Mapping the riskscape of using privately-owned short-term lets for specialist family violence crisis accommodation

COVID-19 has generated many problems and some opportunities in the housing market. The potential role of privately-owned short-term lets meeting specialist family violence crisis accommodation demand is one such opportunity. This paper engages with an important and increasing practice in the Australian context, of the utilisation of private housing stock as a component part of a public housing crisis response system, in this case explored in relation to domestic and family violence. In seeking to gain insights into the feasibility of this practice, this article will first frame mixed public/private accommodation provision as potentially overlapping relations between a thin territory of insufficient crisis infrastructure and a thick territory of commodified short-term let infrastructure. Second, this paper situates the potential of this intersection of mixed private/public responses in terms of riskscapes by unpacking how risk is perceived within these contested territories. The findings highlight tensions between both real and perceived understandings of safety, housing, wellbeing, economic and political risks. While there was some support for utilising short-term lets for crisis accommodation, barriers were revealed to adding thickness to the crisis accommodation space. Given increasing homelessness in Australia, diversifying crisis models could offer increased violence-prevention infrastructure to support women.

Developing a peer-led intervention to promote COVID-19 testing in low-income housing settings.

Background: The Housing Collaborative project at Eastern Virginia Medical School has developed a method of adapting public health guidance from public housing communities, which face tremendous health challenges in cardiometabolic health, cancer, and other major health conditions. In this paper, we describe how academic and community partners in the Housing Collaborative came together to do this work with a focus on COVID-19 testing in the context of the emerging pandemic. Methods: The academic team used virtual community engagement methods to interact with the Housing Collaborative Community Advisory Board (HCCAB) and a separate cohort of research participants (N = 102) recruited into a study of distrust in COVID-19 guidance. We conducted a series of 44 focus group interviews with participants on related topics. Results from these interviews were discussed with the HCCAB. We used the collaborative intervention planning framework to inform adaptation of public health guidance on COVID-19 testing delivered in low-income housing settings by including all relevant perspectives. Results: Participants reported several important barriers to COVID-19 testing related to distrust in the tests and those administering them. Distrust in housing authorities and how they might misuse positive test results seemed to further undermine decision making about COVID-19 testing. Pain associated with testing was also a concern. To address these concerns, a peer-led testing intervention was proposed by the Housing Collaborative. A second round of focus group interviews was then conducted, in which participants reported their approval of the proposed intervention. Conclusion: Although the COVID-19 pandemic was not our initial focus, we were able to identify a number of barriers to COVID-19 testing in low-income housing settings that can be addressed with adapted public health guidance. We struck a balance between community input and scientific rigor and obtained high quality, honest feedback to inform evidence-based recommendations to guide decisions about health.

'This is our home': young residents' representations of Melbourne's public housing towers during 'hard lockdown'

On 4 July 2020, in response to a developing 'second wave' of COVID-19 cases, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that a hard lockdown would be immediately implemented in nine public housing towers in Melbourne, Australia. Approximately 500 police were dispatched to implement this lockdown, with residents prevented from leaving their buildings. Over the next fortnight, young residents in these towers, often from socially- and economically-marginalised communities, emerged as advocates for their fellow tenants, using various social media platforms to broadcast their experiences. In this article, we analyse social media posts published by 28 social media users throughout June and July of 2020, which reported on the experiences of people living within the public housing towers during the hard lockdown. We draw on the concept of territorial stigmatisation tounderstand and frame how a traditionally stigmatised physical space is reclaimed via a digital medium. We explore the potential for young people to use social media to challenge territorial stigmatisation and construct alternate representations of place and community. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Youth Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Thermal Comfort Analysis Using System Dynamics Modeling—A Sustainable Scenario Proposition for Low-Income Housing in Brazil

As a riveting example of social housing in Brazil, the Minha Casa Minha Vida program was set in 2009 to diminish the 6-million-home housing deficit by offering affordable dwellings for low-income families. However, recurrent thermal discomfort complaints occur among dwellers, especially in the Baltimore Residential sample in Uberlândia City. To avoid negative effects of energy poverty, such as family budget constraints from the purchase of electric appliances and extra costs from power consumption, a simulation based on system dynamics modeling shows a natural ventilation strategy with a mixed combination of sustainable and energy-efficient materials (tilting window with up to 100% opening, green tempered glass, and expanded polystyrene wall) to observe the internal room temperature variation over time. With a 50% window opening ratio combined with a 3 mm regular glass window and a 12.5 cm rectangular 8-hole brick wall, this scenario presents the highest internal room temperature value held during the entire period. From the worst to the best-case scenario, a substantial reduction in the peak temperature was observed from window size variation, demonstrating that natural ventilation and constructive elements of low complexity and wide availability in the market contribute to the thermal comfort of residential rooms.

