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The main challenges faced by cities to provide adequate and affordable

housing for all inhabitants.
Word count: 1449

This essay will discuss the main challenges faced by cities to provide adequate and affordable housing
for all inhabitants. As a result of the current housing crisis across the world, many have begun to ask
what is holding cities back and what issues do we need to address? Considering the human right to
adequate housing and the recent attempt to include a right to housing through an Irish referendum,
now more than ever is the issue of adequate housing at the forefront of city challenges. To understand
the challenges facing cities, this essay will focus on city population growth, low density
housing/spacial issues, competition and inhabitants job type, and how each of these impacts housing
within a city.

The first housing challenge facing cities began during the industrial revolution when a certain
structure and layout of housing was adopted. The factory workers lived near the city centre in small,
poorly constructed housing, while those who were more well off favoured to live on larger estates of
land. Inner cities were poorly kept and centres of poverty and overcrowding (Edwards and Imrie,
2015). During the 20th century, more and more people began to move into cities in search of work. To
combat the huge increases in population more housing was quickly built, which was often of poor
quality. Many industrial companies began situating on the outskirts of cites, however, most of the low
skilled workers were still living in the inner city. Cities became areas of extreme division on the basis
of income and poorer areas suffered from major social issues like unemployment. Knowledge based
industry soon entered cities, encouraging higher income earners to move in. This puts a huge strain on
the market as much of the land is covered in poor, low quality, undesirable housing. Therefore,
putting middle and middle upper income earners into competition for adequate and suitable housing,
in turn drastically raising prices out of the realm of affordability. To this day, governments struggle to
keep up with providing appropriately priced accommodation for the still increasing population as land
becomes more and more scarce. As pointed out by Edward and Imrie (2015), cities will continue to
grow. It is predicted by 2050 70% of the worlds population will live in cities.

Secondly, the vast increase in population has majorly impacted housing. Focusing on the Irish case, it
is evident that mortgage homeownership, particularly a house with a garden, is the most desired form
of accommodation in Ireland. During the Celtic Tiger, mass construction of houses occurred around
Dublin, especially in the commuter areas like Kildare and Meath (Kitchen, R. et al, 2015). Given the
desired form of housing, this takes up vast amounts of area, of which, around Dublin, is running out.
“The supply/demand mismatch in Dublin is forcing first-time buyers to purchase properties in
locations outside the capital and its traditional hinterland,” (Williams, B., and Shiels, P., 2002). With
rising immigration and rural to urban migration, this makes it extremely difficult to find suitable
housing with a growing demand. Knowing that Dublin was becoming a place of in-migration,
commuting from further a-field for work was seen as inevitable, and the growth of housing sprawled
outwards. As Jonas (2015, pp. 15) explains, “Planing is a future orientated activity,” which we can see
in Dublin where building houses was prioritised over apartments. This causes spacial repercussions
and major traffic issues into and out of the city. Enormous pressures are placed on the city to house a
population that cannot afford to rent or buy at the current standard of living. With this, the struggle of
housing leads to other problems like the expansion of transport lines and construction of wider roads,
bypasses and more.

Another challenge is housing commodification. For decades, the commodification of housing around
the world has been a stumbling block for many obtaining a home. Housing is increasingly now seen
as an investment and an asset rather than a place to live and create a home. Commercialised real estate
is increasingly becoming popular in western society. Huge multinational companies, such as JP
Morgen Chase and Colony Capital, have been buying multi-storey apartment blocks and single family
houses, renting them out and making huge profits (Madden, D. & Marcuse, P. 2016). In Berlin, the
city underwent a huge movement from private ownership to state owned housing (Fields and Uffer
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2013). However, this did not go as they hoped. There was an overestimation of the population who
would move into this accommodation and privatisation of these homes came back. This proves
another challenge, it is difficult to predict how the population will behave. In Barcelona,
commodification has taken over a vast amount of the property sector, as 95% of the regions
residences are tenants, (García-Lamarca, 2020). The main rental company is Blackstone, which aims
to increase its profitability by driving up rental prices. With few other forms of housing people are
either forced to pay hiked up prices or leave the city. As well as that, the report says “social housing
makes up less than two per cent of Barcelona’s total housing stock.” This leaves lower to middle
income earners without adequate housing. The commodification of housing can be a huge stress on
governments when often, the burden of providing social housing becomes more expensive.

