Housing as a basic infrastructure against risks: The case of COVID-19 housing support measures in Greece

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the critical role of housing for human well-being and health. The measures implemented had a strong bias towards the ‘insiders’ of the system, those already housed or in work. For those in inadequate houses, without a home or in violent environments, the emergency situation allowed for authoritarian social segregation measures. In this chapter, we address these issues, by focusing on the case of COVID-19 housing support measures in Greece. We contrast measures adopted for the general population to those imposed to vulnerable populations, particularly refugees, and discuss policy ambiguities which question the limits of being prepared for the unknown in a context of increasing socio-economic inequalities.