From Britain’s ‘Generation Rent’ to Hong Kong’s
notorious ‘cage homes’, societies around the world are facing a housing crisis
of unprecedented proportions. The social consequences have been profound, with a
lack of affordable housing resulting in overcrowding, homelessness, broken
families and, in many countries, a sharp decline in fertility.
In Broken Cities, Deborah Potts offers a
provocative new perspective on the global housing crisis arguing that the problem
lies mainly with demand rather than supply. Potts shows how market-set rates of
pay and incomes for vast numbers of households in the world’s largest cities in
the global South and North are simply too low to rent or buy any housing that
is legal, planned and decent. As the influence of free market economics has
increased, the situation has worsened. Potts argues that the crisis needs
radical solutions.
With the world becoming increasingly urbanized,
this book provides a timely and urgent account of one of the most pressing
social challenges of the 21st century. Exploring the effects of the housing
crisis across the global North and South, Broken Cities is a warning of the
greater crises to come if these issues are not addressed.
