On housing affordability. Questioning the European policy perspective in action

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, owning or renting a dwelling has increasingly become in Europe a toil for many. National policies have been reducing the investment on council housing and at the same time households’ incomes and spending power are decreasing, putting low- or unstable-income people at risk of homelessness. As the “availability of” and “access to” decent housing has been dropping in many European large and medium-size cities, EU policies are trying to address policies for “affordable” housing solutions. While this term has been widely used in an economic perspective, affordability should tackle on a wider range of issues embracing financial aspects, solutions for social support, funding measures and spatial models, as tools to improve the conditions for “just” cities to thrive. Keywords: Affordability, Social Housing, EU Policy, Urban Planning, Urban Regeneration