Is affordable housing a pro-poor policy? Evidence from a prominent housing policy in Iran

This paper examines if affordable housing as a representative of planning serves the pro-poor policies or is used as a means against the poor. To this aim, Mehr housing, as the most significant and costly affordable housing planning practice in Iran, is studied by conducting a comprehensive review of 65 different related studies and using data-driven coding, with results compared with other contexts. Findings are classified into four main categories entitled "production and reproduction of poverty," "money participates rather than individuals," "the construction of shelters rather than residential environment," and "unsustainable affordable housing developments." Considering the relationships between categories and comparing them with experiences in other contexts indicate that affordable housing planning serves as an anti-pro-poor policy using the poor as means, not ends, for the salvation of state and/or society. This process ended in sweeping the poor into formal informalities. Reorientation of power and relying on local settings are pathways for planning to serve pro-poor policies.