Urban Design and Social Inclusion

1. Urban Design and Social Inclusion Janet Stanley Monash Sustainability Institute Monash University

2. What is social inclusion and how common is it in Melbourne? A multi-faceted construct that refers to risk of exclusion from mainstream society Factors that measure SE: • Low income • Unemployed • Poor civic engagement • Poor social support • Low participation How does a person achieve good outcomes in these factors?

3. Issues that impact on social inclusion and wellbeing How do we know which ones should have priority?

4. Social inclusion and wellbeing is achieved in Victoria through a person having the following attributes: yes yes yes Urban planning can help • Stanley, J.K., Stanley, J.R., & Hensher, D. (2012) Mobility, social capital and sense of community: What value? Urban Studies Volume 49 Issue 16 pp. 3595 - 3609.

5. So establishing social inclusion & wellbeing is fairly simple! It is: • Having sufficient income • Having accessibility (transport) • Having personal relationships and connections • Feeling good about yourself • Having control over your environment

6. Where there is insufficient of these items present:

7. In Australian cities, the levels, mix and distribution of social infrastructure is not evenly planned in urban design. • We are therefore building social exclusion into our cities

8. Household incomes decrease with distance from the CBD Median income 2011: residents aged 25-65 (Source: Grattan Institute) • So does: • No. of jobs • Productivity • Education qualification level • Transport access • Public transport provision • Housing prices

9. % of jobs available within 60 minutes using PT (Source: SGS Economics and Planning)

10. Housing (un)affordability Median income

11. PROJECTED POPULATION GROWTH AREAS ARE AWAY FROM JOBS-RICH AREAS UNDER ‘BUSINESS AS USUAL’ Legend: P = 2011 population P+ = population growth share 2011-2031 (VIF) J = 2011 job share Outer/fringe areas = substantial jobs shortage

12. Solutions: Land use planning, social infrastructure before housing, innovation in housing supply • Higher density in middle and inner suburbs • Job creation (service industry, health, education, green manufacturing, trades) in outer suburbs • PT in outer suburbs • Heavily supplement market driven housing – social housing, low interest loans, mixed housing, cross subsided • Social infrastructure concurrent with housing – bus before completion

13. Urban design can impact on: • Having sufficient income • Having accessibility (transport) • Having personal relationships and connections • Feeling good about yourself • Having control over your environment

14. Evidence: All social capital is lower for those who are socially excluded but bridging social capital is particularly lowerBridging SC – networks beyond family, neighbours and close friends

15. Sense of Community

16. Developing social capital and connections with the community • Third places • Bike paths • Walking tracks • Parks • Cafes • Meeting places • Asset mix • Child care/aged residential • School/theatre/ • playground/café • Planting roads • Public transport • Community gardens • Community theatres • Local stores

17. Good design, sense of place, innovation, creativity, green environment • Urban forests • Strip shopping design, not placed in a car park • Buildings it is a pleasure to be in • Absence of industrial and car noise & pollution • Area not split by large road • Trucks out of centre of community & away from schools • Re-vitalise urban streams and surrounds • Green cover and tree planting • Local food production • Home/work/school close-by • Local distinctiveness

18. Even buses generate social capital! “We’ve got a regular crowd of our own (on the bus), we just talk all the time and I think that we might plan a do at the end of the year, around Christmas, we might just go out somewhere and have, about half a dozen of us, and have a few drinks and a meal…” “It’s always a great old conversation when you see someone on the bus, you know I talk a lot to the drivers too … they’re quite friendly”

19. Urban design can impact on: • Having sufficient income • Having accessibility (transport) • Having personal relationships and connections • Feeling good about yourself • Having control over your environment

20. Having control over your environment Atkinson's Ladder of participation 1962 This is in a number of ways: • Really being part of the decision-making process • Having choice in life • Able to respond to climate change • eg. Distributed renewable energy and water systems

21. Choice is very important to social inclusion and wellbeing • Locus of Control questionnaire • Measures belief about controlling events • High external sense of control – powerful others, fate or chance determine events • High internal sense of control – events occur from their own actions and behaviour • Social exclusion = high external control (1%) • High Bridging SC = high internal control (5%)

22. They have little discretionary spending They lack the financial resources needed to invest in energy efficiency or upgrade energy-using appliances at home They lack access to information on behavioural changes that can help them reduce their use of energy Low price elasticity of necessities, such as fuel, electricity and food Socially excluded households lack the capacity to have choice & limited ability to respond to climate change

23. Average annual use of CO2 (tonnes) by poor households in Melbourne LGAs 2006 Cause? Lack of PT (car use) Need to travel to work and services

24. 1. Good urban design not only helps individual wellbeing, it helps societal wellbeing Change in deviation about the mean 1992 to 2012 for headline gross regional product per hours worked (Source: NIEIR) The centre is gaining ground in productivity relative to the fringe (Melbourne example) Negative productivity trend y is reducing more rapidly

25. Example of impact of social infrastructure on local economiesTotal loss for each LGA by year 15 as a result of reduction of TAFE funding for Chisholm Institute ($30 million p.a.) - NIEIR 2013

26. Overarching solution: Neighbourhood planning and 20 minute city Well-resourced and well-functioning neighbourhoods which offer essential needs • Essential needs are accessible within 20 minutes by PT or active transport % of jobs available within 60 minsby PT • Big projects tend to be transport projects (such as road tunnels) and tend to focus on the inner city and distort investment priorities, excluding other investments which would improve urban design

27. Urban design for a 20 minute city and a neighbourhood model. - A transport illustration Community Transport can be socially excluding: In – people with a disability, aged; Out – children/youth, new migrants, low income people Exclusive/restrictive eligibility and inflexibility • Availability (time) • Type of use – eg priority given to medical appointments Underuse of capital assets (vehicles) • Placed based transport social enterprise • 2 paid staff + volunteers • Coordinates all local transport – PT, community transport, local government & private vehicles • Targets transport poor • Small charge • Trip sharing • Door to door service • Extra support as needed • All trip purposes – recreation encouraged www.conectu.org.au

28. Current resource allocation of Community Transport according to activity: A tacit hierarchy of ‘worth’ Under-utilisation of capital resources • Aged care, 2 vehicles, each used up to 8 hours a week • Aged care, mini-bus used 9 to 16 hours a week • Disability welfare, mini-bus used 17 to 30 hours a week • Health services, 3 buses each 17 to 30 hours a week

30. Can this be done? Conditions to achieve this: • An integrated vision – across sectors • Doing a range of changes at the same time –housing/transport/urban design • A willingness to take risks and accept change – different from traditional ways of doing things – old style coal generating stations • Resource the change – community, offset future costs in the present. • Plan Melbourne didn’t do it – maybe it can be led by local government, the community and business • Future Melbourne network http://www.futuremelbournenetwork.org Seminar 2 (28 April): Making Ends Meet: Jobs And Housing