Demons of density do higher-density environments put people at greater risk of contagious disease?

• Living in higher density neighborhoods is not associated with greater risk of COVID hospitalization. • Living in larger multifamily buildings is not linked to COVID hospitalization risk. • Living in public housing developments is associated with lower COVID hospitalization risk. • But people living in large households or in neighborhoods with high levels of crowding were more likely to be hospitalized for COVID. • There is also a strong correlation between being unstably housed or living in institutional settings and COVID hospitalizations. We study the relationship between density and COVID during three distinct waves of the pandemic in New York City. Unlike prior work, our analysis uses individual Medicaid claims records, which include a rich array of demographic characteristics and pre-existing medical conditions and cover a near universe of low-income New Yorkers. In brief, our results suggest that living in higher density neighborhoods did not heighten the risk of COVID hospitalization. The size of a multifamily building made little difference either, and people living in public housing developments, which are typically highly dense environments, were less likely to be hospitalized for COVID. However, while neighborhood and building density do not seem to matter, we find significant, positive relationships between COVID hospitalization rates and household size. Specifically, we see that people living in large households or in neighborhoods with high levels of crowding were more likely to be hospitalized for COVID. In other words, our results suggest that crowded living quarters – which can occur at any level of population density – and not density itself, increase the risk of COVID hospitalization. We also see a strong correlation between being unstably housed or living in institutional settings and COVID hospitalizations. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Housing Economics is the property of Academic Press Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

When top-down infrastructures fail: spaces and practices of care and community under COVID-19

Throughout this article, we focus on the lives and experiences of residents in the Sun Valley public housing project in Denver. During the stay-at-home orders, the Sun Valley residents – an economically impoverished yet diverse community that includes refugees, Black and LatinX families, single-parent households, and individuals who are permanently disabled – faced extremely precarious conditions. COVID exposed and exacerbated the already failed infrastructures in Sun Valley, but within this failure, radical openings emerged, new connections surfaced and alternative practices developed among the residents leading to vernacular infrastructures of care. To understand and highlight these vernacular infrastructures, we utilized a combination of photography and interviews to understand 17 residents' and key community support actors' experiences during the initial stay-at-home orders from March to June 2020. From this data, we argue that, through community practices and relationships, Sun Valley residents' and community support networks addressed the crisis and uncertainty by developing vernacular infrastructures of care.

Recruitment and Enrollment of Low-income, Minority Residents of Urban Public Housing into Research.

Research participation among vulnerable populations is often limited by the same socioeconomic factors that contribute to poor health. Identifying best practices for inclusion is critical to addressing health disparities. Urban public housing communities bear a disproportionate burden of chronic disease and may represent an opportunity to directly engage historically vulnerable populations in research designed to ultimately reduce that burden. We used mixed-method data to analyze recruitment effectiveness among a random sample of households (N = 380) across two public housing developments in Boston, MA who were approached for participation in a pre-COVID oral health study. Quantitative data from detailed recruitment tracking methods was analyzed to assess the relative efficiency of the methods employed. Field journals of study staff were qualitatively analyzed to identify community-specific recruitment barriers and facilitators. The participation rate among randomly sampled households was 28.6% (N = 131), with participation from primarily Hispanic (59.5%) or Black (26%) residents. Door-to-door knocking with response yielded the highest participation (44.8%), followed by responses to informational study flyers (31%). Primary barriers to enrollment included references to unemployment and employment variations, shift work, childcare responsibilities, time demands, and managing multiple appointments and social services. This study finds active, door-to-door knocking and return visits resolved barriers to participation, and reduced safety concerns and historic distrust. It's time to consider how best to adapt effective pre-COVID recruitment practices for utilization under current and future exposure conditions as effective recruitment of populations such as urban public housing residents into research is only becoming more important.

Pandemic policing and the construction of publics: an analysis of COVID-19 lockdowns in public housing.

