On The Logic Of Locating Deeply Affordable Housing Close To Work Opportunities

new houses in South African township, part of are part of a reconstruction program
Rdphouses photo by ign11 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
These homes are in Soweto, with long commutes to work opportunities in Johannesburg, South Africa. Reformers advocate building new homes with very low rents closer to work.

If public housing is meant to be transitional rather than transformative1, it follows that public housing must be located within striking distance of suitable jobs.

Striking distance? By and large that means either walking/bicycling distance or public transit access to more remote employment. Unless car costs can legitimately be deducted from income, the expense of motorized commuting may well sink any hope of transitioning out of social housing.

So, in any city, where are the nearby or transit-accessible jobs? Downtown? Near an industrial complex? Near a technology campus? At a booming satellite city nearby?

South Africa introduced the world to government-sponsored and institutionalized racism of apartheid. Post-apartheid, it still has a large Black underclass long segregated by district rather than by any thought of providing housing where it allows transitioning towards a better life.

Today South Africa has a strong incentive to build truly affordable, equal opportunity transitional housing in the most productive places. At least one of those places is close to downtown. Read a discussion of this issue in the Daily Maverick: Location, location, location: The vital role of proximity to city centres in affordable housing

Footnotes

  1. Try: Public Housing Futures: Transitional Or Transformative?