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Housing is a basic right for all human beings, yet especially in our cities, we see how this is the first element of discrimination and leverage for inequality. Having a home is something not all citizens have a right to, with an increasing number of homelessness across all of Europe. When people do have a home, the conditions in which they live, whether in rental from a public or private owner, or whether in their own homes, is a matter of great disparity in society. Homes can be expensive in relation to the poor conditions with high maintenance and energy costs; homes can be peripheral to the main hubs of services and points of interest in cities; homes can be unstable in the long term due to market instability and tourism pressure.
Housing has been at the forefront of community-led initiatives to guarantee the right to an affordable city. It has been leading the way for experiments with innovative and inclusive urban policies. Our work aims at developing new financial and organisational models together with public and civic players in order to promote community-led urban development.
As Eutropian we have greatly focused on many aspects of housing issues, especially in relation to the surrounding neighbourhoods as well as for the living conditions. Within the EUI project Curing the Limbo, we focused on empowering refugees and migrants in limbo state to ignite housing affordability, with the aim to create a connection between the refugee population of Athens and other citizens. By supporting the project as lead experts, we have guided and supported the development of the local program in which refugees receive affordable living spaces from the city’s available housing stock while contributing to local community life and participating in citizen-led activities that improve quality of life in Athenian neighbourhoods.
In the EUI funded project Rock the Block we support the Egaleo Municipality and its partners in building communities around various Polykatoikia – the classical multi-apartment block of the Athens region.
Building on these experiences, we contributed to the UIA-URBACT programme “Cities engaged in the right to housing” with a particular focus on community-led housing, fair finance and social inclusion in housing.
Within the JPI funded project “The Housing-Integration-Nexus: shaping exchange and innovation for migrants’ access to housing and social inclusion”, in short HOUSE-IN, we researched how inclusive housing strategies in urban neighbourhoods can help the integration of national and international migrants. Through case study research, interviews and site visits with key stakeholders, we developed a series of policy briefs to support the development of housing for migrants.
Throughout the Curing the Limbo project in Athens we developed reports and articles to share the advancement of the local program Europe-wide. We have explored how refugees have turned into active citizens or how education and training activities within the programme help refugees setup of a new home. A detailed overview of the whole learning curve of the Curing the Limbo project can be found in the final publication which recounts the experience and the key learnings.
We developed three policy briefs connected to housing for migrants within the House-In project, in which we explored the access to the housing market, the strategies for settling down and belonging as well as how to counteract the discrimination of migrants and newcomers in the housing market. Read the policy documents on Forced Migrants’ Access to Housing, Enabling Settling Down and Belonging, and Discrimination Against Forced Migrants in Housing.
Given the great importance of housing for Eutropian, we have explored a number of practices across Europe and collected articles in our Cooperative City magazine, to share with our readers stories on housing. In order to give voice to innovative housing initiatives, we regularly organise guided tours and site visits.
Read Cooperative City’s articles on housing.
Within the Curing the Limbo project we carried out a number of podcasts, highlighting elements of the program being developed in Athens.
