Advisory Center for Affordable Settlements & Housing

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Document Type General
Publish Date 15/09/2004
Author Kees Dol and Reinout Kleinhans
Published By OTB Research Institute for the Built Environment, The Netherlands
Edited By Arslan Hassan
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ON THE BALANCE BETWEEN SUPPLY AND DEMAND OF SOCIAL HOUSING IN DUTCH CITIES

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Document Type: General
Publish Date: 2004
Primary Author: Kees Dol and Reinout Kleinhans
Edited By: Arsalan Hasan
Published By: OTB Research Institute for the Built Environment, The Netherlands

In the second half of the 1990s Dutch urban housing policy shifted from urban renewal to urban restructuring and the creation of more socially mixed neighbourhoods. Motives for restructuring stem from the ongoing debates on concentration, segregation and social mix. Here, we focus on the main instruments of urban restructuring, i.e. the demolition of social housing and the construction of more expensive rental and owneroccupied housing. Continued restructuring may eventually lead to a shortage of social rented dwellings for low-income households, the target group of social housing. An important political question is therefore whether the dwindling supply of social housing still matches the potential demand in the target group. We addressed this question with an analysis of three Dutch cities: Rotterdam, The Hague, and Breda. The results indicate that, although demolition has brought about substantial changes, the share of social rented housing remains high in most restructuring neighbourhoods and restructuring has not resulted in concentrations of social rented housing in other, nonrestructuring neighbourhoods in any of the three cities. In Rotterdam, which had a very large social housing stock at the beginning of the restructuring operation, there are still sufficient affordable homes for lower-income households. However, in The Hague and Breda, restructuring has tightened the supply of social rental housing. The municipal authority in The Hague has attempted to remedy the situation by entering regional agreements to secure sufficient levels of affordable housing.

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