https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7090-9549
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ABSTRACT
Doling (2006, A European Housing Policy? European Journal of Housing Policy, 6(3), 335–349. doi:10.1080/14616710600973169) characterized the intervention of the EU in the field of housing as a ‘stealth policy’, arguing that while the EU has no formal competence in this policy area, it has de facto conditioned national housing policies. This suggests that housing policy is a particularly interesting case for the study of formal and informal modes of multilevel governance. However, European comparative studies about housing policy have almost exclusively focused either on the national or local characteristics of housing systems. In this paper we explore the connections between the development of Portuguese housing policies in the last four decades, on the one side, and EU programmes and documents on the other. We will show how the dynamics of Portuguese housing policy reflected the fluctuations of EU agenda. In doing so, we aim at (i) exploring the history of EU ‘stealth housing policy’ in a moment of re-emergence of housing as a defining theme of EU agenda; and (ii) providing a more accurate characterization of domestic recent general trends and processes through a multi-scalar gaze.
Acknowledgements
The research for this paper has been conducted in the context of the project ‘exPERts - Making sense of planning expertise: housing policy and the role of experts in the Programa Especial de Realojamento (PER)’, hosted at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais, ULisboa and funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT: PTDC/ATP-EUR/4309/2014). The authors would like to acknowledge the members of the exPERts research team, as well as the many respondents that have shared with us their knowledge on Portuguese housing policy. A preliminary version of this article has been presented at the AESOP Congress 2018 in Lisbon.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 There is no equivalent, in the field of housing policy, of the process of Europeanization in the spatial and urban planning field, as represented by key strategic documents (e.g. ESDP – European Spatial Development Perspective, 1999; Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities, 2007; Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion, 2008), institutions for soft governance (e.g. ESPON), and other EU initiatives (e.g. URBAN and URBACT). For an overview, (see Zonneveld, De Vries, & Janssen-Jansen, Citation2012; Cotella & Janin Rivolin, Citation2018).
2 Among the few exceptions are: De Weerdt and Garcia’s (Citation2016) discussion of the role of the Spanish Platform of Mortgage Victims (Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca, PAH) in fostering innovation in multilevel governance; Lang and Novy’s (Citation2014) reflection on the room that dominant models of governance leave for participatory cooperative housing; and Card and Mudd’s (Citation2006) analysis of the relationship between housing, regeneration and ‘new localism’.
3 Campos and Ferrão (Citation2018) show how different taxonomic exercises have given contradictory outputs with regard to the placement of the Portuguese planning system within different systems of categories. Allen et al. (Citation2004) have criticised the conventional placement of Portugal within welfare taxonomies inspired by theories on varieties of capitalism.
4 Our respondents include: a former secretary of state for Housing; a former civil officer that held several positions in the national Department of Housing, and collaborated closely with the abovementioned Secretary of State; a researcher and former IHRU board member; a professor of sociology at UNL; a politician, president of the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon and MP; a professor of sociology and urban studies at ISCTE-IUL; an architect working for the municipality of Lisbon; a professor of urban sociology at ISCTE-IUL; a former president of IHRU and former civil servant at municipality of Oeiras; a former ministry for Public Works, Transport and Communication.
5 The research for this paper has been mainly conducted in the context of the projects ‘exPERts – Making sense of planning expertise’ (https://expertsproject.org/) and ‘HOPES – HOusing Perspectives and Struggles (www.ics.ulisboa.pt/en/projeto/housing-perspectives-and-struggles-futures-housing-movements-policies-and-dynamics-lisbon). One of the authors is actively involved in recent mobilisations about the right to housing as member of the association Habita and participant/organiser of the Caravana pelo Direito à Habitação (Caravan for the Right to Housing; see Falanga et al., Citation2019). Finally, one of the authors has been Secretary of State for Spatial Planning and Cities (2005-2009).
6 In the literature about the financialisation of housing, some – albeit quite generic – references to the role of the EU in the process exist – see, e.g., Rolnik (Citation2013, p. 1062) on the liberalization of mortgages, and Aalbers, Loon, and Fernandez (Citation2017, p. 577) on the impact of regulation on Services of General Economic Services (SGEI) and on social housing providers. See also the work by Santos (Citation2019) on Portugal referred below.
8 E.g. through the programme Affordable Rent Housing (Habitações de Renda Económica; see Nunes, Citation2013).
9 The economy returned to grow (+5.6% a year in the period 1986-1992) and salaries to rise (GDP per person at PP in 1998 was 72% of EU average, against a 55% in 1986); inflation was greatly reduced (from 13% to 2% in the period 1990-1997) and the balance of payments returned to equilibrium (Vasconcelos & Seabra, Citation2000, pp. 131–152).
10 As suggested by our informants, including a former IHRU board member and a president of the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon and MP. See also Serra (Citation2019).
11 These figures only include national-level expenditure, as aggregate data including expenditure by local authorities are not available. Were the latter to be included, the proportion of spending would likely be slightly rebalanced toward direct provision.
12 Interviews with a former Secretary of State for Housing and a former civil officer (see also Tribunal das Contas, Citation2001, pp. 15, 32–33). In particular, the Operational Intervention for Urban Renewal (Intervenção Operacional Renovação Urbana, IORU), funded within the second Community Support Framework (Quadro Comunitário de Apoio, QCA II; 1995-1999), was used to co-fund up to 80% of the cost of public facilities in the neighbourhoods built under the PER – with the municipalities adding the remaining 20% (usually corresponding to the value of the land).
13 First under the denomination of ‘Ministry of Cities, Spatial Planning and Environment’ (2002-2004); then as ‘Ministry of Cities, Local Government, Housing and Regional Development’ (2004-2005).
14 With the Decree Law 271/2003, it became possible, under the provision of the PER, to finance projects of urban regeneration; to build public facilities and services; and to sell municipal housing units built with the PER or other municipal programmes. In 2004, the PROHABITA programme (Decree-Law 135/2004) was launched extending the framework for rehousing interventions outside of the metros of Lisbon and Oporto (previously endowed with limited funding under the provision of Decree-Law 226/1987), and extending the provision of the law to all situations of severe housing stress (whereas the PER only concerned informal settlements).
15 See also the Lille Action Programme (2000), the Gothenburg Agenda (2001), the Rotterdam Aquis on Urban Policy (2004), the Bristol Agreement (2005), the Leipzig Charter and the Territorial Agenda (2007), the Toledo Declaration (2010), the Riga Declaration (2015), and the Pact of Amsterdam (2016).
16 Despite the significant impact of rehousing programmes implemented in the 1990s, a recent survey by the IHRU found a countrywide total of more than 25,000 households that need rehousing (IHRU, Citation2018).
17 See, for instance, the recently launched European Citizens’ Initiative ‘Housing for All’, www.housingforall.eu/lu/wunnen-muss-bezuelbar-sin-fier-alleguerten/.
18 For example, the association Habita hosted in Lisbon, in September 2018, a European meeting of the European action coalition for the right to housing, and is among the proponent of the European Citizen’s Initiative ‘Housing for All’ (see www.housingforall.eu).
19 João Ferrão, ‘Revitalizar bairros sociais: algumas propostas para debate’; talk at the conference ‘(Re)pensar a intervenção em bairros sociais – realidades e desafios’, Lourinhã, 13 December 2017.