International Observatory on Social Housing
Examine the world of social housing from an international perspective.
There are somewhere around 3300 public housing authorities in the United States but the majority of them are extremely small with unit counts in the neighborhood of 50-1000. Today I wanted to highlight some of the larger public housing authorities and provide back links if you want to find out more about applying for... Continue Reading →
Lets get to the meat of it. Sunday we got word that a FY2017 Omnibus spending bill agreement was forming up. What the hell does that mean? A spending bill would set our public housing funding until September 31st of this year. Secondly, it allows us to plan for the rest of the... Continue Reading →
Finding affordable housing online is not always easy. Sometimes websites are not easy to use and or you might not know exactly where to go when looking for affordable housing online. Here are some tips to use: Public Housing Authority: If you are extremely low income and searching for affordable housing online, look to see... Continue Reading →
I visited the city of Mannheim Germany in October to speak with both city officials and social housing staff about affordable housing in this mid-sized German city. I met with Arno Knobel who works for the city of Mannheim. He focuses his attention on strategic issues including urban renewal and long term planning. For instance... 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 →
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 →
I visited the German city of Kiel in late July of 2015. I met with Emily Sittel from the department of Housing and Social Help. Attending the meeting from the Ihre Forderbank was Imme Reiben-Mucha a specialist in real estate funding. We discussed the theme of social housing in the city of Kiel and how... Continue Reading →
The city of Leipzig is an interesting case study in rapid population decline, slow steady growth and change/maturation of the housing market. Leipzig as a city is becoming a sexy trend in many magazines and newspapers that claim it is now the place where people should be moving. Many citizens believe the press is nothing... Continue Reading →
Woonbond is a large tenants rights organization based in Amsterdam. The company considers itself the voice of renters from throughout the country. More than half of the residents in social housing are somehow connected to Woonbond through its membership and advocacy. That's more than 1.5 million members or 53% of all tenants in Holland. Woonbond’s... Continue Reading →
International Observatory on Social Housing 