Reports of Activities

Yearbook 2023: Rising momentum for finding solutions to housing crisis layers

Foreword by Housing Europe's President, Bent Madsen, and Secretary-General, Sorcha Edwards

Five national housing ministers addressed our Affordable Housing Initiative Summit on Finance in Paris co-organised with l’Union Social pour l’Habitat focussing on how we can fast-track innovation in the renovation of social and affordable housing districts to mitigate the negative social impact of rising prices.

With the support of our Austrian member, GBV, we organised the Affordable Housing Initiative Bootcamp to build capacity among professionals within the sector – two full days of peer-to-peer exchanges and intensive training, driven by good practices in district renovation.

More than 2,200 public, cooperative, social housing providers, cities, policymakers, fellow organisations committed to decent housing were part of the International Social Housing Festival in Barcelona. Together with key politicians, they debated how well-established and emerging housing systems can be resilient to some of the greatest challenges facing housing and how we can reinforce each others work from across borders. Next stop for the Festival being of course Dublin in 2025.

Asks based on facts 

Our Research Observatory flagship report “The State of Housing in Europe” clearly illustrated how public, cooperative and social housing is contributing to the fair energy transition and helping residents and communities cope with the current cost of the living crisis. The debate around sufficiency and using what we have is only growing. This is why our research team also put together concrete examples of how social and affordable housing providers can help to tackle vacant housing.

New approaches for immense challenges

State-of-the-art innovation is really happening first in social and affordable housing. 2023 was a year in which we discussed how we can accelerate deep energy retrofit in housing through modular and circular solutions, lower energy poverty through mentorship and direct support at people’s homes, boost renewable energy sharing in the public, cooperative, and social housing sector in Europe. We have even started featuring many of these innovations in our new Housing Europe mini studio.

An expanding network that faces challenges and sticks together 

Housing Europe’s network helped  with  knowledge sharing—from cooperative housing showcases in Lisbon to regulatory updates at the Housing Europe Centre with Italian and Swedish colleagues, fostering a culture of learning.

In 2024, as we approach European, national, regional, and local elections, it becomes pivotal for our network to strategically mobilise. This is a crucial juncture to act promptly and advocate with heightened ambition for housing that is not just affordable but also decent, fair and human-oriented. This presents a unique opportunity to be both convincing and assertive, emphasising that embracing a new housing paradigm is the sole path forward.