social housing

Debates

When Rising Expectations Meet Rising Reaction: New York’s 2024 Housing Policy Fight and the Prospects for the Future

Oksana Mironova & Samuel Stein - 10 September 2024

How did New York housing policy fare with Democratic control of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of...

From the Field

Have Low-Income Households Been Failed by the Sale of Social Housing?

Matthieu Gimat & Manon Le Bon-Vuylsteke & Bruno Marot & translated by Oliver Waine - 6 January 2023

Since 2018, the selling-off of social housing in France, as in other countries in Europe, has accelerated. What are...

Debates

Changes in Contemporary Brazilian Housing Policy: The Dismantling of Social Housing and Grassroots Mobilization

Thalles Vichiato Breda - 21 October 2022

Thalles Vichiato Breda argues that since 2016, with the rise of right-wing governments in Brazil, the federal...

From the Field

Policing Social Housing in Paris: The Role of GPIS

Virginie Malochet & translated by Oliver Waine - 28 May 2021

Social landlords in France recently obtained the right to organize surveillance and security operations themselves...

From the Field

The Contestations and Contradictions of the New York City Housing Authority’s Plan for Mixed-Income Redevelopment

Valerie E. Stahl - 10 November 2020

The New York City Housing Authority, faced with a capital shortfall of nearly $40 billion, is pursuing a series of...

From the Field

Social Housing in Postcolonial Contexts

Clémence Léobal & translated by Oliver Waine - 25 September 2020

What happens when national social-housing policies developed in mainland France are transposed in overseas...

Debates

Covid-19, War, and Working-Class Neighborhoods

Pierre Gilbert & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 June 2020

The residents of France’s working-class neighborhoods, accused of exacerbating the coronavirus pandemic through...

Essays

Educating Tenants: A Historic Remit of Social Housing

Danièle Voldman & translated by Oliver Waine - 17 April 2020

In France, the professions of social worker and concierge both emerged in the early 20th century, and both...

Debates

Can Cannabis Be Legalized in France Without Inflaming the Banlieues?

Christian Ben Lakhdar & Aymeric Reyre & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 July 2019

France is a place of paradoxes: cannabis is widely consumed, and yet legalization does not seem to be on the cards,...

Essays

Organizing Against Projet Gentrification: Housing Activism in a White-Supremacist Landscape in Montreal

Pierce Nettling - 27 November 2018

Housing activists in Montreal and Quebec have successfully sought to secure tenant rights and social housing for...

Reviews

Photographing the Slums of 1900s Berlin

Danièle Voldman & translated by Oliver Waine - 14 September 2018

At the turn of the 20th century, the dramatically poor conditions of urban working-class housing was a cause of...

Essays

Urban Shrinkage in France: An Invisible Issue?

Rémi Dormois & Sylvie Fol & translated by Oliver Waine - 13 September 2017

Although the phenomenon of urban shrinkage affects a significant number of French towns and cities, it is an issue...

From the Field

Estate Regeneration in London: Politics and Protest

Gerald Koessl - 31 January 2017

Gerald Koessl describes dilemmas facing social-housing providers in London, where social housing often serves as...

Debates

On Our Own: Protecting and Developing Social Housing in the Trump Era

John Krinsky - 13 January 2017

In response to a tense post-election moment in the US, the Metropolitics editorial committee has initiated...

Reviews

The Intimate Politics of Public Housing’s Demise

Dory Thrasher - 12 April 2016

Many ethnographies have documented the physical and institutional fragility of America’s public housing. Writing in...

Essays

Urban renewal and the “defensible space” model: the growing impact of security issues on the way our cities develop

Camille Gosselin & translated by Oliver Waine - 12 February 2016

In transforming the urban planning and architecture of social-housing estates, urban-renewal policies are not just...

Debates

Social housing in Africa: a model to be (re)invented?

Alexandra Biehler & Armelle Choplin & Marie Morelle & translated by Oliver Waine - 16 October 2015

While the question of housing for working-class populations remains a recurrent issue in sub‑Saharan African cities,...

Debates

Using heritage status to combat segregation: the case of French housing estates

Marc Bertier & Hervé Marchal & Jean-Marc Stébé & translated by Oliver Waine - 22 October 2014

Challenging the idea that demolishing housing estates is all it takes to eradicate the social problems with which...

Reviews

Ethnic discrimination in social housing

François Bonnet & translated by Oliver Waine - 12 March 2014

Valérie Sala Pala has investigated the extent to which ethnic criteria come into play in the allocation of social...

Reviews

Social housing in New York

François Bonnet & translated by Oliver Waine - 22 January 2014

Is high-rise public housing doomed to demolition? A book and article by historian Nicholas Dagen Bloom, focusing on...

Interviews

Solving the housing crisis: opening up private housing to the social sector

Lise Bourdeau-Lepage & Jean-Pierre Lévy & Nadine Roudil & translated by Oliver Waine - 13 February 2013

Jean-Pierre Lévy has devoted much of his work to the issue of poor housing conditions. Here, for Metropolitics, he...

Debates

Social housing in Europe: the end of an era?

Noémie Houard & translated by Oliver Waine - 26 September 2012

Although there is no single European model for social housing, there are nevertheless a number of common trends and...

Interviews

The Design-Politics of American Public Housing

Sandra Parvu & Lawrence J. Vale - 4 July 2012

Lawrence J. Vale goes back to the early days of American history to discuss public housing policy in the US: he...

Essays

Quotas of foreigners in social housing: a legacy of the Algerian War? Les Canibouts, Nanterre (1959–1968)

Marie-Claude Blanc-Chaléard & translated by Oliver Waine - 11 April 2012

Was it better to concentrate or disperse Algerians during the Algerian War? In the course of the conflict, both...

Debates

Why isn’t there enough housing in France?

Jean-Claude Driant & translated by Oliver Waine - 11 January 2012

The idea that France is experiencing a serious housing deficit, requiring a massive home-building policy is the...

Reviews

The history of social housing revisited

Christine Mengin & translated by Oliver Waine - 30 November 2011

Since the end of the 19th century, how have residents’ wishes been taken into account by the public authorities...

Essays

“Ghetto,” “Banishment,” “Neighborhood Effects.” A Critique of the “Ghetto” Image of French Housing Projects

Pierre Gilbert & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 23 March 2011

Are residents of French housing projects really “banished” to their neighborhoods and kept in “confinement” there?...

Debates

The New French Ghettos

Hervé Marchal & Jean-Marc Stébé & translated by Eric Rosencrantz - 16 December 2010

Are housing projects in France – particularly the French slums euphemistically termed Zones Urbaines Sensibles (ZUS...

Debates

The Virtues and Vices of the Growth of Homeownership

Jean-Claude Driant & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 24 November 2010

Why is it necessary to become a homeowner? Jean-Claude Driant examines the arguments for and against policies that...

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