Voices
When it comes to housing, words matter. Too often in public debate, “vacancy,” “dereliction,” and “obsolescence” are treated as interchangeable. Maybe worse, in the conflation, each of these is treated simplistically as a “bad” – less vacancy is, the thinking goes, obviously a good thing. Ditto with obsolescence. But in mixing up these terms, we lose sight of how we can best understand what empty or underused homes mean and, more importantly, what should be done with them. Obsolescence is not the same thing as vacancy, nor is vacancy synonymous with dereliction. A dwelling may be empty for a period…
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