1. Introduction
Housing is fundamental to the social structure of society [
1], and many aspects of urban dynamics are strongly affected by local housing policies [
2]. Public housing and related policies are connected to the ecological, economic, and social aspects of sustainability [
3]. The construction of public housing with limited investment can stimulate innovation in clean energy, water saving, noise reduction, building durability, materials application, construction technology, and other aspects. Undoubtedly, ecological and environmental benefits can promote sustainable urban development. While the ecological aspects of sustainability may not rely on single-building improvements that focus on a building’s life-cycle and performance, the economic and social aspects of sustainability focus on the connection between buildings and people, as well as the surrounding environment [
4]. The role of community is emphasized in sustainable development since it is closely related to the lives of urban residents, yet it is simultaneously seen as the root of some social problems [
5]. Public housing has an effect on improving the living environment of slums, curbing the disorderly spread of urban poverty space, and reducing crime rates [
6]. Due to its effect on sustainable development, many megacities in China have successively invested a large amount of funds into building affordable housing. For instance, after the financial crisis, Shanghai began the construction of large-scale affordable housing from 2009 to 2019, building and raising 1.86 million sets of various types of affordable housing; the total financial investment reached 130 billion yuan. However, despite the large financial investment and completion of an enormous quantity of affordable housing, the public housing satisfaction ranking in Shanghai has stagnated, remaining in the middle or lower levels for a long time. Currently, public housing has serious problems such as poor property management services, low housing quality, insufficient public services, unfair distribution of housing, and unreasonable compensation for demolition [
7]. There is even a welfare paradox of public service deprivation and group resistance in some areas. This phenomenon shows that the actual effect of the continuous investment in public housing services has not efficiently transformed into the improvement of people’s sense of satisfaction and service quality, and is far from meeting the needs and expectations of urban sustainable development.
We attempt to treat this phenomenon as the internalization of public housing services. That is, after housing security work has developed to a certain stage, a large amount of material input has not brought about substantial improvement in the effect of housing security or residents’ satisfaction. To improve the efficiency of resource utilization, it is necessary to thoroughly evaluate the current supply of public housing services. Scholars have formed a variety of methods; among them, satisfaction surveys, performance measurements, and social-space effect measurements are the most common. However, there is disagreement when applying these methods to evaluate the status of public housing service supply. For instance, satisfaction surveys are widely challenged by their subjectivity and limited participation in the supply chain [
8]. Performance measures have drawn much criticism over the artificial selection of sets of objective output and outcome indicators in the models, as a result ACSI model has been widely used [
9], increasing the difficulty of reflecting public expectations and public value demands [
10]. The social-space effect evaluation is regarded as an outcomes-based evaluation, which cannot be tracked to the source of planning practices and policy decisions [
11].
Due to these shortcomings, existing evaluation methods cannot adequately reflect the reality of the housing security services, and the problems within the housing security services hinder the realization of sustainable urban development. Therefore, to fill this gap, scholars urgently need to explain the current status of public housing service supply by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of different evaluation methods to establish an evaluation system that is centered on both people’s sense of benefit and of public value. The theory of public service quality has attracted the attention of many scholars. It emphasizes that the supply of public services can improve an individual’s subjective perception and recognition of public housing, meet the common needs within the community, adhere to the rules of decision-making in ethics and the ethical standards of public interest, achieve the goal of enhancing social welfare, and promote fairness and justice [
12]. This theory is connected to the essential attributes of public housing services. Therefore, this study develops a comprehensive conceptual model of public housing service quality (PHSQ), based on the theory of public service quality, to clarify the reality of the housing security service supply and the attempts to analyze the mechanism shaping it. Shanghai is the largest city in China and has many housing problems. Therefore, this study chose Shanghai as its case study to answer the following questions:
What is PHSQ? What attributes and elements are included?
How can we evaluate PHSQ? What is the level of PHSQ in Shanghai? What kind of spatial pattern does it present?
What are the key factors and motivation mechanisms that affect PHSQ?
5. Formation Mechanism of PHSQ
In the early stage, the motivation mechanism impacting the effective supply of public housing services was dominated by government fiscal determinism [
61]. With a deepening understanding of the essential attributes of public housing services, pluralism was widely accepted by most scholars, and academic circles have generally recognized that public housing services are the result of the joint actions of the government, citizens, and social organizations [
62,
63]. Based on previous studies and the above evaluation of the results, we summarize the key driving forces that affect PHSQ as: the foundation supporting capacity, resource agglomeration capacity, government control capacity, market driving capacity, and social promotion capacity.
The foundation supporting capacity mainly refers to the current status of urban development and the level of economic development. The maturity of urban development planning is the foundation that affects the quality of housing security. In areas with mature urbanization, public service facilities are more complete and of higher quality. In areas with a higher level of economic development, local governments have more funds to provide public housing services for low-income groups.
Resource agglomeration capacity mainly refers to the total amount and opportunities of available public resources. Increased traffic network density helps to speed up the flow of production factors, enhance the convenience of regional life, and improve the quality of living space [
64].
