Affordability, Sustainability, Liveability

Addressing the future challenges for housing

Berlin, 23 November 2015 | Published in Urban, Economy, Social

Housing Europe participated in the 3rd Europe Housing Forum that took place in Berlin from 18 until 20 November 2015.

The Forum was organised by Habitat for Humanity – Europe, Middle East and Africa in partnership with UN Habitat, UNECE, UNDP, The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). It brought together policy makers, urban planners, private sector players, utilities, donor agencies, international organizations, and NGOs to look at how change in housing policies can happen by taking an integrated approach—government policy, private sector investment and social inclusion—to successfully develop future communities. The event was attended also by the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Leilani Farha.

Housing Europe President Marc Calon delivered one the plenary speeches on November 19th. Marc gave an overview of the work carried out by Housing Europe, highlighting the findings of the “State of Housing in the EU 2015” report and set out the key challenges at EU level, while he also provided with a series of examples both from Netherlands and from other member states where Housing Europe members are active.

Marc stressed the importance of a long-term approach concerning the refugee crisis, while he highlighted that there is a need to focus on solutions that already work on the ground such as Energiesprong.

Housing Europe also had its own stand at the event venue presenting its latest publications and networking with conference participants. It has to be mentioned that the interest around the work of Housing Europe helped our Communication Officer, Michalis Goudis, come back with an empty suitcase, since there was no need to bring back any of the materials.

Policy recommendations

Day two of the event was structured around three thematic workshops:

Workshop I: Affordability—Getting people into a home

Workshop II: Sustainability—Keeping people in their homes

Workshop III: Livability—Creating communities of the future

The format encouraged an exchange among participants that generated several policy recommendations for each topic.

You may already have an overview of the recommendations that will be available to Housing Europe soon.