Neo-liberalism in low-income housing policy - problem or panacea?

The provision of decent, affordable and well-located housing for low-income communities has been an intractable problem, especially for developing countries. A recurrent issue in the discourse of this problem relates to the appropriate role of the state on one hand and the private sector on the other. The debate has been given renewed urgency in the current context of a growing critique of 'neoliberalism'. Through rigorous literature review, this paper intends to review the successes and failures of neo-liberalism and explore the intricate linkages between neo-liberal housing policy and low-income housing provision. The raison d'être for the paper is that, despite the growing disenchantment with neo-liberal housing policy, the empirical basis of this criticism has not been established convincingly, and neither have that of potential alternative policies. This paper therefore fills a critical gap in the low-income housing policy literature.