be beneficial for all if economic growth results from dynamic externalities produced by human capital. To date, there has been more talk than substance. With an aging population knocking on the door, we clearly should be planning for a much larger and better population mix and seek to attract migrants and contracted non-local workers based on their capacity to produce and innovate, rather than merely the assets or spending power they command.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Chapter 1 highlights the main argument of the book: solutions to control the inflow people will eventually corrode the foundations of our free economy and open society. They will also be futile, ...
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Chapter 1 highlights the main argument of the book: solutions to control the inflow people will eventually corrode the foundations of our free economy and open society. They will also be futile, inhumane, and self-defeating. Hong Kong should be developed as a metropolis with a population that is much larger than is currently contemplated in official forecasts. And public housing units should be privatized to help residents become a propertied class. In doing so, Hong Kong will soon be gladly welcoming all those who have a legitimate and humanitarian claim to be here.Less
Chapter 1 highlights the main argument of the book: solutions to control the inflow people will eventually corrode the foundations of our free economy and open society. They will also be futile, inhumane, and self-defeating. Hong Kong should be developed as a metropolis with a population that is much larger than is currently contemplated in official forecasts. And public housing units should be privatized to help residents become a propertied class. In doing so, Hong Kong will soon be gladly welcoming all those who have a legitimate and humanitarian claim to be here.
IAN LOVELAND
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198258766
- eISBN:
- 9780191681868
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198258766.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to present a ‘contextual’ study of the implementation of Britain's homelessness legislation, legislation which was initially ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to present a ‘contextual’ study of the implementation of Britain's homelessness legislation, legislation which was initially enacted as the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977, and is now contained in Part III of the Housing Act 1985. The book's central theme is that law operates not in a context, but in a variety of interdependent contexts. Consequently, the purpose and effect of legal change can only be properly understood if one makes an attempt to discern the interactive effect of as many as possible of the influences bearing upon it. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to present a ‘contextual’ study of the implementation of Britain's homelessness legislation, legislation which was initially enacted as the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977, and is now contained in Part III of the Housing Act 1985. The book's central theme is that law operates not in a context, but in a variety of interdependent contexts. Consequently, the purpose and effect of legal change can only be properly understood if one makes an attempt to discern the interactive effect of as many as possible of the influences bearing upon it. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Ida Susser
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195367317
- eISBN:
- 9780199951192
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367317.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility, Urban and Rural Studies
This chapter identifies three types of landlords in Greenpoint–Williamsburg and relates each to different political and economic consequences for the neighborhood. Absentee landlords tend to be ...
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This chapter identifies three types of landlords in Greenpoint–Williamsburg and relates each to different political and economic consequences for the neighborhood. Absentee landlords tend to be wealthier than resident landlords and have different reasons for their interest in property. The third landlord, the New York City Housing Authority, has yet other interests. Each form of landlord influences the distribution of the neighborhood population and the degree of deterioration of particular areas. The chapter also discusses the causes of the racial discrimination practiced by white working-class homeowners, which can be contrasted with the more open policies of absentee landlords. Such variations have important consequences for the growth of electoral constituencies and political power.Less
This chapter identifies three types of landlords in Greenpoint–Williamsburg and relates each to different political and economic consequences for the neighborhood. Absentee landlords tend to be wealthier than resident landlords and have different reasons for their interest in property. The third landlord, the New York City Housing Authority, has yet other interests. Each form of landlord influences the distribution of the neighborhood population and the degree of deterioration of particular areas. The chapter also discusses the causes of the racial discrimination practiced by white working-class homeowners, which can be contrasted with the more open policies of absentee landlords. Such variations have important consequences for the growth of electoral constituencies and political power.
ALLEN JONES and Mark Naison
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823231027
- eISBN:
- 9780823240821
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823231027.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This book is Allen Jones's story, and it is also the story of thousands of young men and women who grew up in that particular time and place, many of whom were not lucky enough to be pulled away from ...
