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Crime increased in Spain during the period of 2017–2019 after a decade of decline. This coincides with severe housing deprivation multiplying by three in just four years, affecting 3.4% of the population in 2020. However, no research has been found that analyzes whether this deterioration of the physical conditions of housing and its environmental elements has impacted the level of crime in Spain. This study aims to analyze how housing deprivation affects crime in the Spanish context.

For this purpose, different items that are considered by Eurostat as elements of housing deprivation are used. The difference generalized method of moments estimator is used for 16 Spanish regions that comprises the period from 2013 to 2019.

The results suggest that certain structural and environmental elements of housing are positively associated with crime: space (0.5% and 0.4%) and high housing expenditure (0.4% and 0.5%) are positively correlated with the two dependent variables; the lack of light and overcrowding stand out as they establish a positive and statistically significant association with four out of the six analyzed crime categories; the absence of lighting effect reaches up to 1.8% and 1.7% in the case of violent robberies and vehicle theft, respectively. Finally, pollution is negatively associated with robbery with violence (−1.9%), theft (−0.7%) and robbery with force (−0.5%).

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that examines whether this deterioration of the physical conditions of housing has impacted the level of crime in Spain. It is also pioneering at the European level by using nonmonetary dimensions of inequality such as housing.

Examines work investigating the impact of the crisis on social welfare policies two Asian countries — Hong Kong and Korea, and argues that these two states were not prepared for the crisis. States that Hong Kong is adopting a neoliberal approach to social welfare, contrasting this with Korea taking unprecedented steps to restructure the social security system, after its economy nearly collapsed, taking a more developmental approach to social policy. Posits that only time will tell whether Korea’s momentum of change can be sustained, while in Hong Kong social security policy will still be dictated by a neoliberal agenda in the near future.

The importance of gender equality is reflected not only in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but also in the World Bank’s Gender Action Plan launched in 2007 as well as in other treaties and actions undertaken at regional and international levels. Unlike other gender poverty works, which are mostly based on monetary measurement, the purpose of this paper is to adopt a non-monetary approach.

The present study makes use of a counting approach to examine gender issues in Burkina Faso and Togo using household surveys, namely Enquête Intégrale surles Conditions de Vie des Ménages (2009/2010) and Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire (2011), respectively. It focusses on six dimensions (housing, basic utilities, assets, education, employment and access to credit) largely recognized as MDG targets.

Main findings indicate that overall individuals are the most deprived in education in Burkina Faso, while the reverse situation is true in Togo. Gender inequality is observed in all dimensions since women always seem to be more deprived than men. The situation is also marked by regional disparities. Moreover, the assessment of dimensional contributions shows different patterns for each country. While employment proves to be the main contributor of gender inequality in Burkina Faso, three dimensions (assets, access to credit and employment) account together for most of the total contribution to gender inequality in Togo.

The main contribution of the paper is to use a multidimensional method (counting approach) to assess gender deprivation, with countries comparison. It also proposes an interesting combination of the decomposition by dimension with the subgroup’s decomposition in order to determine the largest contributor to gender inequality.

There are clear links between health, housing and social care. The homeless live much shorter lives as do those people living in poorer quality accommodation and areas of deprivation. Life expectancy and the quality of life in later years are both drastically affected by Marmot's (2010) social gradient, with people from poorer backgrounds often doing worse. A decent home is fundamental to a healthy and a good life. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The research approach reviewed existing articles, examples from the housing sector and analysis of a range of data from organisations including the NHS.

Good housing helps to support better health but it is not the only answer – joined up working between agencies and Marmot's proposal of proportionate universalism are significant factors in finding solutions to this long-standing issue.

Costs to the government, health services and local authorities and other agencies could be reduced by wider thinking around the link between housing, health and other support.

This paper focuses on the existing links between health, housing and social care.

Housing decay is a major feature of all the cities and towns in Ghana. This paper aims to investigate the condition of housing in the older neighbourhoods of the Offinso South Municipality (OSM), in the Asante region of Ghana.

The study employed questionnaires to collect empirical data from households and property owners in the studied neighbourhoods. These data were then analysed, and interpreted using some knowledge of local culture and beliefs. Houses are of cultural significance in Ghana; they serve the needs of the living, the dead and future generations.

The research finds that most households in the older neighbourhoods of the OSM live in housing deprivation. The most affected are children and the elderly in the neighbourhoods. But the poor housing is in part a consequence of attitudes toward property management and a weakening social system that hitherto supported the vulnerable in society.

The paper recommends that the municipal authority enforces regulations governing property management. It also suggests that Ghanaians should rediscover a social system that ensures that the elderly are adequately sheltered.

The authors’ empirical investigation attempts to identify the nexus between the economic well-being of Polish elderly households and their housing situation, which can be related to the impact of the mass privatization policy implemented in Poland in the early 1990s. The generation who benefited from the process at that time currently includes great majority of people at retirement age who are homeowners.

In the study, the authors employ micro data from the Polish Social Diagnosis household survey and analyze them in a multinomial logistic regression framework. They explore the nexus between both subjective and objective measures of income and housing circumstances.

