Does Transport Inequality Perpetuate Housing Insecurity?

TL;DR

This paper investigates how urban planning and transit inefficiencies contribute to housing insecurity, revealing that poor transit access can trap vulnerable populations in cycles of poverty and inadequate housing.

Contribution

It introduces a clustering method to assess housing insecurity, analyzes transit efficiency across US cities, and highlights the impact of transportation on housing inequality.

Findings

Transit commute times often exceed 30 minutes in many cities.

Poor transit access correlates with increased housing insecurity.

Urban planning influences housing accessibility beyond policies.

Abstract

With trends of urbanisation on the rise, providing adequate housing to individuals remains a complex issue to be addressed. Often, the slow output of relevant housing policies, coupled with quickly increasing housing costs, leaves individuals with the burden of finding housing that is affordable and safe. In this paper, we unveil how urban planning, not just housing policies, can prevent individuals from accessing better housing conditions. We begin by proposing a clustering approach to characterising levels of housing insecurity in a city, by considering multiple dimensions of housing. Then we define levels of transit efficiency in 20 US cities by comparing public transit journeys to car-based journeys. Finally, we use geospatial autocorrelation to highlight how commuting to areas associated with better housing conditions results in transit commute times of over 30 minutes in most cities, and commute times of over an hour in some cases. Ultimately, we show the role that public transportation plays in locking vulnerable demographics into a cycle of poverty, thus motivating a more holistic approach to addressing housing insecurity that extends beyond changing housing policies.