The Bernd Steinacher Fellowship was established in 2010 by METREX and Verband Region Stuttgart to sustain the values and interests brought to METREX by the late Bernd Steinacher.
The 2019-21 Fellow was David Dooghe, who chose to look at the the influence of crises on housing policies.
Crises are ubiquitous in our daily life, however our apprehension of crisis concepts seems limited. By describing the influence of three global crises (the 2008 financial and economic crises, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic) on housing, this report aims to broaden the knowledge of policymakers and support them to create more resilient policies.
To reach this aim, the report first sets the scene by looking at the status of housing in a neoliberal context and by describing the direct and indirect influence of the three selected global crises on housing. Then, the variation among crisis concepts is reflected upon, based on the cause, change and consequence of crises. This reflection concludes that, prior or at the start of crises, governments have the opportunity to pose the question: which policies should or shouldn’t end, continue, rise or shift?
This reflection is also input for case studies in France, Portugal, Spain and the UK, which illustrate how the 2008 financial and economic crises or climate change have influenced their national, regional or local housing policies. As such, the cases offer concrete examples on different types of actions policymakers can take when a crisis hits.
The report’s conclusion section lists three cross-case findings relevant for governments dealing with crises. Firstly, on several occasions in the research, the different global crises showed interlinks. Therefore, when dealing with a crisis one has to be aware that previous or parallel running global crises can also positively or negatively influence the proposed policy measures. A second finding is that the global crises create new connections between the actors in the housing market.
Thus, when setting new housing policies following a crisis, a broad stakeholder analysis of the new regime, also taking into account fast growing niche innovations actors, can have a large added value. Finally, due to crises, the tenure status of the existing housing stock can become flexible and thus to solve immediate needs their inhabitants have due crises, policymakers can temporarily use this tenure status flexibility as a first measure before more long-term options become possible.