The social construction of social housing

Abstract

In a recently published study of housing in the EC countries, Roger Quilliot, the French socialist former Minister of Housing, refers to the high level of poverty and housing need in Europe (Ghekiere, 1991). Fifty million of the EC's 337 million population are poor and mainly badly housed and between 3 and 5 million actually homeless. Clearly, recent years have seen the re-emergence of a major shortage of affordable housing. In many countries, some housing issues are again appea~g in the political agenda . Concerns include the social, political and racial turmoil which surrounds some peripheral grands ensembles in France, the crisis of mortgage foreclosures and repossessions in the UK, the racially tinged conflict over access to and ownership of housing in reunified Germany and, most common of all perhaps, the rising tide of homelessness. Show more