Housing, inequality and the role of population mobility

  This study aims to bring the role of population mobility into contemporary academic understandings of socio-spatial polarisation. The term, ‘socio-spatial polarisation’ refers broadly to the growing gap between rich and poor households in both socio-economic position (‘socio’) and geographic location (‘spatial’). While an extensive literature exists concerning the ways in which housing and labour markets affect urban socio-spatial patterns, limited attention has been given to the fundamental role of household mobility in creating these spatial patterns. A substantial influx or out-movement of particular groups of households (e.g. high or low income; young students or retirees) from various parts of a city, for example, can potentially re-shape the socio-spatial structure. During recent decades, the socio-spatial divisions that characterise Australia’s major cities have become more pronounced. In other words, not only has the income gap between rich and poor households widened, but this gap has played out spatially in differentiating the urban communities that house the rich and poor. Socio-spatial polarisation has become a recognised feature in Australia’s major cities. For households, location within the city has become a crucial determinant of overall welfare, including outcomes associated with health, education, employment, real income, social well-being social capital and personal security (for an overview, see Maher 1999). These socio-spatial divides, therefore, are a matter of public concern. House prices and rent levels play a pivotal role in shaping the socio-economic landscape of the metropolitan area by determining where people can live based on their economic resources. This study focuses on socio-spatial polarisation in Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria and Australia’s second largest city. Melbourne’s population of 3.9 million accounts for 73 per cent of the State of Victoria\u27s population. A low-density sprawled metropolitan region, Melbourne covers 7694 square kilometres and runs approximately 116 kilometres north to south and 122 kilometres east to west. The analysis disaggregates Melbourne into sixteen ABS-defined Statistical Subdivisions (SSDs) and discusses them in terms of four broad housing market areas

Submarkets in public sector housing: an abstract concept or a decision-making tool?

This report is designed to evaluate the concept of ‘housing submarkets’ in terms of its relevance for social housing analysis and to assess its usefulness in informing management and administrative practices in the social housing sector. The submarket concept has not been employed in social housing analysis, given that ‘markets’ are typically seen as locations of exchange through consumer and producer responses to price signals. By contrast, in social housing, client and organisational decision-making revolves around administrative fiat. Nevertheless the private market public administration boundary may not be as sharp as this implies. It may be possible to extend the principle of submarkets to social housing

Gentrification and displacement: a review of approaches and findings in the literature (positioning paper)

Gentrification refers to the in-migration of affluent households to poorer and lower value areas of the city. In Australian cities like Melbourne and Sydney this process has become notable in a significant number of suburbs. While gentrification has appeared to increase investment in the housing stock of these areas, there have been persistent risks that such sudden flows of money and people may displace lower-income and vulnerable residents, particularly where their tenure is insecure in private rental accommodation. This positioning paper considers the international literature on gentrification-related household displacement. The paper then considers available data sources and a model appropriate to estimating areas of intensive gentrification activity, and subsequently to accurately measure flows of displacement from these areas. These measures will form the basis of the empirical research that will follow this review

Submarkets in public sector housing

This project aims to investigate the possibilities of extending the conventional idea of housing submarkets to include the public housing sector. The information and insights derived from this project will contribute to improved public housing management and policy

State intervention in urban housing markets : a case study of public housing development and change in Melbourne, 1945-1980

The paper analyses the three major public housing programmes which have been operating within Melbourne since 1945 within the framework of the theory of the state. The paper also reviews the functions and causes of state intervention and assesses the utility of the theory of the state

Public housing in Melbourne : locational implications of policy decisions

Abstract not available

Mobility in the public rental market

Why do people move house? Are some households more likely to move than others? Where do they ultimately reside? The dynamic process of residential mobility has been much studied by social scientists. Research has focussed, however, on households moving within the private sector tenures of owner occupancy and rental---accounting for some 95 per cent of all households in Australia---and has paid little attention to public renters. One reason for this oversight is that low income public tenants are perceived as a relatively immobile group and therefore not useful to study (Paris and Lambert 1979). Another, more important reason, is that the traditional paradigms used to explain residential mobility imply choice, and 'housing choice is a concept that has seldom been applied to the study of the allocation of public housing' (Kintrea and Clapham 1986, p. 1281). The processes involved in moving into, and within the public housing sector are quite unlike those operating in the private housing market. Public sector mobility is determined by housing authority managers through administrative decisions concerning the allocaton of new tenancies and transfers of households within the public rental stock. These practices in turn reflect the objectives of public housing---as these objectives have changed over time, the nature of mobility within the sector has altered. [Introduction