Where the Other Half Lives: Low-Income Housing Provision in France, China, and Brazil

As the urban income structure has become increasingly bifurcated with the rise of service economy, there is an increased demand for low-income housing in cities.  How to meet the demand by the large population working at the lower tiers of the urban economy is a critical policy issue facing cities of both the developed and the developing countries.  Failing to address this issue will not only hinder the long-term economic development but also undermine the political and social stability of cities.  This paper tackles the issue of urban inequality by comparing the practices and consequences of low-income housing provision in France, China, and Brazil.  Whereas France launched the low-income housing construction through a system called HLM (Habitation à Loyer Modéré, French for "housing at moderated rents") in the 1950s, similar practice is at the early stage and lacks systematic operation in China and Brazil.  In China, many low-income housing projects have produced a concentration of poverty where residents suffer from a long commute to work and the lack of public facilities.  In Brazil, a growing number of social movements have intensified their claim to create alternatives for the inclusion of low-income housing in the city centers, some of them employing more drastic actions such as the squatting of empty buildings.  The cross-national comparison reveals the intricate relations between the state, market, and civil society organizations in low-income housing provision.  It shows that a state with internal structural coherence and institutionalized connections with private and civic actors is critical for the successful provision of low-income housing.  Besides the method of financing, the design of the projects including the locations and densities of the low-income housing is important in shaping the economic and social wellbeing of the local communities and the entire cities.