International Observatory on Social Housing
Examine the world of social housing from an international perspective.
Evan Station Lofts-Denver, Colorado: This is some slick affordable workforce housing at its finest. Located at a transit station and in a mixed income development, this is a spot anyone would want to live at. Evans Station Lofts is a five-story development with 50 residential workforce units and 7,100 square feet of retail and commercial... Continue Reading →
How do Social and Public Housing Associations respond to tenant needs? It is hard to imagine a better example of responsiveness to tenant needs than what is taking place in Copenhagen. I recently met Ulia Gregor who works for a large social housing organization called DAB Copenhagen. In fact, her organization has over 50,000 units.... Continue Reading →
Housing authorities across the USA are always trying to develop or redevelop new or existing affordable housing. In some cases, these redevelopments are multi-million and even billion dollar real estate deals. In these instances, the redevelopment brings jobs, infrastructure and opportunities to areas that might be economically depressed. Lets examine three of the larger projects... Continue Reading →
I recently met and heard from Carina Dantas who works with and in the social housing and aging industry within Portugal. She spoke at the International Housing Festival about demographic change within social housing. Mrs. Dantas let us know that the aging population is growing dramatically not only in Portugal but all around the world.... Continue Reading →
There are often complaints that the public sector is not innovative enough or is far behind the private sector. While there is truth in that statement, there are still hundreds of housing authorities around the world trying out and experimenting with new ideas to help the citizens and residents of their communities. Here are a... Continue Reading →
I recently had a chance to meet and hear from Dr. Rudiger Ahrend the head for the Urban Programme in the OECD’s Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development. He gave a presentation at Housing Europe's yearly conference regarding the rise of large cities and the challenges that it presents for housing. Dr. Ahrend... Continue Reading →
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting and hearing from Ilka Ruby a Berlin based publisher and curator on subjects regarding architecture and urban-ism. She focused on different social housing projects from around Europe, America and Asia. You can find here website here- Mrs. Ruby gave several examples of social housing ghettos... Continue Reading →
I met Dr. John McPeake the CEO from Helm Housing Association in Northern Ireland recently and had the pleasure of hearing about how his agency is working on helping those with dementia. . Dr. McPeake let us know that in the UK the average age exceeded 40 for the first time in its history. By... Continue Reading →
Below are ideas for helping tenants given by 3 speakers at the international public housing conference in Amsterdam. Idea 1: From Northern Ireland: Supporting those with dementia The speaker did a good job explaining the increasing needs of elderly tenants. The presenter focused on how a housing organization can help those suffering from dementia. Dr. McPeake... Continue Reading →
The NetwiIT Network of professionals at housing corporations organized a very interesting session today at the International Social Housing Conference. Henk Korevaar the director of the network facilitated and led the sesstion As a participant and critique I learned quite a bit. The average I.T. costs for a public housing association in the Netherlands... Continue Reading →
International Observatory on Social Housing 