Decommodifying Housing for East London
D.D. Harris (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
Rodrigo Viseu Cardoso – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
R.J. Kleinhans – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
The global housing affordability crisis demands systemic change. Securing shelter is very unaffordable across much of the world, but especially in large, global cities. To chart a course to housing affordability, this study examines housing in one of those cities: London. Making use of a literature and policy review, interviews with local housing experts, and socio-spatial and theoretical analysis, this report sets out a critique of the current housing system, a diagnosis of the current affordability crisis, and finally a concrete housing strategy for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Based on findings in early research stages, the focus of the strategy is on advancing housing decommodification. That is, increasing the share of available housing that is protected from volatile and inequitable market forces through social housing expansion and rent control, among other measures. Original spatial analysis of housing tenure distribution in Tower Hamlets brings systemic analyses to the ground, and informs a strategy that responds to real threats to affordability that act in space. Housing decommodification, as articulated in this report, is necessary to respond to the urgency of the housing affordability crisis we face, and constitutes a step towards re-centring the vital social, rather than financial, role that housing serves.