Impact of social housing on the social structure of the Randstad

Abstract

This chapter evaluates the Dutch social housing model and its impact on the quality of neighbourhoods. It describes the theoretical debate on the link between affordable housing and planning and the different models for social rental housing. The chapter looks at the changing link between social housing and urban renewal and how social housing has changed from being a solution into being a problem and focuses on the outcome of the Dutch social rental model by looking at the composition of the population of the large cities in the Randstad. There is an ongoing debate in housing studies on the sustainability of such a ‘unitary rental sector’. This means a social rental sector for a broad target group that is in competition with the commercial rental sector. In 2015 a new Housing Act came into force that implied some fundamental changes for urban policy: more targeting of lower-income groups and less emphasis on the urban dimension.