housing
structures collectively in which people are housed
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise a collective provision of residential structures, assess its capacity and condition, and identify feasible interventions and the evidence or authority they require.
Housing is the aggregate stock of dwellings and residential buildings, together with the tenure, services and habitability conditions attached to them, treated as a sector of the built environment and of social provision in which people have their habitual place of residence.
It can be Identify constituent residential structures and reconcile inconsistent housing counts.; Assess usable and available residential capacity with explicit evidence gaps.; Locate concentrations of habitability, accessibility or service problems.; Compare repair, adaptation, conversion and replacement options for their effects on usable housing.; Route proposed inspections or interventions to the responsible party with required checks.; Track changes in residential provision, including temporary losses during works..
Distinguishing features
The referent comprises structures considered collectively for housing people, rather than only a population of residents or an administrative area.
Residential use or intended residential use determines membership; ownership by a housing provider alone does not make an asset housing.
The collective can contain occupied, vacant or temporarily unusable structures without treating all of them as currently available accommodation.
A dwelling is a component or counted residential space within the collective; its count must not be substituted for the number of structures.
Land designated for future housing is distinguished from residential structures already present, with proposed construction recorded separately.
Scope
+ The residential structures included in the housing collective and the basis for grouping them
+ The number, types and physical usability of dwellings and residential spaces
+ Occupancy, vacancy and availability as distinct states of residential capacity
+ Habitability, accessibility and essential service readiness
+ Physical interventions and constraints affecting continued residential use
- Household identities, relationships, income and personal housing needs
- Detailed building engineering and component maintenance records
- Land parcels, ownership titles and tenancy contracts as independent entities
- Housing prices, mortgage products and market dynamics
- Settlement-wide planning, transport and public infrastructure networks
Characteristics
- Collection basis
- geographic area, named development, managed portfolio, explicit structure list, other stated basis Makes membership explainable and prevents accidental aggregation of unrelated housing.
- Included structures
- References to constituent structures with inclusion dates and residential portions where mixed use Anchors collective assessments in identifiable physical assets.
- Residential form
- Recorded mix of detached, attached, apartment, shared or other locally defined residential forms Different forms imply different space arrangements, shared dependencies and intervention options.
- Dwelling count
- Dwellings, with counting definition, assessment date and proposed units separated Measures residential provision without confusing dwellings, rooms and buildings.
- Residential capacity
- People or bed spaces, with the capacity basis and applicable limits stated Supports capacity decisions while distinguishing design estimates from assessed or authorised occupancy.
- Occupancy distribution
- Counts by occupied, partly occupied, vacant or unknown, at a stated date Shows use of the housing without assuming vacancy means availability.
- Availability distribution
- Counts by available now, available after stated work, unavailable or unknown Identifies capacity that can actually be brought into residential use.
- Habitability assessment
- Assessed suitable, suitable subject to stated conditions, unsuitable or unassessed, against named criteria Connects residential usability to evidence and exposes uncertainty.
- Essential service readiness
- Per-service availability, operability and affected dwelling count Reveals housing that physically exists but cannot support occupation because services are absent or impaired.
- Accessibility coverage
- Dwelling counts meeting specified access and internal usability requirements Avoids treating all residential capacity as usable by people with different access needs.
- Intervention authority
- Links to responsible parties and evidence of authority for a specified action Separates physically feasible changes from changes an agent or provider is authorised to initiate.
Analytical facets
- substance
- material
- origin
- manufactured
- agency
- inert
- mobility
- fixed
- scale
- built
- affordances
- observable
Also called
+59
Where this came from
oewn:2024 · CC BY 4.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 28 questions.
Housing identity and composition Defines which residential structures form this housing collective and how its parts are counted.
Housing is collective: an agent needs a defensible membership boundary before totals or condition summaries have meaning.
Collection boundary
Records the grouping rule and treatment of ambiguous members.
Residential membership
Establish whether each included structure or structural portion belongs to this collective on a stated residential basis.
- Which structures are included, and what geographic, management or explicit membership rule groups them? definition
- How are mixed-use structures, temporary accommodation and structures awaiting residential conversion treated? boundary
Residential composition
Distinguishes structures, dwellings and shared residential spaces.
Counting units and forms
Make the composition of the housing explicit without counting the same residential provision twice.
- What counts as a dwelling here, particularly where kitchens, bathrooms or sleeping spaces are shared? definition
- How many structures, dwellings and shared residential spaces exist by residential form at the assessment date? measurement
Residential capacity and use Separates physical accommodation capacity, actual occupation and availability.
An agent must distinguish housing that exists from housing that can accommodate additional people.
Accommodation capacity
Records the basis and limits of capacity estimates.
Capacity basis
Relate capacity estimates to the residential spaces and assessment criteria that support them.
- What capacity is recorded in dwellings, people or bed spaces, and which spaces contribute to each total? measurement
- Does each capacity figure come from design information, inspection, an occupancy standard or another identified source? provenance
Occupation and availability
Tracks residential use and the conditions for making unused capacity available.
