Rental-Insights-A-COVID-19-Collection - Flipbook - Page 45
RENTAL INSIGHTS:
HOUSING POLICY
Who is most affected?
Working from the present
First, housing scholars might critically
reflect on the demands of journalists
or funding agencies for rapid-fire
commentary and/or data on the
pandemic and housing, which might be
taken as a guide for future housing policy.
Second, they could draw on the
fabulously useful sociological writing
of Norbert Elias and C. W. Mills who
understood very well the problem
of what can be termed ‘presentism’
in social science. They both argued
that social science can only really
be undertaken in hindsight, when it
becomes easier to trace the continuities
and discontinuities that link and divide
one period from the next. If we take
seriously their arguments—and as many
have already pointed out—COVID-19
has accentuated many long-standing
inequalities that are a feature of the
housing system.
Third, then, we also need to continue to
pursue a slower and more deliberative
housing research and policy response
over the long term. The need to collect
data on COVID-19 and highlight
its immediate effects, needs to be
supported by a longer- term research
agenda to fully appreciate housing
change through, and beyond the
pandemic, and what this means for
policy making.
What is the relevance
to Australian policy?
Doing fast policy making
First, housing policy makers should
adopt a COVID-19 response that
accounts for longstanding inequities,
rather than by drawing a line between
the present pandemic and the housing
policies that preceded it.
Second, the pandemic should be
seen as an opportunity to see the
longstanding housing problems in
sharper relief and use this insight to
reset the power dynamics that have
accentuated inequalities in the housing
system. At this point, the pandemic
might have more to teach us about
the past than the future.
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Third, it should not be assumed that
the underlying systemic features of the
housing system have been eclipsed by
COVID-19 and are no longer relevant for
housing analysis.
It is historical analyses that have shown
us that the housing system is key to how
inequality operates. While COVID-19
might be seen as a disruption, it is
housing researchers’ job to also show
the continuities; to show the ways in
which housing systems remain intact
and continue to discriminate against
some while generating wealth for others.
When asked about the impact
of the French Revolution, the
late Chinese premier Zhou
Enlai is reputed to have said:
‘Too early to say’.
(anon. nd.)
