Category: Uncategorized

– Housing decay is a major feature of all the cities and towns in Ghana. This paper aims to investigate the condition of housing in the older neighbourhoods of the Offinso South Municipality (OSM), in the Asante region of Ghana.

– The study employed questionnaires to collect empirical data from households and property owners in the studied neighbourhoods. These data were then analysed, and interpreted using some knowledge of local culture and beliefs. Houses are of cultural significance in Ghana; they serve the needs of the living, the dead and future generations.

– The research finds that most households in the older neighbourhoods of the OSM live in housing deprivation. The most affected are children and the elderly in the neighbourhoods. But the poor housing is in part a consequence of attitudes toward property management and a weakening social system that hitherto supported the vulnerable in society.

– The paper recommends that the municipal authority enforces regulations governing property management. It also suggests that Ghanaians should rediscover a social system that ensures that the elderly are adequately sheltered.

– This paper aims to examine the influence of physical housing environments on the learning potential of children. The authors argue for housing design which is attentive to the need for open but personal space with “sufficient physical partitions”.

– The research draws on an empirical study of students in two randomly selected Hong Kong secondary schools. The approach includes the use of multiple regression analysis to test the correlation between academic performance and a set of environmental attributes.

– Housing design, aspect and size of housing are significant. Academic performance is not dependent on tenure type and this is partly related to mixed tenure, close proximity of differing socio‐economic neighborhoods and the sharing of social capital to provide equal opportunity. However, densely developed high housing is not desirable for children’s academic development.

– The location of Hong Kong provides a very specific combination of small land mass, a history of high rise living and a social housing sector and the need to optimize physical space for social ends. Home ownership does not play a role of a stabilizer for children, as observed in other places.

– This paper prompts a reassessment, by housing providers and commissioners, of the link between housing types and long term educational opportunities and the need to devise appropriate partnerships to ensure that housing adds to academic performance rather than undermine it.

– The study of the effects of high rise high density housing on children’s learning is underdeveloped and should be reassessed in markets, such as that in the UK, where use of the private rented sector is increasingly used to house families who may in the past have been housed directly by the State.

– This research attempts to apply quantitative techniques to provide evidence to policy makers that can be replicated in other housing contexts.

– The paper aims to explore current interest in the concept of well‐being, and to trace, with examples, the growing use of design ideas in healthcare settings to reduce stress and maximise efficiency. Finally, it seeks to look at the relevance or transferability of such design principles and approaches to opportunities to enhance well‐being through design in community settings.

– The potential in this approach is illustrated with some examples of design approaches applied in healthcare, teasing out the wider implications with ways to explore and arrange the patient journey, for example, or the “care pathway” for a vulnerable adult into a care or support service for maximum benefit.

– Thinking on enhancing well‐being by design has been further advanced in applications in the health service, but a number of design concepts and approaches seem to promise similar benefits in community settings where issues in managing the health and well‐being of vulnerable individuals are equally relevant.

– Design principles may be especially useful in current efforts towards creating dementia‐friendly homes and communities, or “psychologically informed environments” in services for marginalized and excluded individuals.

– The challenges of achieving housing stability are examinable from a variety of locations and perspectives, resulting in a range of solutions and recommendations for practice. Attending to the experiences and understandings of both service users and service providers within a broad environmental scan, one can obtain a more complete picture of how housing stability can be supported and sustained. The purpose of this research is to better understand the practical landscape, human relationships, interdisciplinary understandings and everyday activities of housing stability.

– The paper draws on thematic analysis from expert informant interviews conducted during an environmental scan of housing options and facilities for those who have been labelled “hard to house” in a large, ethnically‐diverse urban city in western Canada. Interviews of selected service users yielded information on their perspectives of the barriers and facilitators of housing stability. Parallel interviews of service providers and/or policy makers were also conducted, and responses compared and contrasted with those of service users.

– Three interconnected patterns on the path to housing stability were experienced by the expert informants, and are explored herein. The overlapping and developmental themes “more than a house,” “finding support,” and “connecting multiple supports” are discussed. Conditions and realities of coordinated support need, particularly for those deemed “hard to house” because of addictions or mental health problems were revealed by the expert informants in this study.

– Thematic analysis of the parallel interviews brought the landscape of housing stability into clearer focus and contributed to practice recommendations. This qualitative research approach was not intended to provide generalizable findings, but rather sheds light on particular experiences and understandings in ways that may contribute to further research. The themes identified may resonate in differing circumstances having arisen from the more generalized practical realities and social conditions which warrant an ongoing analysis.

– The analysis revealed an ongoing gap of support for the management and coordination of the often complex requirements of support for housing stability for service users. Various service agencies, providing houses, providing financial aid, providing health and social support need to “connect multiple levels of support” something identified as an all too often missing link in achieving housing stability. Recommendations include recognizing the necessity of multiple sectors working together with multiple sites and layers of support, in particular for those who experience addictions or mental health problems. More tailored support, follow up and recognition of the potential for instability is a particular practical implication of the study. Invigorating a coordinative, case management role, with a view to bridging and bringing together seemingly disparate sectors and service providers are relevant practical implications of this study.

– The research is novel in approach, drawing on a parallel expert informant interview process, and findings are of relevance to practical activities in housing, social and health services and policy as well as for scholarly dialogue and discussion.