Managing Social Rental Housing in the European Union

Rapid changes in society, the economy and policy are having an increasing impact on the delivery of social housing across Europe. These changes are transforming the way in which social housing providers perform their task. They are also reshaping their relationships with the State, communities and with other market actors. State withdrawal from service provision combined with deep changes in the demand for social housing call for a reflection on the changing role and delivery mechanisms for social housing providers. Moreover, EU legislation of increasing impact is adding to the pressure for change in this field, which altogether presents a highly dynamic and complex context of operations of social housing actors.

However, despite the relevance of these processes, there is a lack of systematic knowledge of the relationship between the contextual developments and the actual responses by social housing organisations. Most international comparative studies in the field of housing have focussed on issues of policy, economy and institutional arrangements at macro level and have given little or no attention to the interplay between developments at (super) national and local levels. This study aims to fill this gap in housing research.