From marginalized housing estate to attractive neighborhood: Planning and implementing mixed-income transformations in the Danish non-profit housing sector

Across the Western world, mixed-income transformation policies have become a widespread strategy to transform marginalized housing estates. While the Danish non-profit housing sector has historically been shielded from such policies, this changed in 2018 when the Danish Parliament passed the Parallel Society Act. The policy mandates the transformation of selected housing estates into mixed neighborhoods while reducing non-profit family housing to 40 percent. This prompts the question of whether the negative consequences of such policies which have been observed in other contexts can be avoided in the Danish context and if transformations can be tailored to benefit both newcomers and existing low-income residents. In this context, the dissertation examines how planning and implementation practices address marginalized communities’ voices, needs, and aspirations. Drawing on case-study research, the dissertation finds that mixed-income transformations are dominated by an urban strategic perspective which prioritizes long-term urban transformation aimed at reshaping the built environment and attracting investments while often overlooking the short-term consequences for current residents.