Urban Governance and the Housing Crisis: A Review and Research Agenda

The research analyzes the contemporary housing crisis from a metropolitan perspective by observing policy and governance in the European context and a state of the art on housing strategies at the metropolitan level. It first introduces a state of the art on the housing sector in Europe, and on the post-COVID housing scenario as an intersectional challenge encompassing several socioeconomic as well as environmental fragilities. After an overview on major EU policies and strategies to address the housing crisis, it observes how a selection of cities is addressing the housing crisis by unfolding strategies which mostly embrace the urban scale, including an increase of the social housing stock, rent control, collaboration with NGOs, developing housing programs for specific vulnerable groups, housing subsidies. A third section draws conclusions on the interplay between policy levels and on the challenges and potential an urban solution to the intersectional housing problem, consequently proposing a research and policy agenda.