COVID-19 responses have cast a spotlight on the uneven impacts of public health policy with particular populations or sites targeted for intervention. Perhaps the starkest example in Australia was the 'hard' lockdown of nine public housing complexes in inner-city Melbourne from 4 to 18 July 2020, where residents were fully confined to their homes. These complexes are home to diverse migrant communities and the lockdown drew public criticism for unfairly stigmatising ethnic minorities. This article draws on media articles published during the lockdown and the Victorian Ombudsman's subsequent investigation to explore the implications of broad, top-down public health measures for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. Drawing on Lea's (2020) conceptualisation of policy ecology, we analyse the lockdown measures and community responses to explore the normative assumptions underpinning health policy mechanisms, constituting 'target populations' in narrow, exclusionary terms. We argue that the lockdown measures and use of police as compliance officers positioned tower residents as risky subjects in risky places. Tracing how such subject positions are produced, and resisted at the grassroots level, we highlight how policy instruments are not neutral interventions, but rather instantiate classed and racialised patterns of exclusion, reinforcing pervasive social inequalities in the name of public health.

Rapid Community Engagement in Response to SARS-CoV-2 Funding Opportunities: New York City, 2020–2021

In response to fast-turnaround funding opportunities, collaborations have been forming across the country to address severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) disparities. Here we describe the process, notes from the field, and evaluation results from a new collaboration involving multiple partners, formed in October 2020 in New York City as part of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative. We used the validated Research Engagement Survey Tool to evaluate the partnership. Results can inform future research and improve engagement efforts aimed at reducing SARS-CoV-2 disparities. (AmJ Public Health. 2022;112(S9):S904-S908. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH. 2022.307072)

Are excluding e-cigarettes a loophole in the smokefree public housing rule?

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) required all Public Housing Authorities to become smokefree in July 2018, following an 18-month implementation period that began February 2017. The HUD rule included all combustible tobacco products; e-cigarettes were not included. This purpose of this study is to characterize e-cigarette use overall and initiation after the implementation of the smokefree rule among tobacco users living in public housing. Data were collected from 396 adult (18+ years) current tobacco users at the time of rule implementation residing in the District of Columbia Housing Authority between July 2018 and November 2021. Measures include e-cigarette use, age of initiation, reasons for e-cigarette use, e-cigarette use susceptibility (among non-users), and sociodemographic characteristics. Descriptive and crosstab statistics were calculated to characterize e-cigarette use. Nearly-one-quarter of tobacco users reported lifetime use of e-cigarettes (24 %, n = 95) and 4.8 % (n = 19) indicated past 30-day e-cigarette use. Of the lifetime users, twenty-two (23.2 %) initiated their use after the smoke-free rule went into effect, with only two of those residents indicating they did so because of the rule. Of those who never used an e-cigarette, 23.5 % (n = 70) indicated being curious about e-cigarettes and 10.7 % (n = 40) said they may use e-cigarettes in the next year. Results indicate low use of e-cigarette products and low uptake due to the rule. Few tobacco users who never used e-cigarettes indicated intentions to use. Results suggest that omitting e-cigarettes from the HUD rule has not led to significant use of these products in this sample.

Inefficiencies in the delivery of low-income housing in South Africa: is governance the missing link? A review of literature

South Africa is one of the most urbanised and highly industrialised countries in Africa, with over 61% of the population in the urban areas. Moreover, poor access to housing manifests through informal settlements, slums and backyard dwellings mainly in the cities. While several housing policy interventions have been developed, the housing backlog is estimated at more than 2 million. The Covid-19 pandemic has massified problems resultant to shortage of housing, and the quality of housing across income levels, with low-income groups being the most affected. This paper locates governance discourse in housing development, acknowledging that the concept is used both in the academic discourse and general discussions on how institutions manage their business, including broader societal structures. The paper argues that governance is the missing ingredient in the current policy interventions towards delivery of low-income housing in South Africa. Using selected case studies from literature, this paper analyses and discusses low-income housing delivery processes and systems. Key findings are that housing delivery processes largely exclude governance principles primarily stakeholder participation, accountability and transparency. Notable is that government remains the sole actor in the identification and addressing housing needs, and this results in community resistance during implementation of projects.

Do wildfires exacerbate COVID-19 infections and deaths in vulnerable communities? Evidence from California.

