Klantgestuurd voorraadbeleid en empowerment. Over Te Woon en andere initiatieven van woningcorporaties

摘要

Central to this dissertation are client driven housing management from housing associations in The Netherlands and the empowerment effects this management has on its tenants. The central issue includes what client driven housing management is (definition), in which ways this can be devised, what the envisioned effects are and which effects this management successfully accomplishes. These are answered by means of seven sub questions. The focal point of this research shifts from an exploration of all the initiatives that can be found in client driven housing management, to the empowerment effect for its tenants of ‘Te Woon’ as one of these initiatives. In this summary the answers to the seven sub questions are briefly given. What is client driven housing management (1) is answered by means of a literature study. In this dissertation client driven housing management is defined as “the management which actively involves the tenants in policy formulation and policy implementation concerning the housing quality, price and/or property rights of dwellings”. This definition includes initiatives ranging from kitchen improvement programmes offering a choice of designs, to programme formulation to improve neighbourhood quality. ‘Te Woon’ (also known as ‘the clients’ choice programme’) is included in this definition since it gives the tenants the opportunity to own a home and have control over the home. This has effect on the composition and quality of the (social) housing stock. Contrary to normal sales programmes, Te Woon offers the tenants to purchase a dwelling with a discount and offers them a shared risk (by splitting profit or loss at the moment of re-sale between housing association and owner). Moreover, the housing association is obliged to re-buy the home at the moment the tenant offers it. In this way the dwelling always re-enters the housing associations’ portfolio and doesn’t get lost from the social housing stock. How can client driven housing management initiatives be ordered and valuated (2) is answered by using different approaches to management and tenant influence devised from literature. Housing associations in the Netherlands are limited in their actions and operations by law (amongst others the BBSH). The law prescribes certain main tasks to housing associations and several policy domains have been used to determine the policy subjects that can be addressed. The influence the tenants can have on these subjects can be valuated by using the ladder of citizen participation. The ladder illustrates the grade to which the tenant has actually a say in matters and thus shares control with the housing association. In the most extreme case the tenant gets the full control over the dwelling by obtaining the property rights. Limitations are to be found in the legal system which prescribes the basic division of property rights between owners and users and in the laws concerning the rental housing market. Based on a theoretical exploration of the opportunities for the transfer of control from the housing association to the tenants by comparing the grades of citizen control with the policy domains, one domain proves to be promising. The policy domain of ‘dwelling purchase and sale’ offers the most opportunities to transfer control since in the extreme case the tenant could own its own dwelling, the tenant gets full property rights and thus transcends the ladder of citizen participation. The policy domain purchase and sale of dwellings thus offers the most opportunities to provide tenants with freedom, autonomy and personal development (empowerment). Which initiatives in client driven housing management can be found in the Dutch housing associations’ practice (3) is answered based on a survey amongst associations. The housing associations that participated reckoned every initiative that gave the tenant more than a single option to client driven housing management. The analysis of the initiatives mentioned by the housing associations showed that a few types of client driven housing management were numerous. Moreover, the analysis showed that the initiatives are rather limited to the housing policy domains concerning housing maintenance and improvement and purchase and sale of dwellings. The opportunities offered to the tenants have been analysed using participation grades. The initiatives aim to offer tenants individual choice, focused on the interior of the dwelling (kitchens etc.) and offer mostly a choice between options: delegated (and limited) choices. Within the domain of purchase and sale of dwellings (including especially Te Woon) individual choice to own is stimulated and provides with different initiatives sharing risk and offering reductions on sales prices. The initiatives aiming on the option to buy offer the best perspective on personal development by offering the opportunity of transferring full control to the tenant. All the other initiatives that were found transfer less control and offer a limite