Housing policy, beyond building. The fourth pillar of welfare state

Abstract

Dignified housing is a basic concept of a model of society seeking for cohesion and social justice, which wants to ensure diversity and living together and the territorial balance as a basic element for the construction and transformation of the city. So, either the structure of our society or social imbalances it is clear that some citizens can fully enjoy this right while is almost impossible to achieve for others. I think that we have to be fully aware of the role and social function of housing beyond the meaning in economic terms. We must defend housing as a market of use, not as a financial market. And, therefore, it is clear that we must rethink housing policy and the concepts of social housing and residential mobility.

This paper wants to point out some thoughts to consider the problem of housing as a principle of social priority highlighting why and how public housing as we have conceived so far, and why is required active and budget policies by the public administration under a new title that overcome the traditional concept of official protection housing, and provide a proactive response to the problem of access to housing.