Desegregation Plans and Social Rehabilitation Programs as Tools to Counteract Socio-spatial Segregation in Budapest

This case study presents the contribution of a complex planning tool (desegregation plan) and a complex intervention (social rehabilitation) to the alleviation of socio-spatial segregation in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Introduced in 2007 as a condition for accessing European Union (EU) funds for urban rehabilitation measures, mandatory desegregation plans drafted by local municipalities had to set out policies and actions to ease spatial segregation; although no direct financial tools were provided for their implementation, beyond social rehabilitation programs. These programs concentrated on urban areas at risk of segregation, and they supported complex infrastructure upgrades and interventions to increase the educational level and social skills of inhabitants at the same time. Between 2007 and 2018, 20 social rehabilitation projects were funded in Budapest by the EU with limited success: local municipalities were unable to provide long-term social assistance to vulnerable inhabitants after being insufficiently motivated to do so. They preferred investing in deteriorated public infrastructure instead