Project

The overall objective of the HouseInc project is to deeply analyse interlinked dimensions of housing inequalities, with a particular focus on marginalised communities – through innovative methodologies and approaches. HouseInc will assess and test drivers of and impacts on micro/meso/macro levels to identify interlinkages among ecological (environmental), social (labour, mobility, health and family), and economic (income, energy price) conditions and address the multidimensionality of housing inequality. 

HouseInc will investigate the economic, social and ecological drivers and effects of housing inequality to derive and co-design high-quality policy recommendations for local, regional and national policymakers to foster the adoption of effective and innovative measures to address current housing inequality in Europe.

HouseInc will explore:

• The drivers of housing inequality and their interaction with related issues: energy and mobility poverty, digital dimensions, employment opportunities, family conditions and health.

• Assess the impacts at geographical scale by examining the urban/local and local/regional vs national conditions and will investigate how proximity or distance to work, energy, transport and health infrastructure and services impacts the different dimensions of housing inequalities.

By providing a complete understanding of the drivers and effects of the various interlinking dimensions of housing inequality and translating them into policy recommendations and adaptable solutions to housing inequalities, HouseInc will help to mitigate the impacts of income and wealth polarization. The project will prioritize marginalized and vulnerable groups in its research, with diversity dimensions such as gender playing a crucial role in achieving a just energy transition and ensuring affordable, sustainable, and inclusive housing. Social justice is at the heart of HouseInc and the project will support the most vulnerable communities by identifying the systemic barriers to housing equality.

HouseInc has 6 main objectives:

1. Apply a holistic and shared integrated methodological approach combining micro-meso-macro analysis to study interlinkages among dimensions of housing inequalities as well as socio-demographic characteristics of marginalised communities.
2. Assess and help policymakers understand economic, social and ecological drivers of and related effects on housing inequalities and examine pathways and impacts of their interaction.
3. Analyse and assess the effects of different types of tenure and policies on housing inequalities.
4. Investigate the role of geographic scale and conceptualize proximity/distance regarding fragilities in dimensions of housing inequality.
5. Map, co-design and scale-up social, economic and ecologic/digital solutions to housing inequalities in the context of marginalised communities.
6. Derive, co-design and validate empirically based and high-quality policy recommendations to address interlinked dimensions of housing inequality on the local, regional and national level.

February 2024 - January 2027

The project is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme (HORIZON-CL2-2023-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-09, RIA).

Project lead and coordination: Fraunhofer ISI. In addition, 12 other partners from seven countries are involved in the HouseInc research project:

• Czech Republic: INSTITUTE OF SOCIOLOGY OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC PUBLIC RESEARCH INSTITUTION (ISAS CR), ASOCIATIA POLITEIA
• Romania: ASOCIATIA ENERGY POLICY GROUP (EPG), ROMODROM OPS
• Italy: Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (UB), ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Universita Di Bologna (UNIBO), Liberitutti Societa Cooperativa Sociale Spa
• Germany: Deutsches Institut Für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Stadt Mannheim
• Netherlands: Institute For European Energy And Climate Policy Stichting (IEECP)
• Belgium: Interuniversitair Micro-electronica Centrum (Imec-University of Ghent)
• United Kingdom (UK): University College London (UCL) Partner