Progress Towards Just Cities - Theme Cities: Solutions for Urban Problems - page 89

tions in the rural feudal society, so long as they were able to stay for a year and a
day, protected by the municipal charters that gave rights to urban citizens.

3.5.2 Towards Equity for Just Cities

Fainstein suggested that 'equity' was a more useful principle in the search for a just
city than the more complex term 'equality'. This implies an aim of levelling out dif-
ferences in income and leads to questions of equality for whom, of what goods, and
how many goods are to be distributed etc. It could also be argued that it does not
cause so many concerns for those who believe in the primacy of the contributionist
principle. Fainstein identified several types of policies in cities which would create
more equity, all of which are designed to ensure that public policy does not favour
those who were better-off at the beginning of the decision-making (Fainstein 2010 ,
p. 36). These ideas are re-organized and described in more detail than in her initial
list in order to clarify the goals to be achieved.

3﻽5﻽2﻽1 Housing

The old progressive goal of providing decent, affordable homes, and a suitable en-
vironment for the poor as well as for key workers in cities, should be re-asserted,
since the provision of shelter is one of the basic human needs. However, Fainstein's
argument needs to be modified by recognizing the many problems that occurred
with the direct municipal provision and control of public housing in the past, es-
pecially a lack of safety and slow maintenance. Hence the housing objective might
be better achieved by encouraging non-profit sector provision, or by municipalities
taking equity in homes, especially for vital public workers, such as nurses, teachers
and police, to ensure that the latter are still able to live within what are becoming
increasingly expensive inner cities. In addition, she argued that all new housing
developments should always contain provision for households with incomes be-
low the median, which might mean building certain areas at higher densities. It is
also stressed that the stock of affordable housing that is created should never be
diminished, either by ensuring that such buildings always remain in this public or
non-profit sector, or by making at least one-to-one replacements. Unfortunately,
policies in many states, such as the public housing privatization in countries such
as Britain from the 1970s, did not lead to the income from sales being reinvested in
new social housing. This reduced the number of houses available for the working
class and poor, creating a huge backlog of housing need, not only among the most
disadvantaged, but among the working classes who have been priced out of many
areas in the most prosperous cities. It is also worth noting that there are often hid-
den housing subsidies to certain groups in some countries, subsidies that ought to be
made more transparent in terms of their effects. For example, in the United States
the money spent on housing for the poor is relatively small given overall budgets,