Government regulatory capacity mainly refers to the government’s behavior and role in housing security. The local government is responsible for both the formulation and implementation of public housing policies and the cooperation between regions. The behavioral logic of the local government has become an internal influence, affecting the provision of public housing services [
65].
Market driving capacity mainly refers to the development of the urban housing market. With the boosting of capital and power, the trend of urban space financialization has become increasingly prominent. The cost for low-income groups to obtain housing resources through commercial channels continues to increase, and high housing prices have spawned numerous housing difficulties for groups that urgently need public supply [
66]. The scale and complexity of the supply of public housing service are increasing.
Social promotion capacity mainly refers to the duty of performance by both the neighborhood committee and public discourse. Neighborhood committees are not only a community’s statutory autonomous organization but are also a tool and foothold for the state to extend its functions to the grassroots level. Neighborhood committees play an important role in qualification checks, housing allocation, and compensation negotiations. The performance of the residents’ committee is directly related to the residents’ satisfaction and government trust perception. In recent years, the upsurge of a rights protection movement that is centered on housing property rights has forced the government to provide better services. The public’s attitude and behavioral tendency toward public housing services have also become important variables affecting the quality of public housing services. Based on the above theoretical connotations, we selected 10 representative factors to further diagnose the dominant factors affecting PHSQ via geographic detectors (see
Table 6).
5.1. Factor Detection of PHSQ
According to the geodetector module method, we calculated the
q-value which reflects each factors’ ability to affect PHSQ. The
q-values of the detection results were all less than 0.05, which shows that each index significantly affected PHSQ. To clearly show the differences of the factors affecting PHSQ, the
q-values of each factor were sorted. The sorting result was represented by the decision degree (DD), and the value of DD was 1–10. The larger the DD, the lower the influence of the detection factor on PHSQ. The rankings of the relevant results are shown in
Figure 7.
Figure 7 shows that two types of indicators (including X5, X6, X9, and X10) of government regulation and social support are the leading factors affecting PHSQ. From the perspective of specific factors, the ratio of housing security fiscal expenditure to total fiscal expenditure (0.248) ranks first. This shows that local government actions have played a key role in the formation of PHSQ. The distortion of policy implementation, deviation of policy function, and quality of policy effects all originate from the formulation and implementation of policies. The value connotation and target positioning of the government’s housing security policy determine the guarantee object and level of service resource enjoyment, affecting the fairness and welfare of PHSQ. In the supply process, government supervision and management of housing resource allocation and market order are closely related to the responsibility and responsiveness of PHSQ. Simultaneously, with the successive completion of large-scale affordable housing construction, the importance of community management and living services has become increasingly prominent. Whether the neighborhood committee can maintain a balance between autonomy and administration, and realize the accurate transmission of residents’ needs and opinions, is directly related to the satisfaction of the survival and development needs of public housing services.
In comparison, among the foundation support capacity, the maturity of urban planning development has greater impact, which reflects the close relationship between the urban built environment and PHSQ. The urban built environment in the central city is relatively mature and the public service facilities are relatively complete, thus there is no doubt that the PHSQ is relatively high. In the resource agglomeration capacity, the accessibility of public transportation has a greater impact. This implies that the construction of social housing must not only be integrated in the new development zone but also with urban traffic arteries, rail transits, and bus hubs. Traffic location orientation is an important direction from which to improve the quality of public housing services. Within the market driving capacity, development of the housing market has a greater impact, which highlights the unique role of establishing both a sound basic housing system and a long-term mechanism for the stable and healthy development of the real estate market to improve PHSQ.
5.2. Detection of PHSQ Interaction Factors
We conducted a pairwise interactive detection of 10 factors that drove the quality of public housing services. The results show that the interaction between different impact factors has an enhanced relationship, mainly manifested as nonlinear enhancement and dual-factor enhancement (
Table 7). From the results of the interaction coefficient, the interaction between public discourse expression (X10) and government attention (X5) has the most significant impact on the PHSQ. This shows that whether the government’s attitude and behavioral tendency in implementing housing security policies can be combined with the real demands of the guarantee object will have a decisive impact on PHSQ. Moreover, the interactive influence between public discourse expression and the level of economic development, intergovernmental cooperation, and housing market development is also significant. This shows that improving PHSQ does not stop at the investment of public financial resources. It is more important to establish a supply mechanism that matches the individual needs of the public more closely. Simultaneously, the interaction between land development status and various indicators is relatively stable, with all indicators above 0.5, which shows that the input of land resources and other tangible element resources in the formation of PHSQ still cannot be underestimated. Improving PHSQ has significant spatial dependence. The spatial layout of affordable housing communities determines the opportunities and costs of obtaining public resources, which are closely related to the success or failure of residential housing welfare and even the policy of affordable housing. Therefore, the establishment of a land resource supply mechanism, that is mutually suitable for the development of urban land space, is particularly important for improving PHSQ.
6. Conclusions and Discussion
This study developed a holistic conceptual model of PHSQ and established an evaluation index system. It attempted to go beyond the limitations of traditional performance evaluations, satisfaction surveys, and social-space effect evaluations to highlight the roles of the public’s sense of acquisition and public value in the supply of public housing services. The main conclusions are as follows.
