Addressing housing needs in minimising the problems of post conflict housing reconstruction

Depleted human and social capital, displacement of people, destruction of property, weakened institutions and ruined economy are some of the legacies of conflicts. Within this context, post conflict reconstruction contributes to overcome the legacies of conflict through reactivating the development process that has been disrupted by the conflict. Among the post conflict reconstruction interventions, post conflict housing reconstruction is paramount important as it contributes to development and peace through restoring the economic and social life of conflict affected people. Despite the importance, the success of post conflict housing reconstruction is hindered by a number of problems such as lack of strategies to address the unique challenges faced by vulnerable households, lack of involvement of local people, lack of use of local building material and technology, lack of local economic development, lack of community linkages, lack of cultural and local consideration, overlooked socio-economic conditions of occupants, standardised housing models, housing models imported from different cultures, lack of beneficiary consultation, poor performance of agencies, bribery and corruptions and lack of post occupancy evaluation. If not properly managed, these issues lead to hinder the success of post conflict housing reconstruction and its contribution to the development and peace. This paper argues that lack of concern on housing needs has directly or indirectly given rise for most of these issues through a comprehensive literature review on post conflict housing reconstruction and housing needs. The paper establishes the link between the problems of housing reconstruction and lack of addressing housing needs. Accordingly, it concludes that adequate housing measures provide a general guideline in addressing housing needs and addressing such needs leads to minimise the problems of post conflict housing reconstruction

Give Me Shelter: Responding to Milwaukee County's affordable housing challenges

Few issues better capture the complex and controversial nature of urban problems facing Metropolitan Milwaukee than the issue of affordable housing. Encompassing matters of racial segregation, poverty and failed public-private partnerships, the Milwaukee metro area's struggle to provide a safe, decent and affordable supply of housing to low-income citizens has been a difficult one. Even before the national economic meltdown, countless reports documented the severe housing burden facing low-income citizens in Milwaukee County. That burden, combined with the scarcity of affordable housing in suburban parts of southeast Wisconsin, has cemented the region's place as one of the most racially segregated in the country. In today's economy, those problems have intensified

Making a home, finding a job: investigating early housing and employment outcomes for young people leaving care

This paper presents findings from a new study of outcomes for young people leaving care funded by the Department for Education and Skills. It reports findings for a sample of 106 young people in relation to progress made in housing and employment some 12-15 months after leaving care. The generally poor employment outcomes of care leavers are acknowledged, but ingredients that make for success are also highlighted, including the value of settled care and post-care careers, sound career planning and, significantly, the value of delaying young people's transitions from care. Early career paths also interconnect with how young people fare in housing, in developing life skills and with other problems in their lives after leaving care. Housing outcomes were more encouraging and predominantly shaped by events after leaving care, and faring well in housing was the factor most closely associated with positive mental well-being in young people. Some groups that are at risk of faring badly are identified, including young people with mental-health problems, young people with persistent offending or substance misuse problems and, in some respects, young disabled people. The implications of these findings for leaving care services are considered

Fourth Amendment Accommodations: (UN)Compelling Public Needs, Balancing Acts, and the Fiction of Consent

The problems of public housing-including crime, drugs, and gun violence- have received an enormous amount of national attention. Much attention has also focused on warrantless searches and consent searches as solutions to these problems. This Note addresses the constitutionality of these proposals and asserts that if the Supreme Court\u27s current Fourth Amendment jurisprudence is taken to its logical extremes, warrantless searches in public housing can be found constitutional. The author argues, however, that such an interpretation fails to strike the proper balance between public need and privacy in the public housing context. The Note concludes by proposing alternative consent-based regimes that would pass constitutional muster

Legal Issues in the rehabilitation of abandoned housing projects of the liquidated housing-developer-companies in Peninsular Malaysia

Abandoned housing projects is one of the biggest problems in the housing industry in Peninsular Malaysia. Even though since the Independence days in 1957, the Malaysian Government have provided laws and policies to govern housing industry, yet abandoned housing projects problem is still an unsettled issue until today.The real victims are the purchasers themselves.Usually when a housing developer company is wound up, the affair and business of the company are taken over either by the private liquidator or provisional liquidator or the official Receiver (OR) under the Department of Insolvency.The liquidator may rehabilitate the abandoned projects left by the wound up housing developer companies, if the projects are viable for rehabilitation with the approval of the creditors, contributories, the committee of inspection and the court and that there is adequate fund to finance the rehabilitation. Otherwise, if the project is not viable, particularly because there are insufficient funds to run the rehabilitation, the projects may be stalled forever without any prospects for rehabilitation, to the detriment of the purchasers. This article discusses the law and practice in the rehabilitation of abandoned housing projects in Peninsular Malaysia of the wound-up-housing-developer-companies.At the ending part of this article the author proposes certain suggestions for facing the problems of abandoned housing projects of the wound up housing developer companies and their rehabilitation in Peninsular Malaysia

Discrimination and Inequality in Housing in Ireland. ESRI Research Series, June 2018

Access to housing is a fundamental human right protected under international conventions such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Social Charter. Adequate housing is also necessary for the achievement of other basic rights such as health and family life and is central to quality of life of adults and children. In Ireland, discrimination in the provision of housing is prohibited under the Equal Status Acts (2000- 2015). Starting from these legislative protections, in this study we consider whether certain groups in Ireland experience higher levels of discrimination in access to housing and whether they experience unequal housing outcomes. Membership of these groups is linked to other relevant characteristics, most importantly socio-economic background. Therefore, this study investigates whether equality groups experience disadvantages in housing outcomes that cannot be fully explained by their socio-economic resources. The study of housing discrimination and outcomes has become even more pressing in recent years because of the marked undersupply of housing in Ireland and problems of affordability

How Chicago's Public Housing Transformation Can Inform Federal Policy

Chicago has long dominated the national discourse about urban poverty in general and public housing in particular, and the policy changes that affect Chicago tend to have repercussions for national policy. The Chicago Housing Authority's1999 Plan for Transformation sought to undo the mistakes of decades of federal policy that had left Chicago and too many other cities blighted by large, decaying public housing properties. Although other cities like Atlanta and San Francisco followed suit, the CHA's Plan was the first -- and largest -- citywide public housing transformation initiative, representing an enormous investment of public and private resources.In many respects, the CHA's story shows the potential of public housing transformation: attractive new developments, better quality of life for most residents, and a better-functioning housing authority. However, the CHA's story also raises cautions about the limitations and the potential risks of this bold -- and costly -- approach and about what else it will take to help address the problems of deep poverty that keep too many public housing families from moving toward self-sufficiency

Why Is There Discrimination Against the Elderly? Experimental and Empirical Analyses for the Rental Housing Market in Japan

Nakagawa(2001) and Nakagawa(2002) applies a fair housing audit technique to age discrimination in Japanese rental housing market, using data from the 2001 Osaka Audits. However, the experimental design of the study had some problems to be improved, e.g. lacked generality. This paper reports the outcome of a new fair housing audit (the 2002 Osaka Audits), in which improvements were added for these problems, and analyzes the existence of discrimination against the elderly as a whole and a variety of causes of age discrimination, using a broader range of tests of hypotheses. The results obtained can be summarized as follows: housing discrimination against elderly home-seekers was observed on a statistically significant level. It was also suggested that the risk of the elderly's future income changing, the risk of fire caused by their negligence, the risk of their tenancy period becoming too long, and their preference for location of housing, as well as young people's preference for neighborhoods of young inhabitants, affected housing discrimination against elderly home-seekers. Finally, it was found that the patterns of restrictions on renting houses to the elderly differed according to their family structure and age.