The results imply that housing arrangements do not significantly differentiate Polish households in terms of their economic well-being when controlling for other sociodemographic factors. This may result from two independent, but possibly overlapping, reasons. The first is that housing circumstances are quite evenly distributed across elderly population as compared to income. This may be a direct effect of the “(socialist) state legacy,” as in the socialist era there was a strong focus on diminishing income and wealth inequalities in society. The second explanation is that better housing circumstances are not a sufficient means to improve the welfare of the elderly.

The study’s analysis is associated with little investigated area of the welfare effects of homeownership in the old age at the individual level. It explores this issue on the example of Poland, which is a typical representative of the group of post-socialist countries that share a common feature of “state legacy welfare” that is characterized by extensive mortgage-free homeownership.

This article aims to explore the concept of achieving the “right to the city” for marginalised communities. It uses human rights instruments and regeneration best practice to develop a toolkit of indicators for urban regeneration. The article contributes to the literature on realising economic, social and cultural rights encompassed in the “right to the city”.

The article adopts an interdisciplinary approach, involving human rights law, urban planning, housing studies, community development, housing law and social policy. It draws on primary qualitative (participative and observatory) research undertaken by the author while implementing a human rights based approach in an Irish inner‐city local authority estate from 2009 to 2013.

The human rights framework can be adapted to develop a set of measurable regeneration indicators. This article suggests that the application of this rights toolkit provides a greater potential for regeneration to meet human rights standards, and therefore, realise the “right to the city” in practice.

The application of the human rights based approach to urban regeneration would benefit from wider empirical testing on its suitability for implementation in other countries and global regions. It would benefit from critical engagement with human rights practitioners, community groups, and state agencies seeking to realise the “right to the city”.

This is the first known academic attempt to explore the pathway of a human rights based approach to urban regeneration in order to realise the “right to the city” in practice.

The study examines alcohol and drug related accidental dwelling fire injuries during 2006–2016 in Merseyside in England.

The study carries out an examination of alcohol and drug related fire injuries from 2006 to 2016 in Merseyside, including analysis of injuries by age group, gender, level of deprivation and housing type.

Deprivation was a significant factor in alcohol and drug related fire injuries over the period studied, with 70% of such injuries occurring in areas with the highest level of deprivation. Males appeared roughly twice as likely to be injured in an alcohol and drug related fire incident than females. The majority of those injured were in the age range 35–59.

There were limitations on the generalizability of the research findings to other fire and rescue services, as Merseyside has some of the highest levels of alcohol consumption and deprivation in UK.

An understanding of those vulnerable to alcohol and drug related fire risks can support more targeted fire prevention strategies and aid referrals to partner health agencies to help to reduce underlying alcohol and drug misuse issues.

The study provides a detailed analysis of the circumstances associated with alcohol and drug related fire injuries over a ten-year period covered by a UK fire and rescue service, in particular, in terms alcohol and drug related fire injury risk differences between different groups.

Ageing of population means for society facing new challenges and one of the main challenges is how to ensure quality of life of elderly and prevent their exclusion from the society. This position of elderly is intrinsically linked to the welfare system and policies that are applied to prevent and tackle social exclusion of vulnerable individuals and groups. The focus is on Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, which are in research often piled in the same group. However, in the article the authors wish to also focus on differences between them.

Social exclusion as a concept for observing vulnerability of elderly enables observation of vulnerabilities in various areas/dimensions at the same time, and also enables comparison of particular populations with other groups and enables determining their position within the society. In this article the authors observe social exclusion of the elderly in several areas: health and access to health care, poverty and material deprivation, housing and local environment and interpersonal relations. Comparative analysis of CEE countries is based on data from European quality of life survey (2007).

The analysis has showed that elderly in CEE are significantly more excluded than the rest of the population, and the most problematic areas were material deprivation, health and interpersonal exclusion. Furthermore, the exclusion of the elderly in CEE is significantly higher than in other European countries, further characterized by a much higher difference in the level of the exclusion of the elderly than the population in general, as compared to the other European countries. This indicates that the so-called post-socialist welfare states do not promote inclusion of the elderly to a satisfactory degree.

Due to a lack of comparative analyses of social policy issues in CEE countries the originality and value of the article is a comparative analysis of social exclusion of the elderly in the CEE countries in comparison to the development of welfare systems in these countries.

Older people are vulnerable to fuel poverty on the island of Ireland. This paper seeks to explore the lived experiences of older people in cold weather with a view to informing fuel poverty policy and service responses.

A postal and online survey utilising an opportunistic sample of older people living in Ireland and linked with a range of services/community and voluntary groups was undertaken in January‐April 2011. Data on the experiences of 722 older people in the cold weather of winter 2010/2011 were analysed in the context of socio‐economic, health, and housing circumstances.

During the period of extreme cold weather half of the sample reported that they went without other household necessities due to the cost of home‐heating. In general, 62 per cent of those surveyed worried about the cost of home‐heating. Homes considered “too cold” were more likely to lack central heating and experience damp/draughts. Staying indoors, keeping the heating on, and eating hot food/drinks were common responses to cold weather but a diverse range of behaviours was observed. Associations were observed between living in a cold home and higher levels of chronic illness, falls and loneliness, and fewer social activities.

The sample cannot be considered nationally representative; single occupancy and social housing units were overrepresented.

This research found significant associations between living in a cold home/difficulty paying for heating, and aspects of ill‐health and social exclusion. While no causal association can be assumed, this phenomenon has implications for policies supporting healthy ageing.