Homing in on Housing Desegregation

Case Study 1: Madrid, Spain, January 2021

Amidst the worst snowstorm in a century, with temperatures below –10ºC, thousands of people living in Madrid’s Cañada Real settlement struggled to keep themselves warm in their homes, lacking access to electricity. Cañada Real is located just fourteen kilometres away from the iconic Puerta del Sol, and most of its residents are Roma and migrant working families who have no real possibility of accessing the increasingly exclusionary private housing market.

In October 2020, electricity provider Naturgy decided to cut the supply for over 4,000 people (1,800 of which were children), arguing that they had found several illegal connections to the network which were being used to grow indoor marijuana plantations. This was enacted despite human rights law prohibiting a disconnection from the grid during the winter. These families have sat for weeks with no heating, hot water or access to online schooling for children, suffering respiratory infections due to the CO2 emitted by the old timber heaters they have been forced to resort to.

Even though there is a regional agreement to regularise this settlement and to provide residents with roads, water and electricity while resettling a reduced number of families, this agreement has not been fulfilled by the relevant authorities. The Spanish Ombudsman recently observed that many of the persons affected own the land they live on and wish to conclude a contract with an electricity provider, but providers refuse to tend to them without any valid justification.

Case Study 2: Copenhagen, Denmark, November 2018

The Danish government adopts the controversial legislative ‘Ghetto Package’, allowing for special measures to apply to specific neighbourhoods declared as ghettos. These neighbourhoods are defined by reference to the predominant ‘non-Western’ origin or nationality of residents and the levels of unemployment, education, criminal convictions and income of residents.

Residents of ghetto areas are subject to stricter fines and penalties for certain criminal acts committed around those neighbourhoods, which could even lead to the eviction of entire families.

Children in these areas must attend state schools where the number of migrant children in the same class is limited and take special Danish language courses, or face the possibility of their family benefits being revoked.

This legislation also makes it illegal for housing associations to assign housing to “ghetto”-based applicants who receive public integration benefits, while requiring the share of the social housing stock there to be reduced below 40% (including through demolition when necessary). Tenants affected by these measures will be offered alternative accommodation, but they will reportedly have no control over its location, quality or cost.

These two examples reveal the acute problems which can arise from desegregation policies. Such policies have a negative impact on the realisation of the right to adequate housing and to the highest attainable standard of health of residents, as well as their right to equality and non-discrimination, notably based on ethnic origin, migrant status and socio-economic disadvantage.

On the one hand, the Cañada Real situation evidences the dire impact of the state’s passivity when faced with a situation of factual segregation, where it violates residents’ human rights by not taking action to ensure basic provision and universal access to utilities, services and infrastructure. On the other hand, the Danish ‘Ghetto Package’ represents an excessive, far-fetched intervention which disproportionately restricts the human rights of residents and which furthers their social stigmatisation, thereby engendering discrimination.

If the goal is to design desegregation policies that are human rights compliant, these approaches are simply not fit for purpose.

What is segregation? 

Segregation is generally defined as ‘the concentration of ethnic, national-origin, or socio-economic groups in particular neighbourhoods of a city or metropolitan area’. Such a concentration becomes problematic when it is associated with overlapping inequalities persisting across generations.

A wide array of elements may contribute to residential segregation,  for example economic factors, housing discrimination and individual residential choices (especially of the majority population). 

Some urban sociologists have described the consequences of segregation through the concept of ‘neighbourhood effects’, pointing to the idea that living in a segregated neighbourhood limits residents’ chances of escaping poverty due to poor social networks, limited resources and constrained job opportunities.

Other authors have highlighted the underlying structural reasons which force people to settle in certain areas, including existing neighbourhood stigmatisation and discrimination that is extremely difficult to escape. Societal structures place a negative marker on residents of segregated areas which accompanies them in their social interactions with outsiders, fostering bias and discrimination.

Segregation is therefore wrong, but it’s also illegal. A series of international and European human rights measures have been interpreted along these lines: notably, the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Revised European Social Charter. The bodies responsible for monitoring compliance with these measures have repeatedly recommended that states adopt effective measures to prevent factual segregation and assess the effectiveness of their strategies for preventing segregation along ethnic and socio-economic lines.

In 2016, the European Committee of Social Rights examined in 2016 a collective complaint claiming that the lack of a systematic social housing policy in Czechia had resulted in the unavailability of affordable housing for the most socially disadvantaged, in particular Roma, and to the residential segregation of many families in isolated locations at the edges of towns and cities. The Committee found little evidence of state action and of measurable progress in this regard, declaring a violation of the right to adequate housing and the right to non-discrimination. Consequently, in situations of factual segregation such as that in the Cañada Real in Madrid, states have a legal obligation to intervene to put an end to these persistent human rights violations.

How should a state desegregate? 

Public authorities may influence the spatial distribution of various ethnic or socio-economic groups through a variety of policy choices: whether they guarantee affordable housing and in which areas, whether they promote the improvement of existing housing stock, how they regulate the construction of new buildings through zoning ordinances, whether they effectively combat discrimination by private landlords, etc.

This means that the state has a whole set of policy tools at its disposal to counter housing segregation and the social exclusion it causes. Crucially, states should desegregate in a way that is respectful of human rights, particularly the right to housing and the right to equality and non-discrimination.

Desegregation policies often lack a thorough examination of the causes and effects of segregation in specific neighbourhoods, the potential harmful impact of desegregating measures on individuals and families, and the need to establish adequate safeguards. They also tend to disregard the impact of gentrification and the right of residents to ‘stay put’. This refers to their right not to be displaced from areas where they have established strong and long-lasting bonds due to the location of their employment, schools, local networks and quality public services.

Moreover, desegregation policies do not always achieve the aims that they set to accomplish. In some cases they have actually exacerbated inequality and discrimination.

For instance, one of the most frequently stated aims of desegregation policies is that of a ‘social mix’, which aims to ensure balanced urban development. However, this aim is often pursued through measures attempting to limit the number of lower income residents, and of those belonging to minority groups, in favour of higher income families. 

This aim therefore raises concerns about the disproportionate impact that such social mixing policies may have on ethnic and cultural minorities and on lower income groups, such as those affected by the Danish ‘Ghetto Package’, which may see core elements of their right to housing unduly restricted.

Five policy proposals for desegregation 

In light of these considerations, I advance five proposals to elaborate and implement desegregation policies which are human rights compliant:

Europe can do better!

Desegregation policies should be geared towards the realisation of the right to housing, the right to equality and non-discrimination for everyone.

The participation of disadvantaged groups in this context must be realised not only through consultation and contribution, but also by ensuring their involvement at all stages of policy and decision-making, from the design to the implementation and monitoring of housing policies. This should be accompanied by appropriate channels of participation that are accessible and consistent with their situation and needs. At the same time, there must be room to adapt and adjust those policies and measures to the local economic, political and social context.

Between inaction and disproportion there lies ample room to design human rights compliant desegregation policies that do not leave people in freezing cold temperatures during the winter, nor exacerbate the criminalisation and stigmatisation of residents by labelling their neighbourhoods ghettos. Recent legislative developments at the EU level have shown an increased awareness and concern for housing segregation and discrimination issues, but it is now time for states to live up to their human rights obligations.