Vacancy to availability
Distinguish vacant housing from housing ready and permitted to receive occupants.
- How many dwellings are occupied, partly occupied, vacant or of unknown occupancy, and when was this established? measurement
- For vacant dwellings, what repairs, service restoration, permissions or release decisions are required before occupation? action
Habitability and residential access Assesses whether housing supports residential occupation and which access requirements it meets.
A housing count alone cannot establish whether its accommodation is usable or suitable for a particular residential need.
Habitability evidence
Connects residential condition assessments to observations and applicable criteria.
Conditions affecting occupation
Identify conditions such as damp, temperature extremes, sanitation failures or impaired escape routes that may affect residential use.
- Which observed conditions affect occupation, how many dwellings are affected, and what evidence dates each observation? measurement
- Which assessment criteria support the recorded habitability state, and where has no competent assessment been completed? provenance
Residential accessibility
Records access to dwellings and usability of essential domestic spaces.
Accessible residential paths
Assess the complete route into and through accommodation against stated access needs.
- Which dwellings have a usable route from the site entrance through shared circulation to sleeping, cooking and washing facilities for the specified access requirements? measurement
- Which adaptations could remove identified barriers, and what physical constraints require further assessment? action
Domestic services and shared dependencies Records services and shared facilities on which residential usability depends.
A single shared failure can remove multiple dwellings from usable provision even when their individual interiors remain intact.
Essential domestic services
Distinguishes installed connections from working services available to residents.
Service operability
Establish whether water, sanitation, energy and required heating or cooling are operational for the housing concerned.
- Which domestic services are required for this housing context, and which are operational, interrupted, absent or unverified? measurement
- What inspections, tests or provider records substantiate service operation rather than merely the presence of a connection? provenance
Shared residential dependencies
Maps shared access, equipment and facilities to the dwellings they support.
Shared failure effects
Identify how failures of shared facilities change usable residential capacity.
- Which dwellings depend on each shared lift, entrance, water system, sanitation facility or communal domestic space? boundary
- If a shared dependency fails, which dwellings lose usability or accessibility, and what verified alternatives exist? action
Housing intervention and continuity Connects proposed changes to residential outcomes, authority and continuity of occupation.
Repair or redevelopment decisions can improve housing while temporarily or permanently removing accommodation people rely on.
Intervention feasibility
Frames housing interventions in terms of expected capacity and usability changes.
Residential outcomes of work
Record what repair, adaptation, conversion or replacement is expected to achieve and what must be verified.
- What change in dwelling count, usable capacity, habitability or accessibility is expected from each proposed intervention? measurement
- Which surveys, technical assessments and linked permissions are needed before the intervention can proceed? action
Authority and occupation continuity
Links implementation responsibility to the effects of work on existing occupation.
Authorised work and capacity loss
Establish who may initiate work and how occupation will be affected during delivery.
- Who has responsibility and evidenced authority for the proposed work, including work on shared residential facilities? provenance
- Which occupied dwellings would become unavailable, for how long, and what linked relocation or continued-occupation arrangements must be resolved? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Owner-occupied housing
- Private rental housing
- Social and public housing
- Informal, self-built and slum housing
- Temporary, transitional and emergency housing
- Collective and institutional housing (halls of residence, barracks, residential care)
- Cooperative, co-housing and community-land-trust housing
- Specialist and supported housing (older people, disability, homelessness pathways)
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of housing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Wikidata - Q1212274 - Item for housing as residential accommodation/stock, not Q3947 (house as a single building).
- UN CPC Ver.2.1 - 5311 - Residential buildings (with 53111 one-dwelling and 53112 multi-dwelling subclasses).
- UN COFOG - 06.1 - Housing development, under 06 Housing and community amenities.
- SNA 2008 asset classification - AN.111 - Dwellings as produced fixed assets; land under dwellings is classified separately.
- SDG indicator - 11.1.1 - Proportion of urban population living in slums, informal settlements or inadequate housing.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of housing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- ICESCR Article 11 and CESCR General Comment No. 4 (UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) - right to adequate housing.
- WHO Housing and health guidelines (World Health Organization, 2018) - crowding, indoor temperature, injury, water and accessibility.
- International Building Code and International Residential Code (International Code Council) - structural, fire and occupancy rules for dwellings in adopting jurisdictions.
- Eurocodes (CEN) - structural design of residential buildings in Europe.
- ISO 6707-1 (ISO) - vocabulary for buildings and civil engineering works, including dwelling/housing terms.
- ISO 37120 (ISO) - city indicators that include slum population and affordable housing.
- Fair Housing Act 1968 (United States) - anti-discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing.
- National housing and building statutes (e.g. UK Housing Acts and Building Regulations; France HLM/SRU; many states' public-housing and rent-regulation laws).
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of housing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- National statistical offices and censuses enumerate dwellings, households, tenure and rooms as the housing stock.
