Current projects

Ongoing research projects in the Netherlands:

The Dutch housing system is under pressure due to the GFC and its aftermath. Experts in the housing market are looking for new solutions and want to be inspired by examples from abroad. CHEC with its long experience in comparative research, helps Dutch partners to learn from experiences abroad.

  • Voorbeelden van een flexibele woningmarkt (Examples of a flexibel housing market), project for Platform31: http://www.platform31.nl/
  • Huisvesting voor het middensegment, Buitenlandse inspiratie(housing for the middle income groups, inspiration from abroad), joint project with the municipality of Amsterdam: http://www.amsterdam.nl/

Ongoing international research projects:

March 2019: Urban Agenda
Study: ‘Urban Agenda: Assessment from the European Parliament's perspective’ for European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development (REGI).

Marietta Haffner is going to contribute to an analysis of the Housing Partnership. Aim of the study is to provide a comprehensive overview and critical assessment of the state of play of the European Urban Agenda, from the European Parliament’s perspective.

Housing 4.0 Energy
The Housing 4.0 Energy consortium will build pilot projects of affordable low energy dwellings. Researchers of CHEC will be working on the research part of the project, exploring possibilities for upscaling of the pilots. This includes the development of an open source platform, in which regional stakeholders work together to make low energy housing solutions a reality. Read more.  

Reshape
Since 2015, Joris Hoekstra participates in the international research project titled “Redesigning Social Housing Against Poverty in Europe (RESHAPE)”, which is led by the Free University of Bolzano (Teresio Poggio, Dimitri Boreiko). Within this project, housing experts from several EU-countries discuss the future of social rental housing and write joint publications. Particular attention is paid to social housing in Southern Europe.

Governance of social housing, with East China Normal University (ECNU) Shanghai
This project is the result of an exchange of researchers between Delft University of Technology and East China Normal University. Jinxing has been a post doc in Delft in 2011-2012. He studied the Dutch social rental sector. Marja Elsinga is currently visiting professor at ECNU studying the Chines system.  China’s economy has been growing rapidly the last decades. Currently there is more interest in the quality of life and also for the quality of housing and there is interest in how to organise social housing. Netherlands in a European country with a large social rental sector which is under pressure because of the crisis and current budget cuts. Both countries study the future of social housing and are willing to learn from each other. This project aims to exchange knowledge and will result in joint publications. 

Ongoing projects for the European Commission:

RE-InVEST - Rebuilding an Inclusive, Value-based Europe of Solidarity and Trust through Social InvestmentsRE-InVEST, which is funded by Horizon 2020, aims to contribute to a more solidary and inclusive EU, through an inclusive, powerful and effective social investment strategy at the EU level. The project adopts a participative approach that gives voice to vulnerable households and civil society organisations. Thereby, RE-InVEST aims to strengthen the theoretical as well as the empirical basis for the social investment approach as a strategy to humanise Europe, building on the capability approach of Amartya Sen and the philosophy of human rights. Marja Elsinga and Marietta Haffner are responsible for the topic housing in this project.

RE-InVEST Kickoff meeting, March 2015

NEUJOBS is a research project financed by the European Commission, under the 7th Framework Programme. The objective is to analyse future possible developments of the European labour market(s) under the main assumption that European societies are now facing or preparing to face four main transitions that will have a major impact on employment, in particular for some groups in the labour force or sectors of the economy. Delft-CHEC is involved in the housing part of this project and studies the effect of the energy efficiency polies and the links between the housing market and the labour market.

Pilot project eviction
This project studies the link between housing evictions and homelessness and is led by Padraic Kenna, at the School of Law, NUI Galway, Ireland. The project was awarded following a competitive tendering process by the European Commission. Funded by the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Europe 2020: Social Policies, Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction, this pilot project supports the EU poverty reduction and active inclusion strategy through combatting homelessness, reducing housing vulnerability and promoting access to quality and efficient social services as underpinned by the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Social Investment Package. Delft-CHEC is responsible for the Dutch part.