The scientific monitoring of the state program "Future of Housing in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern" is to investigate the effectiveness of the state program. The state program has set itself the goal of reducing social segregation in urban but also tourist areas through housing policy measures. The scientific monitoring is planned for a total period of ten years. In a first sub-project "Project Planning and Feasibility Check" (2020-2022), we investigated which methodological approaches are feasible for the scientific monitoring. The second project, "Implementation and monitoring," will start in April 2022. The aim of the scientific monitoring is to examine the effectiveness of the state program on social segregation processes.

The unequal distribution of social groups, especially the spatial distribution of low-income households, has increased in German cities in recent years. This is especially true in eastern German cities and also to a particular extent in cities in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Here, poor people are distributed particularly unevenly spatially in the cities, resulting in a strong concentration of poverty in certain residential neighborhoods. According to current research, this spatial concentration of low-income families has negative effects on the educational and life chances of children and young people. If social segregation processes are to be counteracted, it is necessary to take action in the field of housing policy.

To address this and other fields of action in housing policy, the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has already launched the state program "Future of Housing in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern" in 2019. The program provides guidelines and concrete measures for housing policy until 2030. The initiative, led by the Ministry of Energy, Infrastructure and Digitalization, can be a first step in the direction of effectively limiting social segregation or mitigating it in the medium and long term. The extent to which this succeeds will be evaluated by the scientific monitoring of the program.

Subproject 1 "Project planning and feasibility study" will investigate which methodological approaches are feasible. Based on the results, the second project "Implementation and Monitoring" will start in April 2022. The current planning status envisages five work packages for the scientific monitoring:

1. expert interviews with housing policy actors in the municipalities with a model region: the aim of this survey is to capture the perspective of the various actors (administration, housing companies, district management, etc.) on the social situation in the model regions. In addition, an assessment of the housing policy measures in the model regions is to be made.

2. typification and mapping of the housing policy measures: The different social and housing policy measures of the model regions are to be transferred into a typology.

3. small-scale monitoring of the social structure with data from the official statistics: within the framework of the project, small-scale measurements are to be made on an ongoing basis of how the social structure changes in the model regions under consideration.

4. description and mapping of infrastructural features and their changes in the municipalities: through data collection and visualization, the infrastructural and institutional differences between the residential districts of the cities are to be worked out. Various aspects such as cultural facilities, schools, playgrounds, recreational and green areas, gastronomy, but also issues such as environmental and noise pollution will be considered.

5. conducting resident surveys on housing, satisfaction and neighborhoods: the development and impact of segregation processes cannot be captured with small-scale social data alone. In cooperation with the cities of Rostock, Schwerin and Greifswald, a citizen survey is therefore planned to take place in 2022, 2025 and 2028. The survey is intended to generate important background information on the social structure and living situations of residents that goes beyond a mere consideration of quantitative data.

• Project lead and applicant: Prof. Dr. Marcel Helbig
• Project duration: 08/2020 – 03/2030
• Funding: State Mecklenburg-Vorpommern; Ministerium für Energie, Infrastruktur und Digitalisierung (Schwerin)
• Contact: wohnungsbaupolitik-mv@lifbi.de
• Link to this page: www.lifbi.de/Wohnungsbaupolitik-MV