Preface to “Efficiency, Fairness and Sustainability in Social Housing Policy and Projects”

The provision of affordable housing for low-income households is a very complex issue long debated in many countries around the world. Social Housing (SH) is one of the tools for achieving fairness, social sustainability and economic feasibility, and is interrelated with politics, ethics and economics, as well as the environment, architecture and technology. In other words, national and local policy, and also public and private financial resources are all needed to provide SH. SH also involves social and urban transformations and is, consequently, linked to urban planning and redevelopment projects, real estate market dynamics and cooperation between public and private stakeholders. Furthermore, decision-making on SH policies and projects has to be supported by assessments of economic feasibility and social and environmental sustainability. This volume present studies on various topics to recompose the multi-faceted subjects of Social Housing within a unified framework.