Exploring Affordable Housing in Urban Regeneration Plans (Case Study: Hemmatabad Neighborhood of Isfahan City)

Introduction :

Urban regeneration plans aim to transform ruined and abandoned areas into new active and attractive centers. However, these ambitious projects, initiated to improve living standards and physical conditions, generally result in gentrification and spatial inequality intensifying, weakening local identity, and reducing social capital by displacement, homelessness, and segregation. Gentrification, viewed by some policymakers as a measure of success against urban decay and poverty, with the problems it creates concerning housing and its affordability, is always one of the challenging and conflicting issues in contemporary urban planning. Consequently, there is a growing debate focusing on the adverse effects of gentrification, particularly when urban regeneration plans cause it. This attention has been concentrated on broader neighborhood and city-level outcomes and impacts, including the invisible increase in homelessness and displacement driven by market mechanisms, neighborhood unaffordability regarding consumption, services, and housing, and social injustice processes. Hence, this research explores affordable housing in urban regeneration plans, considering the realities of the Hemmatabad neighborhood of Isfahan.

Firstly, the theoretical aspects concerning the right to housing and the provision of affordable housing in urban regeneration are explained, drawing upon various views, theories, and experiences in this field. Then, while explaining the research area and methodology, objective examples derived from the Grounded Theory-based analysis of semi-structured interviews are discussed and concluded. These interviews were conducted with individuals directly involved in planning and implementing the Hemmatabad neighborhood regeneration project, identified through snowball or chain sampling. Hemmatabad is one of the neighborhoods of District 6 in the south of Isfahan, previously located outside the legal limits. With the gradual development of the city in the south of the Zayandehrud River, it became the residence of workers and the low-income class. Over the last two decades, several plans and programs have been prepared for the Hemmatabad neighborhood. However, these interventions, conflicting with the interests of local inhabitants, have encountered public opposition, impeding any regeneration operations. Following the realization of the theoretical saturation, 11 interviews were conducted and analyzed using the Grounded Theory approach. Accordingly, the interviewees’ experiences regarding affordable housing in the regeneration of the Hemmatabad neighborhood were scrutinized through initial coding, memoing, and focused coding.

According to the Grounded Theory-based analysis of the interviews and the corresponding focused codes, it was found that there was no requirement to provide affordable housing during the regeneration of the Hemmatabad neighborhood, at least in the early phases or initial proposals, and housing provision is actually treated as a separate matter from urban regeneration. However, the concept of affordability began to emerge, primarily by emphasizing the permanence, empowerment, and integration of the local community, which only encompasses the owners and excludes tenant groups who relied on rental housing. Based on the facts observed in the Hemmatabad neighborhood, in providing affordable housing in urban regeneration plans, the social aspects, including public participation, trust-building, negotiation with the local inhabitants, and addressing their needs and desires, and technical dimensions, predominantly of an economic nature, such as estimating project costs, allocating service share, land redistribution, economic justification of proposals, registration issues, project management, and establishing implementation schedule, are among the key and influential factors. Overall, the results indicate that there is no specific place for affordable housing within urban regeneration plans, and this relationship is not clear despite targeting the realization of the right to housing. There is no necessity for housing affordability and guaranteeing the permanence of former local inhabitants, particularly tenants, in the policies and guidelines for developing urban regeneration plans and subsequently preventing the occurrence of gentrification and segregation. 

Affordable housing in urban regeneration is a critical issue in Iran that requires attention in both the theory and practice of urban planning. The initiative in regenerating inefficient urban areas is often in the hands of the public sector and limited to information dissemination, establishment of facilitation offices, and provision of housing deposits and renovation loans. However, multilateral stakeholder participation, trust-building, convergence, and a balance between the needs and expectations of all actors are fundamental factors in urban regeneration projects. It is necessary to adopt flexible approaches that can enhance efficiency based on the unique characteristics and cultural, social, and economic conditions of each urban regeneration project beyond its physical dimensions. Changing the attitude and formulating more flexible and collaborative policies are essential, particularly in providing service share from public sector resources and defining various investment mechanisms in urban regeneration plans. Meanwhile, it is inevitable to review the resolution of the challenges related to small ownership, land registration, and land acquisition, as complex issues with possible and probable opportunities and threats, toward advancing urban regeneration projects. Besides, in preparing physical proposals, economic justification is vital alongside considering their physical-spatial effects, including population dynamics and quality of life. Finally, ensuring the sustainability of affordable solutions for the post-implementation period through sensitivity and proper understanding of the local context will be critical to the success of housing-led urban regeneration. Given the broad and challenging nature of urban regeneration, especially with a focus on housing affordability, integrating national housing programs for low-income groups with urban regeneration plans, emphasizing qualitative and non-physical aspects, and conducting comprehensive evaluations before, during, and after the implementation of these plans, are among issues suggested for future research in this field.