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This book is Allen Jones's story, and it is also the story of thousands of young men and women who grew up in that particular time and place, many of whom were not lucky enough to be pulled away from the window, to land on their feet, or even to live into middle age. The book also tells the story of a neighborhood in the Bronx. The Lester Patterson Houses is a public housing complex built for war veterans and their children in the heart of the South Bronx. However, by the time Jones was an adult, what was designed as an ideal community for people of different races and nationalities became a kind of war zone. Built in 1950, this was one of the first public housing projects in the South Bronx, part of a huge urban renewal project extending from 139th Street to 145th Street between 3rd and Morris Avenues.Less
This book is Allen Jones's story, and it is also the story of thousands of young men and women who grew up in that particular time and place, many of whom were not lucky enough to be pulled away from the window, to land on their feet, or even to live into middle age. The book also tells the story of a neighborhood in the Bronx. The Lester Patterson Houses is a public housing complex built for war veterans and their children in the heart of the South Bronx. However, by the time Jones was an adult, what was designed as an ideal community for people of different races and nationalities became a kind of war zone. Built in 1950, this was one of the first public housing projects in the South Bronx, part of a huge urban renewal project extending from 139th Street to 145th Street between 3rd and Morris Avenues.
James Greenhalgh
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781526114143
- eISBN:
- 9781526136060
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526114143.001.0001
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural History
Reconstructing modernity assesses the character of approaches to rebuilding British cities during the decades after the Second World War. It explores the strategies of spatial governance that sought ...
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Reconstructing modernity assesses the character of approaches to rebuilding British cities during the decades after the Second World War. It explores the strategies of spatial governance that sought to restructure society and looks at the cast of characters who shaped these processes. It challenges traditional views of urban modernism as moderate and humanist, shedding new light on the importance of the immediate post-war for the trajectory of urban renewal in the twentieth century. The book shows how local corporations and town planners in Manchester and Hull attempted to create order and functionality through the remaking of their decrepit Victorian cities. It looks at the motivations of national and local governments in the post-war rebuilding process and explores why and how they attempted the schemes they did. What emerges is a picture of local corporations, planners and city engineers as radical reshapers of the urban environment, not through the production of grand examples of architectural modernism, but in mundane attempts to zone cities, produce greener housing estates, control advertising or regulate air quality. Their ambition to control and shape the space of their cities was an attempt to produce urban environments that might be both more orderly and functional, but also held the potential to shape society.Less
Reconstructing modernity assesses the character of approaches to rebuilding British cities during the decades after the Second World War. It explores the strategies of spatial governance that sought to restructure society and looks at the cast of characters who shaped these processes. It challenges traditional views of urban modernism as moderate and humanist, shedding new light on the importance of the immediate post-war for the trajectory of urban renewal in the twentieth century. The book shows how local corporations and town planners in Manchester and Hull attempted to create order and functionality through the remaking of their decrepit Victorian cities. It looks at the motivations of national and local governments in the post-war rebuilding process and explores why and how they attempted the schemes they did. What emerges is a picture of local corporations, planners and city engineers as radical reshapers of the urban environment, not through the production of grand examples of architectural modernism, but in mundane attempts to zone cities, produce greener housing estates, control advertising or regulate air quality. Their ambition to control and shape the space of their cities was an attempt to produce urban environments that might be both more orderly and functional, but also held the potential to shape society.
Matthew P. Drennan
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300209587
- eISBN:
- 9780300216349
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300209587.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Has rising income inequality or rising household debt or a housing price bubble played a role in serious economic decline in the past? Did a rising average propensity to consume, and thus a falling ...
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Has rising income inequality or rising household debt or a housing price bubble played a role in serious economic decline in the past? Did a rising average propensity to consume, and thus a falling rate of saving, warn of unsustainable consumption leading to a serious economic decline before the present recession? Those are the questions considered in this chapter, and they all receive the same answer: yes.Less
Has rising income inequality or rising household debt or a housing price bubble played a role in serious economic decline in the past? Did a rising average propensity to consume, and thus a falling rate of saving, warn of unsustainable consumption leading to a serious economic decline before the present recession? Those are the questions considered in this chapter, and they all receive the same answer: yes.
Rowland Atkinson and Sarah Blandy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781784995300
- eISBN:
- 9781526121035
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784995300.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
Domestic Fortress offers a critical analysis of the contemporary home and its close relationship to fear and security. It considers the important connection between the private home, political life ...
