Guest Speaker on Podcast: Housing Matters episode 1 – Accessibility and Affordability

Podcast and Episode Description: In the Housing Matters Podcast, we sit down with researchers and practitioners from a range of fields and disciplines to discuss major 21st century housing issues. Looking at causes, consequences, and potential solutions, we unpack the following themes over six episodes: Housing, accessibility and affordability; housing, financialization and its economic effects; housing, ethics and justice; housing and sustainability; housing and wellbeing; and housing and the urban commons.

In the first episode of this podcast we start at the beginning. How has housing become so unaffordable and inaccessible? How have barriers to home ownership, social housing and the private rental sector increased over recent decades? And what can we do about these challenges? We are joined by urban geographer Cody Hochstenbach and political scientist Lindsay Flynn to discuss the drivers and outcomes of these challenges, how they are spatially and socially variated, and what impacts they’ve had, particularly for young adults. We then catch up with Mirthe Biemans from Rochdale housing association and Pim van der Heiden from Bond Precaire Woonvormen to hear why social housing and squatting are important in tackling these challenges.