Understanding whether and how wildfires exacerbate COVID-19 outcomes is important for assessing the efficacy and design of public sector responses in an age of more frequent and simultaneous natural disasters and extreme events. Drawing on environmental and emergency management literatures, we investigate how wildfire smoke (PM2.5) impacted COVID-19 infections and deaths during California's 2020 wildfire season and how public housing resources and hospital capacity moderated wildfires' effects on COVID-19 outcomes. We also hypothesize and empirically assess the differential impact of wildfire smoke on COVID-19 infections and deaths in counties exhibiting high and low social vulnerability. To test our hypotheses concerning wildfire severity and its disproportionate impact on COVID-19 outcomes in socially vulnerable communities, we construct a county-by-day panel dataset for the period April 1 to November 30, 2020, in California, drawing on publicly available state and federal data sources. This study's empirical results, based on panel fixed effects models, show that wildfire smoke is significantly associated with increases in COVID-19 infections and deaths. Moreover, wildfires exacerbated COVID-19 outcomes by depleting the already scarce hospital and public housing resources in local communities. Conversely, when wildfire smoke doubled, a one percent increase in the availability of hospital and public housing resources was associated with a 2 to 7 percent decline in COVID-19 infections and deaths. For California communities exhibiting high social vulnerability, the occurrence of wildfires worsened COVID-19 outcomes. Sensitivity analyses based on an alternative sample size and different measures of social vulnerability validate this study's main findings. An implication of this study for policymakers is that communities exhibiting high social vulnerability will greatly benefit from local government policies that promote social equity in housing and healthcare before, during, and after disasters.

The Associations of Communal Space with Sense of Place and Mental Health in Public Housing: Evidence from Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

Communal space is regarded as essential for human well-being in high-rise developments in Asia and increasing attention has been given to the underlying mechanism of its effects in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. From the perspective of person-place processes, this paper explores 'sense of place' and its possible mediating effects on the relationship between communal space and the mental health of residents in high-rise public housing. An analysis of data from a questionnaire survey conducted in Hong Kong and Guangzhou revealed differentiated mechanisms according to local context and age group. Sense of place and its subcomponents mediated the connection between communal space and mental health in Hong Kong but not in Guangzhou. More specifically, place identity, place attachment and place dependence had stronger effects among older residents in HK than younger ones. The findings from this study can inform evidence-based planning and decision-making for public housing policy for health-oriented environments in high-density cities.

SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF SUCCESSFUL EDUCATION ADVOCACY IN A BALTIMORE CITY PUBLIC HOUSING PROJECT

[...]the polio nightmare was over when, in 1953, Dr. Jonas Salk announced the invention of the first polio vaccine. In October 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Wagner-Steagall Act creating the United States Housing Authority, established to administer federal funding in the form of loans and grants to local jurisdictions for low-income housing. In February of 1939, Baltimore obtained a loan of 26,390,000 dollars to demolish slums and build five public housing projects-in addition to two other projects-on vacant land. The final vacant land project took two more years of political wrangling: no white neighborhoods would condone a public housing project for African Americans being built.

‘It is not about punishment, it’s about protection’: Policing ‘vulnerabilities’ and the securitisation of public health in the COVID-19 pandemic

This article advances a critical analysis of the concept of 'vulnerability' and highlights the ways in which it can work to justify the pre-emptive detention and over-policing of marginalised populations. Building on a historical analysis of the entanglement between public health directives and carceral techniques of securitisation, we provide a contemporary case study of the 'hard lockdown' of nine public housing towers in Melbourne, Australia in July 2020, at the start of the city's second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A thematic analysis of media discourses surrounding this event reveals that tower residents were constructed as vulnerable across four interconnecting discourses: spatially, culturally, behaviourally and psychologically. This enabled government actors to frame the exceptional mobilisation of police powers and detention directives to peoples' homes as caring measures, despite their punitive optics and effects. Our analysis suggests that the pandemic has heightened the securitisation of public health measures, which can extend notions of racial inferiority and pathology, and compound social and economic inequalities. It indicates the need for further interrogation of the nexus between 'care' and control and the intensification of police powers in times of crisis.

Effects of Covid-19 Related Government Budget Shortfall on Funding and Provision of Essential Public Services

This study investigates COVID-19 related budget revenue losses in US local governments, and their effects on funding and provision of essential public services such as EMS, healthcare, firefighters, police, welfare and public housing services. A survey was sent to county and city governments to learn about their revenue losses for fiscal year 2020 and their effects on funding and service provision. Results show budget revenue loss significantly impacts funding cuts for essential services and is most impactful on welfare and public housing services. Additionally, although funding cuts significantly influence levels of services provided, aid from federal government restrains the extent of funding cuts and the influence of cuts on EMS and healthcare. The findings imply intergovernmental transfers play a pivotal role in averting deep cuts that could be detrimental to saving lives during a crisis. Furthermore, funding availability is key to maintaining appropriate levels of services to help care for the sick and protect the vulnerable in society.