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Domestic Fortress offers a critical analysis of the contemporary home and its close relationship to fear and security. It considers the important connection between the private home, political life and the economy that we term tessellated neoliberalism. The book considers the nucleus of the domestic home as part of a much larger archipelago frontline of homes and gated communities that appear as a new home front set against diverse sources of social anxiety. These range from questions of invasion (such as burglary or identity theft) to those of security (the home as a financial resource in retirement and as a place of refuge in an unpredictable world). A culture of fear has been responded to through increasingly emphatic retreats by homeowners into fortified dwellings, palatial houses, concealed bunker pads and gated developments. Many feature elaborate security measures; alarms, CCTV systems, motion-sensing lights and impregnable panic rooms. Domestic Fortresslocates the anxieties driving these responses to the corporate and political manufacturing of fear, the triumph of neoliberal models of homeownership and related modes of social individualisation and risk that permeate society today. Domestic Fortress draws on perspectives and research from criminology, urban studies and sociology to offer a sense of the private home as a site of wavering anxiety and security, exclusion and warmth, alongside dreams of retreat and autonomy that mesh closely with the defining principles of neoliberal governance.
Even as the home is acknowledged to play a vital role in sheltering us from the elements so it has now come to be a locus around which many anxieties are shut-out. The home allows us to lock out the daily hardships of life, but is also a site from which we witness a wide range of troubling phenomena: the insecurities of the workplace, plans for our future welfare, internationalized terror, geo-political warfare, ecological catastrophes, feelings of loss and uncertainty around identity, to say nothing of the daily risks of flood, fire and other disasters.
The home now plays a complex dual role that slips between offering us protection from these worries while also offering the nightmare of its own possible invasion, erosion or destruction. On top of these concerns entire industries have been built that sell a war against strangers, dirt and disaster. This of course includes the insurance industry itself, but also the use of technologies that both protect the home and make it effectively more impregnable to casual social contact as well as the proliferation of products devoted to domestic cleanliness. Domestic Fortress considers the fantasies and realities of dangers to the contemporary home and its inhabitants and details the wide range of actions taken in the pursuit of total safety.Less
Domestic Fortress offers a critical analysis of the contemporary home and its close relationship to fear and security. It considers the important connection between the private home, political life and the economy that we term tessellated neoliberalism. The book considers the nucleus of the domestic home as part of a much larger archipelago frontline of homes and gated communities that appear as a new home front set against diverse sources of social anxiety. These range from questions of invasion (such as burglary or identity theft) to those of security (the home as a financial resource in retirement and as a place of refuge in an unpredictable world). A culture of fear has been responded to through increasingly emphatic retreats by homeowners into fortified dwellings, palatial houses, concealed bunker pads and gated developments. Many feature elaborate security measures; alarms, CCTV systems, motion-sensing lights and impregnable panic rooms. Domestic Fortresslocates the anxieties driving these responses to the corporate and political manufacturing of fear, the triumph of neoliberal models of homeownership and related modes of social individualisation and risk that permeate society today. Domestic Fortress draws on perspectives and research from criminology, urban studies and sociology to offer a sense of the private home as a site of wavering anxiety and security, exclusion and warmth, alongside dreams of retreat and autonomy that mesh closely with the defining principles of neoliberal governance.
Even as the home is acknowledged to play a vital role in sheltering us from the elements so it has now come to be a locus around which many anxieties are shut-out. The home allows us to lock out the daily hardships of life, but is also a site from which we witness a wide range of troubling phenomena: the insecurities of the workplace, plans for our future welfare, internationalized terror, geo-political warfare, ecological catastrophes, feelings of loss and uncertainty around identity, to say nothing of the daily risks of flood, fire and other disasters.
The home now plays a complex dual role that slips between offering us protection from these worries while also offering the nightmare of its own possible invasion, erosion or destruction. On top of these concerns entire industries have been built that sell a war against strangers, dirt and disaster. This of course includes the insurance industry itself, but also the use of technologies that both protect the home and make it effectively more impregnable to casual social contact as well as the proliferation of products devoted to domestic cleanliness. Domestic Fortress considers the fantasies and realities of dangers to the contemporary home and its inhabitants and details the wide range of actions taken in the pursuit of total safety.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9789888139446
- eISBN:
- 9789888180349
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888139446.003.0015
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
According to the traditional point of view, demand for residential flats outstrips land supply because of high housing prices. Another viewpoint claims that housing prices soar because of an array of ...