A major concern following the impacts of housing commodification facing cities is based on the
inhabitants job type. Most commonly, city centres overwhelmingly provide service sector jobs. The
majority of whom work these jobs are lower income earners. Generally, the closer land and property
are to the centre, the more expensive it becomes. It is evident then, that there is a mismatch of
accommodation type to the overall income cohort within the area. There is also evidence that this
perpetuates the culture of homeownership in Ireland, “Longstanding state subsidisation of low income
home purchase has resulted in relatively high rates of home ownership rates in Ireland,” (Norris, M. et
al, 2007). States and governments have had to introduce a variety of schemes and supports to aid
lower income earners to obtain a home within a city. In Ireland, these include the Plannng and
Development Act, 2000, and the Afforbable Housing Initiative (Norris, M. et al, 2007). Of course,
this puts strain on states to budget for and afford providing dwellings in the city. As mentioned above,
cities would be required to take into account the commodification of housing as this usually has the
ability to set the standard price of a particular area.

Another obvious aspect to consider is the spacial issue. A city’s layout would be extremely difficult to
rearrange once already in place. Where a new demand for housing might appear in one part of the
city, there may simply be no room for extra housing to be built. “The basic need for space and the
inability of the government to predict and manage urban population growth – usually – result in
outward city expansions in Ghana,” (Adaku, E., 2014). Not just in Ghana, throughout the entire
world, we see cities creeping further out into the outskirts and hinterland. There is not adequate
spacial assignment between work and housing. As more jobs continue to be created within cities,
more people begin to situate around the city, not within. Adaku (2014) explains how commercial and
business activities remain in the core of the city as there is a struggle to decentralise this. In São
Paulo, “cortiços” have emerged which are, “rented housing units mainly made up of a single room,
obtained by the repeated sub-division of houses, particularly in old buildings in the city centre,”
(Chiodelli, F. 2001). Often times, each room is housing entire families. The lack of space for
expansion creates a huge overcrowding issue. Families have no where to go and no options to choose
a more spacious home. This challenge places huge pressures on cities to adapt to the changing spacial
environment.

It could not be more clear that, today, societies faces unprecedented pressure on our housing system,
particularly in cities. There is no one easy solution and this cannot be helped over night. The entire
system needs to be reorientated to fit the extremely different society and population structure that we
have today compared to many decades previous. From touching on a few of the common challenges,
it is evident that, above all, a certain amount of decentralisation must occur to provide more work
opportunities outside of cities. The current requirement and level of work within cities is
unsustainable to a growing population. However, cities have proved to be centres of opportunity, hope
and creativity. With the right motivation and government policy, there is a chance to work on these
challenges and lessen the pressure cities face.

References
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Adaku, E. (2014) “Urban Sprawl: A view from developing and developed countries,” African Journal
of Geography and Regional Planning, 1(6), pp. 193-207, Available at:
www.internationalscholarsjournals.org

Chiodelli, F. (2001) “São Paulo: The Challenge of the Favelas,” The Journal Of Urbanism, Planum
Association, DOI: 4/12/2001, Available at: http://www.planum.net/francesco-chiodelli-sao-paulo-the-
challenge-of-the-favelas

Edwards, C. and Imrie, R. (2015) “The Short Guide To Urban Policy”, Policy press, University of
Bristol.

Fields, D., Uffer, S. (2013). “The Financialisation of Rental Housing: A Comparative Analysis of
New York City and Berlin,” Urban Studies, 53(7), pp. 1486–1502. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26151125

Jonas, E.G. A., McCann, E., Thomas, M., (2015). “Urban Geography: A Critical Introduction,” John Wiley
& Sons, LTD, chapter 1

Kitchin, R., Hearne, R., & O’Callaghan, C. (2015). “Housing in Ireland: From Crisis to Crisis”, SSRN
Electronic Journal, 77, DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2566297

Madden, D., & Marcuse, P. (2016). “In Defence Of Housing: The Political Crisis”, Brooklyn: Verso
Books.

Norris, M., Coates, D., & Kane, F. (2007) “Breaching the Limits of Owner Occupation? Supporting
Low-Income Buyers in the Inflated Irish Housing Market”, European Journal of Housing
Policy, 7(3), pp 337-355, DOI: 10.1080/14616710701477979

Williams, B., Shiels, P. (2002). “The expansion of Dublin and the policy implications of dispersal,”
Journal of Irish Urban Studies, 1(1), pp1-20, Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/2262/68480