Delhi’s poor return to dirty fuel in COVID-19 lockdown

Speed read Some five million people were using unclean cooking fuels during COVID-19 lockdown Urban poverty worse than in India’s rural areas because of cramped living conditions Without subsidies millions cannot afford to use cooking gas in Delhi [NEW DELHI] COVID-19 lockdowns exposed many truths but none so stark as the poverty that exists in the Indian capital of New Delhi as desperate urban poor families were compelled to switch to wood and dung to keep home fires going. A study released this month by the environmental NGO Chintan suggests that urban poverty may be worse than India’s rural areas because of unhygienic living conditions, including high indoor pollution levels generated by burning biomass in confined living spaces. According to the study 36 per cent of low-income housing groups in New Delhi rely on ‘unclean’ sources of fuel for their cooking needs.

Sustainable Real Estate and Resilient Cities: Management, Assessment and Innovations

The main topics of this Special Issue include the following: (i) building management, (ii) building costs, (iii) mass appraisal methods, (iv) econometric models, (v) real estate risk management, (vi) economic valuation of real estate investment projects, (vii) real estate market, (viii) social housing, (ix) urban economics, (x) land, (xi) transport economics, (xii) real estate economics and finance, (xiii) sustainable building transformations and economic effects on environment, (xiv) green buildings, (xv) resilient cities, (xvi) COVID-19 pandemic and (xvii) Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). [...]the universities or research institutes affiliations to which the Authors belong are distributed throughout the world: in the Europe the authors come from Spain, France, Portugal, Netherland, Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom, Poland, and Hungary;in Asia from China, Korea, Russia, Malaysia, and United Arab Emirates;in South America from Colombia and Chile;in Africa from Ghana;and in Oceania from Australia. In particular, in the study the central role played by public-private partnership (PPP) to combine the competencies of the public sector and both the financial and managerial commitment of the private entities in the process of delivering infrastructure, to fulfilling social and economic needs, to rise the quality of life, and to support sustainable development, is recognized and, then, a conceptual model for the identification and classification of stakeholders in this projects typology, is developed and tested [5]. By selecting a single-story 3D-printed house in the United Arab Emirates, the authors implement the life cycle assessment (LCA) framework to quantify the environmental loads of raw materials extraction and manufacturing, as well as energy consumption during construction and operation phases;the authors also identify the economics of the selected structural systems through life cycle costing analysis (LCCA).

THE "1.degrees DIREITO" LEVER: A LOOK AT THE FIRST GENERATION OF LOCAL HOUSING STRATEGIES

Housing is today a well-known theme in the Portuguese political and media agenda, and in the coming years a strong public investment in this sector is expected, within the scope of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (2021-2026), designed to mitigate the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The public programs that support them include the "l.degrees Direito" - Housing Access Support Program, focused on situations of greater housing precariousness and vulnerability. The Local Housing Strategies (LHS), developed by each municipality, play a central role, identifying the situations of need and the housing solutions to implement. From a qualitative approach - supported by the strategic documents to which we had access and through semi-structured interviews to different coordinators responsible for their elaboration - and in light of the "public policies field" - developed by Bourdieu -, we analyse the reality of twelve municipalities in the mainland Portugal, sketching a general portrait of the first generation of LHS. The restitution of part of the elaboration and operationalisation processes of these instruments aims to contribute to a more inclusive practice, committed to the right to housing.

Study on the Multi-Governance of Public Rental Housing Exit in China Based on the Evolutionary Game Theory

The COVID-19 pandemic has plunged the housing affordability and living sanitary conditions of China's low-income groups into a crisis. Public rental housing has made a significant contribution to alleviating this crisis, yet its exit problem has become more acute due to the impact of the epidemic. In order to explore how to effectively play the role of multi-governance in public rental housing exit, this paper adopts game theory to analyze the evolution of the behavioral strategies of government departments and public rental housing tenants in public rental housing exit by combining four influencing parameters: the epidemic severity, the epidemic influence coefficient, the public participation degree, and the public reporting fairness. In response to exploring the conditions for the effective functioning of the multi-governance model under the impact of the epidemic, the influences of parameter change on the stability of the system are analyzed. The results show that when the COVID-19 epidemic impact coefficient is high, government departments need to reduce their own supervision costs to achieve better multi-governance effects;when public reports are distorted, the government departments’ own supervision capabilities determine the impact of public participation on governance effects.