Speaker
Description
In this paper I explore the impact of redevelopment-related forms of displacement on housing affordability and household economic well-being, focusing on both for-profit and not-for-profit urban redevelopment projects in Switzerland. Research in the U.S. has shown that forced displacement and evictions lead to lower incomes and housing stability, as households experience reduced earnings following eviction (Collinson et al., 2024; Desmond and Kimbro, 2015). However, the cost of housing in relation to household income has been underexplored in these studies. For example, households may be paying more for housing due to increased rental prices, reducing housing affordability and leading to increased economic hardship. Research on housing affordability and rent burden (i.e. households paying more than 30% of their income on rent) has shown that the number of cost-burdened households has increased in recent years and that those affected make significant cutbacks on essential goods, work longer hours, or remain in unaffordable housing because they cannot afford to move (Angst et al., 2023; Rosen et al., 2023). Bringing the two strands of literature together, I explore how households displaced by for-profit or not-for-profit regeneration projects are affected differently by housing affordability by asking: Does forced displacement decrease housing affordability? And finally, how do displaced households adapt to increased rent-burden? To answer these questions, I study forced displacement due to urban redevelopment projects in urban areas in Switzerland, where about 60% of all residents rent their apartments. Rent regulations do not allow for rent increases in existing tenancies but in new tenancies landlords are allowed to set rents to neighborhood-level rents which leads to a gap between the average rent in existing tenancies and market-rate rents. This situation makes Switzerland an important case to study how renters cope with housing costs in the event of forced relocation. Therefore, the paper contributes to the understanding of the complex economic challenges displaced households face and provides implications for housing and urban redevelopment policies aimed at minimizing the negative effects of displacement.
References
Angst, Sean, Jovanna Rosen, Soledad De Gregorio, and Gary Painter (2023) How do renters survive unaffordability? Household-level impacts of rent burden in Los Angeles, Journal of Urban Affairs, 0(0), pp. 1–24.
Collinson, Robert, John Eric Humphries, Nicholas Mader, Davin Reed, Daniel Tannenbaum, and Winnie Van Dijk (2024) Eviction and Poverty in American Cities, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 139(1), pp. 57–120.
Desmond, Matthew, and Rachel Tolbert Kimbro (2015) Eviction’s Fallout: Housing, Hardship, and Health, Social Forces, 94(1), pp. 295–324.
Rosen, Jovanna, Victoria Ciudad-Real, Sean Angst, and Gary Painter (2023) Rental Affordability, Coping Strategies, and Impacts in Diverse Immigrant Communities, Housing Policy Debate, 33(6), pp. 1313–1332.
| Keywords | Urban redevelopment; Housing affordability; Displacement, For-profit/Not-for-profit housing |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
