- Origins and Characteristics of Inclusionary Housing in the US and Europe    122 kb by    Calavita, Nico | ncalavit@mail.sdsu.edu    Short Outline This paper will trace the origins and characteristics of Inclusionary Housing in the US and Europe and discuss its potential as a mechanism to produce spatial integration and combat social exclusion. Abstract Inclusionary Housing in the US and Europe Under an Inclusionary Housing (IH), Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) or mixed-income housing program, low and moderate-income housing units are included in an otherwise market-driven development. A major objective of IH is not only to increase the supply of affordable housing, but to foster greater social and economic integration. This is especially important in suburban communities where high housing costs - and in some cases racial discrimination - have denied lower-income households the better jobs and educational opportunities found in newly developing areas. Mismatches between workers's earnings and housing prices have contributed to worsening traffic and air pollution problems. IH units are generally built concurrently with the market-rate units, sidestepping the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) problem, probably the most serious obstacle to the provision of affordable housing. In the US the drive for IH begun in the 1970s as a result of high housing costs, as in California, or the discriminatory practices of local governments in New Jersey that used zoning to keep out minorities and the poor. IH is much more recent in Europe, the result of economic restructuring and deregulation and the reduction in the role and the funding on the part of the central state of social housing. This reduction in the production of social housing has led to increasing affordability problems while increases in the influx of migrants is leading to social, economic and spatial segregation. Such processes have led to the utilization of IH in several European countries and a revival of IH in the US. This paper will trace the origins and characteristics of IH in the US and three European countries - Great Britain, Spain and Italy, and discuss its potential as a mechanism to produce spatial integration and combat social exclusion. Keywords segregation, inclusionary housing Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2006: Cities between Integration and Disintegration   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper