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The Social Innovationlab on affordable housing by Eurocities was held just a few days ago in Turin and was moderated by our colleague Daniela Patti. What a timely event on housing, as just yesterday, for the first time, the European Commissioner on housing was appointed.
Dan Jorgensen will have a shared portfolio on energy, a fascinating opportunity to address energy efficiency and energy transition in the housing market. But we must make sure not to leave aside the social dimension, as inflation, increase in mortage rates, speculation of large investment groups, and gentrification from short rentals and mass tourism have brought us today to a harsh crisis.
The event was held in Turin, which was the first capital of Italy, a city with long history, a strong industrial heritage thanks to Fiat which also meant a large working class, strong immigration, so the city has always addressed the housing issue. Most recently there are virtous projects on social housing, on community land trusts, on cohousing and they inspired us as well as shared their challenges during a number of workshops and site visits. Read here some good practices from Turin.
It is very important to focus on which segment of the housing need we want to address. As there are nearly 900,000 homeless people across Europe and the Housing First projects are still insufficient. Then there are many people with disabilities to have the right to accessible housing to ensure their independent living. There are students who across Europe are crying out for public student housing. And there is an increase in the needs of elderly people, nowadays 200 million people, who aspire to co-housing and other collective housing. Having a safe stable and affordable home is a basis to grow be independent, to grow a family, to find a job, to study for your future and to build fairer cities.
Interestingly during the event we had a workshop on Community Land Trusts, starting from an exchange with the Bruxelles CLT, you can read here our article. The discussion was very lively as the dialogue was with Turin, where the Turin CLT Foundation was recently established, has already crowdfunded half a million euro and is currently looking for additional funding to purchase and renovate the new site.
Vienna contributed to the discussion explaining how their housing model, despite having a very different history, shares the same model of separate ownership of the land as a means to prevent speculation. In fact, key stakeholders towards the development of such a model are not only the public administration but especially local communities, who may team up to ensure a more cohesive and socially inclusive strategy.
A common challenge and aspiration by cities across Europe nowadays is to secure adequate funding for new homes or to renovate existing ones, as well as to develop schemes to reject speculation risks. For this we invite you to read excerpts of our Funding the Cooperative City book.