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Making the invisible visible

Raporteur on US housing crisis

Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing, who has just completed a seven-city tour of America, said it was shameful that a country as wealthy as the US was not spending more money on lifting its citizens out of homelessness and substandard, overcrowded housing. 

The housing crisis is invisible for many in the US," she said. "I learned through this visit that real affordable housing and poverty is something that hasn't been dealt with as an issue. Even if we talk about the financial crisis and government stepping in in order to promote economic recovery, there is no such help for the homeless."

Investigator meets homeless victims of American dream

From New York to LA: America's deepening housing crisis: gallery

Poorest communities remain forgotten

Communities in recession: the impact on deprived neighbourhoods

Joseph Rowntree Foundation reserach asks: What impact is the current recession having on disadvantaged communities and what can we learn from evidence from previous recessions?

"Talk is already focusing on the UK's emergence from the current recession, but this report illustrates how the poorest communities struggle to recover from economic downturns even in periods of wider prosperity.

"We face tough decisions over the next few months. It is essential that these decisions do not further disadvantage the very poorest communities which have already suffered the most. We need to emerge from this recession with an economy that is both just and sustainable."

Lynsey Hanley Equality, not education, is the key to individual transformation

Karen Day When economic depression is a constant

Eco-blind-alley

For green living, head for Mumbai or New York  Simon Jenkins offers an alternative to the ecotown.

New York, London, Mumbai, Hong Kong are crammed with buildings and people, economising on walls, roofs, central heating, offices, open space and mass transit.

In Britain the VAT incentive to replace rather than restore buildings – the result of builder lobbying – is flagrantly anti-green. If Britain must build at all, it should build high-density, low-rise, which conserves energy more efficiently than high-rise.

Legacy of the docks

Questions at 'the very centre of globalisation'

It is time to rethink the London Docklands development as simply a struggle between powerless locals and 'yuppie' colonisers.

The monumental Canary Wharf is central to the story of the Docklands and its success, but it is not the whole story. Beyond it there remain pockets that still await regeneration and renewal. The current interest in its evolution should be a reminder that 30 years on it is no less a work in progress than the Thames Gateway or the London Olympics.

Suburbs and eco-towns

Tristam Hunt: The suburbs are derided by snobs, yet they offer hope for our future

"Tight, compact cities such as Florence and Siena have been the inspiration for far too long. We now need to take a lead from Croydon and Kingston-upon-Thames."

Simon Jenkins: Ecotowns and turbines are a political slap in the face of the landscape 

"...ecotowns ignore the social dysfunctionality of new towns and are carbon extravagant, built from scratch with new infrastructure for car-dependent commuters."

Glancey on the warning of Lakanal

Our lethal estates    The Lakanal House deaths cast shame on Britain. We urgently need to audit all similar blocks.

The fact, however, that Lakanal House is no more unsafe than many other housing blocks of its type is not cause for concern but for a public outcry. How can such a wealthy country as Britain still house its people in lethal settings? Why is our housing stock so poor when Britain's public housing, a century ago, was often held up as a model to be copied across Europe?

...if Lakanal House is typical then we can expect more fatal fires in the future. Of course, there should be fire drills in such buildings, and of course residents should be offered the best possible information on how to survive a fire. But we urgently need to hold a national audit of these and similar buildings, to investigate their weaknesses, and to equip them with secondary fire escapes.

Architects Journal 

Research finds no bias in allocation of social housing

Social housing allocation and immigrant communities

The independent research by ippr found that social housing policies are targeting those in most need including the homeless, the elderly and families with children. It found no evidence to support the perception that new migrants are getting priority over UK born residents. Nor was there any evidence of abuse of the system, including 'queue jumping' or providing false information.

"Much of the public concern about the impact of migration on social housing has, at its heart, the failure of social housing supply to meet the demands of the population. The poorer the area, the longer the waiting lists, therefore the greater the tension. Government and social housing providers need to work with the communities they serve to address these issues.”

Our city centres are turning into secure enclaves that erode trust

Can we banish fear and loathing from the city?

While the centres of our cities are turning into secure enclaves, high security is also becoming an ever bigger feature of the homes we live in.

The real issue is that most people simply don’t know what is happening, presuming that because the streets have always been public, as far as they are aware, they will continue to be so.

Review by Owen Hatherley

Wasteland war is won with guerrilla tactics

Joe Swift on guerilla gardening

The green warriors whose direct action transformed a bomb site into an inner-city garden that a whole community can now enjoy.

 How I transformed concrete tubs into a flourishing garden 'I became a guerrilla gardener over a decade ago. My family had moved to a kind of North London San Andreas fault where gentrification meets desolation...'

Fabian pamphlet addresses housing divide

In the Mix: Narrowing the gap between public and private housing A Fabian Policy Report shows a strong association between public housing, worklessness and poverty, but the system also fails first time buyers, people living in cities and even middle class home owners. This is only being made worse by the economic crisis. We need to get housing policy right for the recession years and for the longer term. "Public housing is tainted by association with the imagery and stigma of the sink estate and this undermines popular support for all public housing. The mutual respect we owe each other becomes undermined, with some citizens seen as welfare dependents and somehow ‘other’: alien beings in a subculture that horrifies and fascinates middle England in equal measure. "  Extract