Session on Social Inclusion July 27 2011 - Harris SELOD v2

8/6/2019 Session on Social Inclusion July 27 2011 - Harris SELOD v2

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City structure and

social inclusion

Harris Selod (The World Bank)

July 27, 2011

[email protected]



Outline

1. Ideas and facts about spatial city structure

2. Discussion on the disconnection between jobsand residence (spatial mismatch)

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Outline

1. Ideas and facts about spatial city structure

2. Discussion on the disconnection between jobsand residence (spatial mismatch)

Time permitting: broach issues related to housing and land tenure formalization

Other issues important for SA: the harmful effects of residential segregation (criminality,

schooling,)3





South African cities No contiguous built-up area (inherited from buffer zones planned under Apartheid)

No negatively sloped density

Sprawl and low average density (although highly variable within city) Cape Town: 39 persons per hectare

between 100 and 150 in shack areas

between 4 and 12 in former white suburbs

Severe disconnection between places of work and residence (problem)

Severe residential segregation (problem)

Residential informality (problem)5

Johannesburg (1990)

Positively sloped densitygradients due to historic

constraints on city development (source: Alain Bertaud)



What shapes cities? City structures are path dependant (i.e. history matters). In SA,

history means Policies of strict racial segregation (forced removals)

Separation of economic and residential zones (out of non-white areas)

Where land market exists, city structures are determined

primarily by market forces (location and transport choices towork, shop and play) in interaction with urban planning andurban regulations. Market forces will respond to constraints andincentives such as those created by urban planning

City structures are evolving US example: The suburbanization of the population was made possible by

decreasing transportation costs (emergence of tramways, trains, then cars).The decrease in transport costs enabled the population to consume morehousing in the suburbs while keeping their job in the center. Thesuburbanization of the labor force in turn attracted jobs to the suburbs (acumulative process)

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Trends that are being observed Emergence of megacities (over ten million residents) although it was never

planned. Large cities tend to become less monocentric. The share of public transit is

eroding in most cities (in spite of heavy investments and subsidies).

In Europe and Asia, land prices in high density cores city centers tendto increase in relation with availability of services and amenities

Rapid urbanization in Asia (China) and Africa

What specific changes / trends in South Africancities?

SA cities remain segregated / reproduction of Apartheidstructure (led by market forces, according to income, which is

highly correlated with ethnicity). White flight from city center inJohannesburg (90s), not elsewhere.

More people living in denser informal settlements (rural-urban migration) in spite of formal housing policies

No densification as yet

Sprawl and long commutes 7



2. Spatial mismatch

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Disconnection from jobs is about costs (time, monetary, informational)

matters for the poor

is about the disconnection from jobs (job vacancies) thepoor/the unskilled could occupy

Why are the poor physically disconnected from

the jobs they could occupy? Not the case everywhere depends in city structure (in Paris,

segregation is the problem, not spatial mismatch, due to a goodtransportation network). A big city issue.

In the US: both housing market discrimination and land markets

In SA: history, and reproduction of Apartheid city structure



Why is spatial mismatch bad? It is costly

Average travel-to-work time in Joburg: 80 mn (30 mn in the Paris region)

In SA, HH from lowest income bracket spend 35% of income on transport!

Environmental externalities

It can cause unemployment and low income

There are different mechanisms Offered wages net of commuting costs can be too low for

unemployed workers to accept a job

Job search is inefficient for distant unemployed workers whohave little information about job locations and job profiles

Because transport is costly, some unemployed workers can onlysearch occasionally or around a small perimeter

Firms may discriminate against long-distance commuters(who may arrive late or be tired)

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Urban unemployment in South Africa 11

























Moving people to jobs

In the US: addressing restrictions on residentialchoice

Enforcement of the law against housing-market discrimination Facilitation of residential racial integration

Voucher programs to facilitate residential mobilityexpecting a positive impact on wage and employment

More of an experiment. What would be the potential for scalingup?

What about those left behind?

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Moving people to jobs

Has not been an outcome of housing policies in SA:

State-sponsored housing on the urban periphery (cheaperland) fixing people rather than improving access to jobs

Relatively low-density of RDP housing

No planned residential densification or infilldevelopment in more central suburbs (Lack of political will?Lack of coordination of local and central authorities? Financialcost of acquiring land? Lack of state-owned well-connectedland? Opposition of vested interest groups?)

New initiatives in the right directions (devolution of housing to municipalities, release of well-located publicland)

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Moving jobs to people

Experience of Urban Enterprise Zones in the US, UK and France (subsidies to hires in the French case).Costly, with little effect on reducing unemployment

Relevance for SA?

Its about formal jobs

Challenges to overcome to attract jobs in and around townships(transport accessibility, security)

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Improving the connections between peopleand jobs

Transport policies

Reduce commuting and search costs, increase theproductivity of commuters

Suggestions put forward for the US

Vouchers to buy cars

Public and private transport system improvement

Relevance for SA?

Historic under-investment in transport and over-centralized

system unresponsive to the needs of the poor? Challenge of an integrated public transport system for cities

(bus, rail and minibus operators)

Integration with housing interventions

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Information policies

Regarding job opportunities and their location

Relevance to SA? Job-search support (in conjunction with tenure security and basic services)

as a means to help informal settlers improve their labor-market position

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Documents

Session on Social Inclusion July 27 2011 - Harris SELOD v2