Urban Accessibility as an Instrument for Social Housing Planning: Case of Belgrade

Abstract

The right to accessibility is important urban planning issue today and it has a wider meaning. It is not any longer merely understood as physical accessibility, but it also includes transit accessibility and accessibility to social and public services, open spaces and centres. Furthermore, urban accessibility issue has been introduced lately into Serbian planning practice and regulation. These are the main reasons for making urban accessibility key words in this paper.

Urban accessibility is especially important and related to social groups who have fewer possibilities to improve their life in urban environment. Apart from accessibility, these groups similarly realize other rights in the cities in developed societies, such as the right to home/shelter and based on that – the right to access social housing. Social housing has also brought more attention lately in Serbian practice and legislative.

Since both mentioned rights are related to vulnerable social groups, it is easy to notice their interconnection. In the first place, the development of urban accessibility and defining accessibility related criteria can contribute to the development of social housing and also can relate to the housing areas distribution. In Serbian context it is especially applicable in Belgrade, since its size and the role of capital, more severe than in the rest of Serbia, bring about housing and urban transport issues as well as wide range of urban accessibility issues.

This paper has intention to present the possibilities of social housing improvement through the theoretical study of urban accessibility, while its aim is to define the set of actions for the improvement of social housing planning, using the concept of accessibility.