Integration Policies at the Local Level: Housing Policies for Migrants, Examples from New York City, St. Paul, Antwerp, Vienna and Stuttgart

New York City (NYC) is a challenging housing market, as anyone who has ever tried to find accommodations here can easily attest. Its housing market is also one of the few areas of public policy where statistics and public perception are in perfect harmony. The impression of New York as an expensive place where affordable housing is nearly impossible to find is borne out by a remarkably low rental housing vacancy rate of 2,91% in 2008, and the fact that nearly half of New York’s renter households pay more than 30% of their income for housing. Not surprisingly, the newest entrants into NYC’s housing market, likely to be foreign born immigrants, face the greatest obstacles. Despite a sustained and significant investment by the public sector in housing production, shortages and affordability gaps continue, and the city is now projecting that its population will grow by an astounding one million persons by the year 2030. How will this increasing population be accommodated in a housing stock that is aging, expensive, and scarce? It is reasonable to wonder how the population fits into the housing stock now.