There is no news in Jabučka rit - how spatial inequalities and residential segregation are produced

In 2015, it was completed and moved into Jabučki rit 42 residential units within the program social housing.
It is being built for sale in Novi Dorćol 572 residential units, with the completed first phase being sold at average price per square meter of 3.355 euros.
In Jabučki rit, you can get sick on weekdays only until 10:30. After that, the local clinic is closed, so you have to go to the first health center in Padinska skela. It can be reached by car 25 minutes, on foot for 2 and a half hours or by bus to 57 minutes. A week can reach the nearest elementary school in at least 65 minutes on foot.
Residents of Novi Dorćol can get sick whenever they want. The first clinic in Venizelosova is 450m away from them. Their first health center is in Simina street, 15 minutes away on foot or 6 minutes by car. There are seven elementary schools within a 15-minute walking distance. Bus 37 stops in front of the building, and there are bus stops just over 500 meters away 16, 32E, 23, 24, 26, 27E, 35, 43, 44, 58, 79 and 95, as well as trams 2, 5 and 10.

Tako the effects look spatial inequalities i residential segregation.

In the last ten years, several settlements for social housing have been built on the territory of Belgrade, among others in Mislođin, Orlovski naselje and Jabučki rit. In each of these three projects, the own investments of the City Administration of the City of Belgrade were the assignment and furnishing of construction land in public ownership. Although we do not have publicly available data on which plots are publicly owned in the territory of Belgrade, we know that at the time of construction of these settlements there were other locations that were better connected to public services and the rest of the city. For example, the plot of land in Block 63 in New Belgrade, which was sold in 2017 in order to build a combination of commercial and residential facilities on it the famous "Five". However, the City of Belgrade still decided to cede plots for this purpose on the outskirts of the city, where public land is less lucrative. This sends a clear message that it is not every location for housing and location for socially housing.

In addition, in such isolated settlements, whose residents already have unfairly difficult access to other public services, as a rule, homogeneous groups of marginalized and economically vulnerable households are grouped together. So, for example, 42 Roma families were settled in Jabučki rit, 32 in Mislođin and 36 in Orlovski naselje.

Well, that's right grade i maintained spatial inequalities and residential segregation.

Does it have to be?

The general plan of Belgrade from 2003, valid at the time of the construction of Jabučki rit, in the segment "Social and affordable housing" states:

This GP [general plan] plans to provide two types of sites for social housing needs. One type of location for the construction of social apartments is within housing groups that are larger than 250 apartments, in which 5 to 8% of apartments should be provided for these needs. [...] Another type of organization of social housing is in separate locations. [...] The list of 58 locations for social housing, which is given in the documentation of this GP, should and can be supplemented and changed. (although the same text is copied in the GUP of Belgrade from 2016, the specific locations are lost).

The first approach to the realization of social housing is presented here the so-called principle mixed communities, housing in mixed ownership, and more widely inclusive zoning produces a more even distribution of apartments for different groups of the population, thus better housing positions compared to other public services and for those families who cannot independently afford an apartment on the market, of which there are over 80% according to the data of the Ministry of Construction, Transport and infrastructure, published in 2017.

The principle of mixed communities housing in mixed ownership it is listed in the urban plan of the highest order, which strategically establishes the direction of Belgrade's development. Although the lower level plans (general regulation plan and detailed regulation plan) must be harmonized with the higher level (Article 33 of the Law on Planning and Construction), in the building rules for larger residential complexes with more than 250 units, the obligation to 5-8 % of units opted for affordable housing. In addition, and more importantly, this strategic principle did not lead to the establishment of an institutional infrastructure and regulation that would operationalize it in such a way that the equal treatment of all tenants in such settlements is really consistently applied (which was not always the case in the attempt to apply this principle in other countries). If so, Novi Dorćol would have at least 28 affordable apartments for various economically disadvantaged groups from young people to socially disadvantaged households. And where is the K-district, A block, Belgrade on the water, ...

I tata ćemo sad?

The draft of the Spatial Plan of the Republic of Serbia from 2021 specifically mentions as one of the planning solutions for appropriate and sustainable housing "the operationalization of the concept of socially mixed housing (with apartments for the market and housing support), which aims to encourage the social integration of sensitive and marginalized social groups, i.e. . preventing segregation caused by concentrated poverty”.

But it must not stop there! In a situation in which the number of those who need some form of housing support has rapidly increased, it is time for land management policies, housing policies and urban planning to be resolutely and consistently aimed at reducing residential segregation and spatial inequalities, through the establishment of additional institutional capacities, which through additional development of the regulatory framework. And then let that 5-8% increase to 10, 15 or 20%.

Jovana Timotijević and Danilo Ćurčić