Mixed income housing policy and public housing residents' `right to the city'

Abstract

Economic integration through various mixed income housing strategies has become the dominant housing policy in many parts of the world. In the United States, this strategy involves a restructuring of space often with conflict. Henri Lefebvre's `right to the city' is used to conduct a socio-spatial analysis of mixed income housing programmes, including the degree that integration increases public housing residents' access to diverse neighbourhoods, the use value of a city, and participatory space. The paper concludes that mixed income housing has the potential to increase public housing residents' `right to the city' but that policy implementers need to be proactive in the face of barriers such as community opposition to subsidized housing that can hinder the right. Future research should focus on evaluating the benefits of mixed income housing policy for neediest residents and ways to increase their rights to social, economic and political space.