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According to the traditional point of view, demand for residential flats outstrips land supply because of high housing prices. Another viewpoint claims that housing prices soar because of an array of government regulations on zoning, planning, as well as other restrictions on buildings. Professor Edward Glaeser of Harvard University discovered that the housing crisis in the States was chiefly triggered by the high cost imposed by zoning and other land use controls. This chapter glances at two factors that modify the housing supply environment and the consequences posed to society by high property prices.Less
According to the traditional point of view, demand for residential flats outstrips land supply because of high housing prices. Another viewpoint claims that housing prices soar because of an array of government regulations on zoning, planning, as well as other restrictions on buildings. Professor Edward Glaeser of Harvard University discovered that the housing crisis in the States was chiefly triggered by the high cost imposed by zoning and other land use controls. This chapter glances at two factors that modify the housing supply environment and the consequences posed to society by high property prices.
Louis Hyman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140681
- eISBN:
- 9781400838400
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140681.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter discusses the New Deal housing policy and the making of national mortgage markets. Though Franklin Roosevelt was sympathetic to housing the poor, his policies aimed, primarily, to grow ...
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This chapter discusses the New Deal housing policy and the making of national mortgage markets. Though Franklin Roosevelt was sympathetic to housing the poor, his policies aimed, primarily, to grow the economy and reduce unemployment. If this could be accomplished through housing the poor, all the better, but that was a secondary goal to restoring economic growth. Unlike the other housing programs of the New Deal, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) promised and achieved this growth. By 1939, investment in residential housing was nearly back to its 1929 levels. The flood of funds, guaranteed profits, and standardized policies initiated through the FHA changed the way banks operated forever, turning mortgages into nationally traded commodities—and in the process changing the way Americans related to banks and debt.Less
This chapter discusses the New Deal housing policy and the making of national mortgage markets. Though Franklin Roosevelt was sympathetic to housing the poor, his policies aimed, primarily, to grow the economy and reduce unemployment. If this could be accomplished through housing the poor, all the better, but that was a secondary goal to restoring economic growth. Unlike the other housing programs of the New Deal, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) promised and achieved this growth. By 1939, investment in residential housing was nearly back to its 1929 levels. The flood of funds, guaranteed profits, and standardized policies initiated through the FHA changed the way banks operated forever, turning mortgages into nationally traded commodities—and in the process changing the way Americans related to banks and debt.
Leo F. Goodstadt
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9789888208210
- eISBN:
- 9789888268436
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208210.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
Hong Kong is among the richest cities in the world. Yet over the past 15 years, living conditions for the average family have deteriorated despite a robust economy, ample budget surpluses and record ...
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Hong Kong is among the richest cities in the world. Yet over the past 15 years, living conditions for the average family have deteriorated despite a robust economy, ample budget surpluses and record labour productivity. Successive governments have been reluctant to invest in services for the elderly, the disabled, the long-term sick, and the poor, while education has become more elitist. The political system has helped to entrench a mistaken consensus that social spending is a threat to financial stability and economic prosperity. This trenchant attack on government mismanagement traces how officials have created a ‘new poverty’ in Hong Kong and argues that their misguided policies are both a legacy of the colonial era and a deliberate choice by modern governments, and not the result of economic crises. This provocative book will be essential reading for anyone wishing to understand why poverty returned to Hong Kong in this century.Less
Hong Kong is among the richest cities in the world. Yet over the past 15 years, living conditions for the average family have deteriorated despite a robust economy, ample budget surpluses and record labour productivity. Successive governments have been reluctant to invest in services for the elderly, the disabled, the long-term sick, and the poor, while education has become more elitist. The political system has helped to entrench a mistaken consensus that social spending is a threat to financial stability and economic prosperity. This trenchant attack on government mismanagement traces how officials have created a ‘new poverty’ in Hong Kong and argues that their misguided policies are both a legacy of the colonial era and a deliberate choice by modern governments, and not the result of economic crises. This provocative book will be essential reading for anyone wishing to understand why poverty returned to Hong Kong in this century.