The supply of public housing services is different from the physical entity supply of affordable housing, as the output of public housing services includes both tangible products and intangible services in the supply process. Public housing services are not only a dynamic provision process but also a static provision result. Inherent characteristics exist in the process and results of public housing service provision. Public housing services are not commodity services, but a quasi-public product provided by the government. The inherent characteristics include not only the general attributes of commodity services but also public characteristics. As a constantly changing process, PHSQ can be defined as a basic public service provided by the government to solve the housing needs of low-income groups, and is the degree to which the inherent characteristics of the process and results of the provision can meet relevant regulations and social public requirements, manifested as the degree and level of this inherent characteristic. Specifically, PHSQ is composed of nine attributes (fairness, welfare, survivability, development, responsibility, participation, responsiveness, accessibility, and satisfaction) in four dimensions.
The quality of public housing services in Shanghai has the following two distinctive features: (1) the overall quality level is still dominated by middle- and low-levels, the central urban area has become a high-quality cluster, the suburban area is generally low in quality, and the high-quality streets/towns have obvious orientations toward administrative centers. The quality level of each dimension is also different. (2) In terms of spatial characteristics, a single high-quality center and multiple low-quality centers coexist. The circle structure of “one high and many lows”, forms an approximate M-shaped spatial distribution pattern. In different streets/towns, PHSQ has distinct spatial agglomeration, and the weak links in different regions are also different. Therefore, the government should abandon the “one size fits all” management model in the supply of public housing services and establish a pertinent and differentiated quality improvement mechanism that is based on differences in spatial regions and dimensions. The government’s next step should focus on strengthening precise policy implementation and precise guarantees and achieving coordinated development between different spatial regions and dimensions.
The quality of public housing services is the result of the combined effect of foundation supporting capacity, government control capacity, resource agglomeration capacity, market driving capacity, and social promotion capacity. The role of social promotion capacity is more significant, and the interaction between neighborhood committees’ implementation functions, public discourse expression, and various indicators has been significantly enhanced. This highlights the important role of demand-side factors in affecting the quality of public housing services. Regarding the power of discourse expression, public discourse has had a revolutionary impact on public service supply by government departments in the Internet age. The public’s political attitudes and service preferences are influencing ubiquitous online public opinion formation through new media. Maintaining stability is an important political goal for local governments. The mismatch between supply and demand caused by the obstruction of public demand expression and the rupture of information transmission has caused a “bottom cycle” of PHSQ. Therefore, the improvement of PHSQ needs to go beyond the inertia of overemphasizing supply-side reforms and should pay attention and respond to demand-side factors, such as public discourse, in a timely manner. Good education can be a better way for a person to express their needs and promote the awakening of rights protection awareness. The government needs to improve the overall education level of low-income groups and establish inclusive and shared institutional channels so that they may express, dare to express, want to express, and express well. In China, the neighborhood committee is a statutory autonomous organization of residents, and an important channel for residents to express their demands and safeguard their interests. Simultaneously, neighborhood committees are also an extension of the state’s power at the grassroots level, undertaking a myriad of administrative tasks. This also means that neighborhood committees can get closer to local governments and obtain public resources from the government. Therefore, neighborhood committees and other formal organizations should strengthen the precise information transmission of low-income groups, balance autonomy and administration, remove the concept of pure autonomy to complete de-administration, and make full use of administrative resources to increase the degree of public demand in organizations and realize the normalization and long-term effect of improving PHSQ.
Compared to the methods of satisfaction surveys, performance measurements, and social-space effect measurements, the introduction of the PHSQ concept can better highlight the government’s rational pursuit of public value and return to the basic functions of housing. PHSQ has the following three distinct characteristics. (1) The fusion of subjective and objective; the degree of meeting the requirements of relevant regulations can be called its objective quality, and the degree of meeting the requirements of the public can be called its subjective quality. (2) The combination of process and result. Public housing services are not just a single physical entity of affordable housing, but also include all aspects of service supply. From the perspective of regulating the operation of power, the quality of public housing services includes relevant standards that should be met during the supply process, and corresponding social benefits that should be obtained at the service supply point. (3) The unity of instrumental rationality and value rationality. Housing security is an output of government public resources and a process of using public power to allocate public funds. Therefore, it has the value attribute of maintaining fairness and justice and protecting the public interest. As a quantifiable and predictable management tool, the purpose of the PHSQ measure is to improve the quality level and provide an objective reference for improving government work. Therefore, PHSQ provides a new perspective for us to evaluate the supply of housing security services more scientifically. However, it also has certain shortcomings. PHSQ includes four dimensions and nine attributes. Each dimension has great meaning, and the meaning of its attributes is even broader. Therefore, the selection of indicators is often not representative enough to reflect the true meaning behind these grand concepts. At the same time, this measurement requires data of different spatial scales, which makes data acquisition more difficult. With the use of big data and the development of user content production models, in the future, this holistic conceptual model can be used as the basis to explore more scientific and accurate measurement methods to evaluate the supply of public housing services quality.