International Observatory on Social Housing
Examine the world of social housing from an international perspective.
A city tour over homelessness sounds like something that could be exploitative. That was my first thought. How could a company or a person consider taking a group of people on a tour about the misery of homelessness? Even more, how can a company think that it is ok to charge a fee? The answer... Continue Reading →
Today I am writing a little about my host here in Germany which is called the Gesellshaft für Bauen und Wohnen (GBH). Yes that is quite a mouth full. Let’s translate that to English and try again. The Society for Building and Living would be the direct translation. Let’s simplify that one more time and... Continue Reading →
Last Saturday, somewhere in the neighborhood of 12,000 refugees arrived in Munich in one single day. The large number puts a punctuation point on what is quickly becoming a race against time to find, build and provide enough housing for the new arrivals especially before winter comes. The German government decided last week to commit... Continue Reading →
Overview The population of Cologne is around 1.016 million. That makes the city around the 4th biggest in the entire country. Population estimates show that Cologne is expected to grow in the upcoming years. I believe the prognoses that are out there now will change dramatically and believing anything right now is dangerous. With the... Continue Reading →
On August 31st, I joined a delegation of housing professionals from Canada, the USA and the Netherlands in Dusseldorf Germany. Dusseldorf lies in the German state of North Rheine Westphalia (NRW). In total, there are 16 different German states. NRW is the largest German state in population and the fourth biggest in sheer size. Four... Continue Reading →
I am sitting here from the friendly confines of the Hannover, Germany Social Housing company thinking about my last week in Scotland. I visited several social housing companies and discussed several themes. Subjects ranged from social enterprise to property management, anti-social behavior and process improvement projects. One thing that is sticking in my head is... Continue Reading →
I came across this today when researching social housing in Bavaria. Pretty cool. "The Fuggerei in Germany is the world's oldest social housing complex still in use. It is a walled enclave within the city of Augsburg, Bavaria. It takes it name from the Fugger family and was founded in 1516 by Jakob Fugger the Younger... Continue Reading →
Dutch Social Housing Changes : Part II-Fallout for Social Housing Sector: In part one of this series I discussed the history of Dutch social housing and the issues in the late 90’s going into the 2000’s. The end result is the social housing industry must now focus more on helping those with social disadvantages while... Continue Reading →
Social housing in the Netherlands enjoys a long and rich tradition. Social housing associations ensure that more than 2.4 million households in the Netherlands have access to adequate and affordable housing. That means almost 40% of all Dutch live in social housing. The history of social housing becomes especially interesting when looking at the housing... Continue Reading →
1 Year of Learning German, I left for Germany one year ago today. One of my goals outside of my project was learning the German language. I did not know more than 5 German words before coming so I was a complete beginner. One year later, I am still trying to learn German and making... Continue Reading →
International Observatory on Social Housing 