Price V. Fishback, Jonathan Rose, and Kenneth Snowden
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226082448
- eISBN:
- 9780226082585
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226082585.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This book is an economic history of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC). The HOLC was government corporation created under the New Deal to refinance home mortgage loans in danger of foreclosure, ...
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This book is an economic history of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC). The HOLC was government corporation created under the New Deal to refinance home mortgage loans in danger of foreclosure, passed at the beginning of the Roosevelt administration in 1933 with overwhelming support from Congress and a broad set of interest groups. The challenge for HOLC officials was to design a program that could deliver relief to loan borrowers while still securing the voluntary participation of lenders and not imposing unjustifiably large costs on taxpayers. Ultimately, the HOLC was effective in purchasing a large number of loans because it often paid lenders all or nearly all of the debts they were owed. At the same time, the HOLC delivered relief to borrowers by implementing relatively liberal loan terms and patient servicing practices but typically only small or no debt relief. The relief provided by the HOLC was broadly effective at helping borrowers avoid foreclosure and by doing so the intervention helped prevent declines in house prices and home ownership in some local markets. However, the program did not reverse all of the damage from the foreclosure crisis of the 1930s, and the HOLC ultimately foreclosed on 19 percent of its own loans. Financially, the HOLC’s loan refinancing program was responsible for a modest loss to US taxpayers, equal to about 2 percent of the value of its loan portfolio, once all of its explicit and implicit costs are taken into account.Less
This book is an economic history of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC). The HOLC was government corporation created under the New Deal to refinance home mortgage loans in danger of foreclosure, passed at the beginning of the Roosevelt administration in 1933 with overwhelming support from Congress and a broad set of interest groups. The challenge for HOLC officials was to design a program that could deliver relief to loan borrowers while still securing the voluntary participation of lenders and not imposing unjustifiably large costs on taxpayers. Ultimately, the HOLC was effective in purchasing a large number of loans because it often paid lenders all or nearly all of the debts they were owed. At the same time, the HOLC delivered relief to borrowers by implementing relatively liberal loan terms and patient servicing practices but typically only small or no debt relief. The relief provided by the HOLC was broadly effective at helping borrowers avoid foreclosure and by doing so the intervention helped prevent declines in house prices and home ownership in some local markets. However, the program did not reverse all of the damage from the foreclosure crisis of the 1930s, and the HOLC ultimately foreclosed on 19 percent of its own loans. Financially, the HOLC’s loan refinancing program was responsible for a modest loss to US taxpayers, equal to about 2 percent of the value of its loan portfolio, once all of its explicit and implicit costs are taken into account.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9789888390625
- eISBN:
- 9789888390373
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390625.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
When discussing inequality and poverty in Hong Kong, scholars and politicians often focus on the failures of government policy and push for an increase in social welfare. Richard Wong argues in ...
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When discussing inequality and poverty in Hong Kong, scholars and politicians often focus on the failures of government policy and push for an increase in social welfare. Richard Wong argues in Fixing Inequality in Hong Kong that universal retirement support, minimum wage, and standard hours of work are of limited effect in shrinking the inequality gap. By comparing Hong Kong with Singapore, he points out that Hong Kong needs a new and long-term strategy on human resource policy. He recommends more investment in education, focusing on early education and immigration policy reforms to attract highly educated and skilled people to join the workforce. In analyzing what causes inequality, this book ties disparate issues together into a coherent framework, such as Hong Kong’s aging population, lack of investment in human capital, and family breakdowns. Rising divorce rates among low-income households have worsened the housing shortage, driving rents and property prices upwards. Housing problems created a bigger gap between those who own housing and have the ability to invest in their children’s human capital and those who cannot, thus adversely impacting intergenerational upward mobility. This is the third of Richard Wong’s collections of articles on society and economy in Hong Kong. Diversity and Occasional Anarchy and Hong Kong Land for Hong Kong People, published by Hong Kong University Press in 2013 and 2015 respectively, discuss growing economic and social contradictions in Hong Kong and current housing problems and their solutions.Less
When discussing inequality and poverty in Hong Kong, scholars and politicians often focus on the failures of government policy and push for an increase in social welfare. Richard Wong argues in Fixing Inequality in Hong Kong that universal retirement support, minimum wage, and standard hours of work are of limited effect in shrinking the inequality gap. By comparing Hong Kong with Singapore, he points out that Hong Kong needs a new and long-term strategy on human resource policy. He recommends more investment in education, focusing on early education and immigration policy reforms to attract highly educated and skilled people to join the workforce. In analyzing what causes inequality, this book ties disparate issues together into a coherent framework, such as Hong Kong’s aging population, lack of investment in human capital, and family breakdowns. Rising divorce rates among low-income households have worsened the housing shortage, driving rents and property prices upwards. Housing problems created a bigger gap between those who own housing and have the ability to invest in their children’s human capital and those who cannot, thus adversely impacting intergenerational upward mobility. This is the third of Richard Wong’s collections of articles on society and economy in Hong Kong. Diversity and Occasional Anarchy and Hong Kong Land for Hong Kong People, published by Hong Kong University Press in 2013 and 2015 respectively, discuss growing economic and social contradictions in Hong Kong and current housing problems and their solutions.
