In early March 2022, EU housing ministers met informally for the first time in almost ten years. They had much to discuss – the housing crisis in Europe is evident. There is no country, no region, and no city where people are not suffering from the rising cost of housing. The ministers’ response was ambivalent. […]
From housing crisis to housing right
Europe is going through a housing crisis. Lower and middle-income families are priced out of gentrifying neighbourhoods. Homelessness is becoming endemic in most urban centres. People are dispossessed of their cities as the financial sector speculates, turning what should be a right for everyone into a financial asset.
However, opportunities to revert this trend do exist. Despite the bleak situation, in fact, there is room for positive action at every level, from civil society to the local, national and supranational institutions. Citizens can claim back their city and secure land for affordable housing by implementing locally the so-called Community Land Trust model; associations and municipalities can put in place systems where housing is used as a way out of homelessness; and the EU institutions have at their disposal fiscal and financial tools that can promote long-term visions for affordable living in the city for everyone, not just the wealthy few.
In this dossier, the Progressive Post is looking at opportunities for change, inspiration from the doers and perspectives for the future. A future where the city is a common good where everyone can live, work and thrive, no matter their social class.
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With house prices rising worldwide, international investors and speculators are turning their eyes to housing as an object of investment. What if we tackled this problem at its root through a fairer ownership system? Globally, in many places, such a system is already being implemented by Community Land Trusts. Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote that the first […]
Finland has a long tradition of keeping the reduction of homelessness high on the political agenda. In its 1982 Housing Policy Program, the Social Democratic Party of Finland states, “Access to housing for the homeless is humanly necessary, but it is also profitable to the national economy”. The party also claimed that homelessness is more […]
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