- Mortgage lenders, landlords and rental platforms transact rights in dwellings; housing is the collateral and the consumption good.
- Municipalities zone land, issue occupancy permits and allocate social-housing tenancies.
- Humanitarian agencies move people from emergency shelter into temporary then durable housing after disasters or displacement.
- Public-health and energy-poverty programmes inspect and retrofit dwellings for damp, cold, overcrowding and fire risk.
- Cadastral and property-tax systems record dwellings as taxable real property distinct from commercial buildings.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of housing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Dwelling stock (number of housing units) - from tens of thousands in a small city to tens or hundreds of millions nationally - dwellings
- Useful floor area per dwelling - about 30-150 in much of the OECD; often well below 30 in overcrowded or informal stock - m²
- Floor area per person - adequacy debates often sit around 9-20; many high-income cities run 30-50 - m²/person
- Housing cost-to-income ratio - about 15-50 of household income; 30 is the common affordability threshold, 50 severe burden - %
- Vacancy rate - about 1-12 of the stock, depending on market tightness and second-home share - %
- Occupancy / crowding - typically under 1 person per room in high-income stock; overcrowding definitions often start above 1 (US) or by Eurostat household-composition rules - persons/room
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of housing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Homelessness and hidden homelessness when the stock, price or access rules leave people without a habitable dwelling.
- Overcrowding, with associated infectious-disease, stress and child-development harms.
- Unaffordability and cost-induced poverty (rent or mortgage absorbing a large share of income).
- Habitability failure: damp, mould, cold homes, lead, asbestos, unsafe electrics and fire.
- Structural collapse, earthquake, flood or landslide damage, especially in informal or non-code construction.
- Forced eviction and tenure insecurity.
- Segregation and discriminatory allocation (race, disability, family status, source of income).
- Vacant or speculative stock coexisting with shortage; second homes hollowing resident supply.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of housing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Anglophone policy talk treats 'housing' as a market and a social right; 'house' is the single dwelling, 'housing' the stock.
- United Kingdom distinguishes council housing, housing-association (registered-provider) stock and private rented sector; 'housing' is also the name of the local-authority service.
- France uses logement and parc social (HLM); Germany sozialer Wohnungsbau and Mietwohnungen; tenure law and rent regulation differ sharply from US at-will rental.
- United States centres owner-occupation, single-family zoning and public housing as a residual sector; 'multifamily' is the industry term for apartment stock.
- Much of the global South counts a large informal or self-built share (slums, favelas, kampungs, asentamientos) that official dwelling censuses undercount.
- Japan's housing stock turns over faster (danchi, manshon apartments); vacancy (akiya) is a recognised surplus problem in shrinking regions.
- Nordic and some continental systems treat social or municipal rental as a large mainstream tenure, not a last-resort residual.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of housing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- House (single dwelling) - A house is one residential building or dwelling; housing is the stock and system of such structures taken together.
- Shelter - Shelter is emergency or overnight protection; housing is durable residential accommodation intended as a habitual home.
- Accommodation (short-stay) - Hotels, hostels and similar lodging are temporary commercial stays; housing is principal residence, even when the building form looks similar.
- Real estate - Real estate is the tradable land-and-building asset class, including non-residential property; housing is the residential stock as living space and social provision.
- Household - A household is the social unit that occupies a dwelling; housing is the physical stock those units occupy.
- Construction / building activity - Construction is the process of producing structures; housing is the resulting residential stock (plus existing buildings not currently being built).
- Settlement or city - A settlement is the urban or rural place as a whole (streets, jobs, infrastructure); housing is only the residential buildings within it.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of housing this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- General Comment No. 4: The Right to Adequate Housing (Art. 11 (1) of the Covenant) - Legal definition of adequate housing as more than four walls: security of tenure, services, affordability, habitability, accessibility, location and cultural adequacy.
- International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 11 - Treaty basis for housing as part of an adequate standard of living, distinct from a single house as an object.
- WHO Housing and health guidelines - Habitability measures (crowding, cold, injury, water, accessibility) and health hazards of the dwelling stock.
- Fact Sheet No. 21/Rev.1: The Human Right to Adequate Housing - UN-Habitat/OHCHR operationalisation of adequate housing versus homelessness, eviction and informal settlements.
- System of National Accounts 2008 (dwellings as produced fixed assets, AN.111) - Statistical treatment of the housing stock as dwellings, separate from land, construction activity and real-estate services.
What the second pass must settle
- Does an existing Vercy world model already own this housing concept, requiring this registry entry to link to it instead of receiving a separate publication?
- Where should the registry boundary fall for shelters, institutional residences, hotels used as long-term accommodation and mobile residential structures?
- Which dwelling and capacity definitions apply in the intended jurisdictions, especially for shared accommodation and subdivided structures?
- Which authoritative criteria and assessment evidence should govern habitability, accessibility and readiness for occupation in each deployment context?
- Should housing cost and affordability be represented through a linked housing-provision model, and what minimal relation would support decisions without duplicating household or market models?