Low-income housing stigma, results and outcomes: a systematic review

This study is aimed to provide an organized view of the causes and outcomes of low-income housing stigma (LIHS) and to analyze them by considering the housing type, target group, spatial scale, and methodology. This study has reviewed the background with the content analysis method; 7 databases were searched to identify the literature on the stigma of different types of low-income housing. The causes of LIHS were extracted in three dimensions (physical, socio-economic, and structural) and its outcomes in four dimensions (health and well-being, perceptual, socio-economic, and physical). The results showed that the socio-economic dimension had the greatest effect on the production of LIHS (52.2%), and also stigma had the greatest effect on this dimension (57.6%). However, considering the importance of visual perception on external evaluations, it is necessary to consider the physical dimension. On the other hand, the focus of research has been mostly on the neighborhood scale (62.9%) and the type of social housing (19.4%). 47% of the researchers also selected the residents as the target group while it is also important to evaluate outsiders. The use of qualitative methods is also observed in 71% of studies. There are gaps in these studies that need to be addressed: attention to the architecture scale, use of mixed research methods, considering evaluation and attitudes of the external group.