Independence Days #3 Decent and affordable housing for all: from Brussels to the capitals

During the panel session on ‘Decent and affordable housing for all: from Brussels to the Capitals’, Diana Yordanova, Housing Europe Communications Director, underlined an ongoing trend of public ownership turning into private ownership, coupled with the observation that the housing policy field is more of a patchwork. In addition to that, the touristification of cities and the levels of homelessness that Covid-19 pandemic highlighted have not yet been tackled. Indeed, international investment in our cities is under investigation according to Sotiris Sideris, journalist and part of the award-winning investigative team Cities for Rent: Investigating Corporate Landlords Across Europe. Speaking of good policies, he underlined the importance of good data that are missing for example in the city of Athens, while highlighting the vicious cycle of housing starting from a lack of initial funds, passing from debt agencies and arriving at housing risk due to unmet debt obligations. Hanna Smit, youth housing counsellor at Stiching!WOON and former resident & self-management team member at Startblok Riekerhaven stressed the issue of affordable housing for refugees and the importance of approaching the housing challenge also as a learning process. Adding to that, Nicolae Ștefănuță, MEP Greens/EFA observed that many youngsters under 30 still live with their parents and that moving towards affordable housing means more social housing and rent controls. In the discussion that followed, the importance of public spaces in providing a safe place for social integration, interaction was brought up. Housing affordability was linked with transparency, accountability, the ownership and distribution of available space. In addition to that, gentrification and the investment in social housing as a “one-off” rather than an effort of a continuous character were considered among the main challenges. Moreover, constructive examples were mentioned such as the case of a law in the Netherlands setting the minimum acceptable behavior of a landlord, or the case of Barcelona initiatives going first bidder on houses to keep them in the community. The option of promoting remote work internationally to relieve pressure from city centers was also mentioned.