Housing and Spatial Deprivation: Relocating the Underclass and the New Urban Poor

Poverty debates have recently focused upon the emergence of an underclass characterised by a detachment from society's normative behaviour and values. Alternative contributions invite us to view the growth in social assistance as the 'new poor' measured against the 'traditional' poor. In neither the accounts of 'new poverty' nor of the underclass is there any theorisation of space or the role that housing plays in contributing to these experiences of poverty. This paper argues that a multidisciplinary perspective must be used to understand new forms of poverty and, whilst dismissing the underclass thesis, analyses the role that housing plays in the creation and sustenance of deprivation. It concludes that new patterns and concentrations of poverty are better explained by an approach which incorporates the housing dynamic as it relates to structuring where the poor live.