How local contexts influence the neighbourhood satisfaction of displaced tenants in the Netherlands and France

A number of studies have examined the effects of social mixing policies on tenants who are forced to relocate to make way for more prosperous residents. They found that forced relocations can have both positive and negative effects on displaced tenants’ neighbourhood satisfaction. The present study looked at a potential explanation for these mixed results, namely differences between social housing contexts. As displaced tenants have low incomes, they are generally restricted to moves within the social rented housing sector. Therefore, the availability and allocation of social housing may strongly influence their opportunities to move to a satisfactory neighbourhood. Previous studies have not been able to distinguish the role of different social housing contexts on displaced tenants’ neighbourhood satisfaction, because they focused either on single cases or on multiple cases in the same relocation context. The present study has filled this gap by conducting 109 qualitative interviews with displaced tenants in both the Netherlands – where the social housing context imposes relatively few constraints on tenants – and France, where tenants face many constraints. It was found that, contrary to expectations, constraints did not always lead to tenants being less satisfied with their new neighbourhood, but did reduce their opportunities to move within or outside the neighbourhood.