Under the radar: self-organized renovation practices among distressed homeowners in Flanders
Promotors: Inge Bertels, Lara Schrijver
While adequate and affordable housing is a fundamental right, quantitative and qualitative scarcity does not guarantee this for low-income quintiles. This study focuses on 'distressed buyers' and ‘distressed homeowners’ in the Flemish housing market, which has made ownership a focal point in past and current policies. However, at least 4% or 119,000 households, despite their ownership, are confronted with inadequate housing quality and major renovation needs and have little or no possibility to make thorough changes to their housing situation. Self-organized or do-it-yourself renovations might be the only option for them, but the scale, approach and impact remain completely under the radar in existing quantitative research and datasets. The project therefore aims to apply qualitative research methods through a case study on the Rupel region to uncover the renovation efforts of the distressed homeowners. Given the institutional context in which these informal renovation practices take place, the friction with existing workings and policy initiatives and reciprocal thresholds will be identified. Finally, it will explore how specifically the architect has an enabling role to play, in order to formulate policy recommendations that contribute to a more inclusive housing policy.
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