Nancy H. Kwak
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226282350
- eISBN:
- 9780226282497
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226282497.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter explains the nature of American interest in international housing conditions after World War II, as well as the mechanisms by which Americans funnelled aid abroad. American aid flowed ...
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This chapter explains the nature of American interest in international housing conditions after World War II, as well as the mechanisms by which Americans funnelled aid abroad. American aid flowed primarily through the international division of federal housing agencies, or the various agencies tasked with bilateral aid outside the Department of Defense. Americans also contributed to a wide array of international, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental bodies, exerting varying degrees of influence within each. This chapter details the various modes of American leadership and participation and then offers a short summary of the overarching organization of the book.Less
This chapter explains the nature of American interest in international housing conditions after World War II, as well as the mechanisms by which Americans funnelled aid abroad. American aid flowed primarily through the international division of federal housing agencies, or the various agencies tasked with bilateral aid outside the Department of Defense. Americans also contributed to a wide array of international, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental bodies, exerting varying degrees of influence within each. This chapter details the various modes of American leadership and participation and then offers a short summary of the overarching organization of the book.
Nancy H. Kwak
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226282350
- eISBN:
- 9780226282497
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226282497.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Single-family homeownership transformed from dream to right in the twentieth century for middle-class white American families. This transformation had international dimensions: up to the early 1940s, ...
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Single-family homeownership transformed from dream to right in the twentieth century for middle-class white American families. This transformation had international dimensions: up to the early 1940s, reformers, housing activists, and some politicians actively engaged European counterparts in crafting domestic housing policies that engaged the state, as a regulatory, and for a brief moment, as a progressive force. During and after World War II, however, the federal government shied away from “socialistic” government housing programs such as those developed in Britain, and congressional representatives embraced exceptionalist narratives about the US’s system of housing vis-à-vis cooperative programs such as those developed in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, and Switzerland. US business interests actively rejected any attempt to experiment with European housing ideas that might push private builders to the sidelines. Instead, they subsumed an unprecedentedly large federal government role in postwar housing construction and mortgage issuance under a language of free-market rights. As older bonds of transatlantic social politics loosened and fell apart, builders, banks, and realtors gained the upper hand in shaping a uniquely American social and spatial order based on mass homeownership.Less
Single-family homeownership transformed from dream to right in the twentieth century for middle-class white American families. This transformation had international dimensions: up to the early 1940s, reformers, housing activists, and some politicians actively engaged European counterparts in crafting domestic housing policies that engaged the state, as a regulatory, and for a brief moment, as a progressive force. During and after World War II, however, the federal government shied away from “socialistic” government housing programs such as those developed in Britain, and congressional representatives embraced exceptionalist narratives about the US’s system of housing vis-à-vis cooperative programs such as those developed in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, and Switzerland. US business interests actively rejected any attempt to experiment with European housing ideas that might push private builders to the sidelines. Instead, they subsumed an unprecedentedly large federal government role in postwar housing construction and mortgage issuance under a language of free-market rights. As older bonds of transatlantic social politics loosened and fell apart, builders, banks, and realtors gained the upper hand in shaping a uniquely American social and spatial order based on mass homeownership.
