Less social housing and more need in Europe

In Italy, many low income families who face difficulties paying rent at market prices also find Obstacles to accessing public and social housing. The offer of these accommodations is clearly insufficient, And in addition, many of the available properties often remain empty, according to reports and experts.

In figures, in the transalpine country There are 875,000 public social housing unitsalmost all built decades ago, which represent between a quarter and a fifth of the total rental housing, according to data from the specialized publication Scenari Immobiliari and the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). And its distribution responds more to geographic and demographic criteria (that is, there are more in the most populated regions) than to the specific needs of those who really require them.

This explains why the regions of Lombardy and Campania They top the list with 160,000 and 106,000 social homes, respectively, followed by Apulia with 61,000. At the other extreme, small regions such as Valle d’Aosta and Molise, along with Umbria and Basilicata, have the least amount of social housing.

In addition to this, one of the big problems is not only that an increase in the number of properties destined for this use is not expected, but that many properties whose tenants die are added to the list of unused properties. The cause is the lack of funds to renew them before being assigned to new tenants. Specifically, according to research by the Bocconi University of Milan and Federcasa, empty public housing would represent around 11.5% of the total: a “ghost town” of about 100,000 houses.

As if that were not enough, more and more assignments of these homes end up in the courts. This is because, especially in northern Italy, several regions have tried to establish the so-called “length of residence” criterion. This requirement implies that the person applying for social housing has resided in the region for a minimum period. However, in a ruling last April, the Constitutional Court ruled that this criterion is not admissible, when ruling on the cases of the region of Veneto and Lombardy, forcing both regions to eliminate this requirement.

The occupation of these public properties is a practice partly tolerated by the institutions. “Housing occupation has become a social buffer because public housing is few and poorly managed,” recently explained Michele Giglio, a member of the Asia-Usb union.

There are also small steps taken that point in the right direction. Matera, a city in southern Italy and European capital of culture 2019, has implemented public and social housing strategies to revitalize its abandoned areas and protect its cultural heritage.

France breaks record in its social housing crisis: 2.7 million families are waiting for public housing right now, according to the . An increase of 100,000 applicants compared to 2023.

The growing demand for this type of housing produced by the loss of purchasing power of the Frenchthe drop in subsidies, the increase in construction costs, and the blocking of the creation of social housing have caused waiting lists to grow, causing a delay of between 5 to 6 years. A wait that increases in the Paris region of Ile-de-France, reaching up to 10 years.

“We are building less and less (around 82,000 social housing this year, compared to 120,000 five years ago) and, meanwhile, the demand for social housing has continued to grow, because many households cannot afford to find accommodation outside of social housing,” explains the president of the Social Union of housing at RTL, Emmanuelle Cosse.

to the obvious lack of construction of social housingwhich has gone from 120,000 homes per year to 70,000, is combined with the political crisis of recent months that has caused a blocking the measures presented by the resigned government of Gabriel Attal.

For French associations, the waiting list is growing because the construction of these homes does notor is keeping pace with demand, and the political blockade that France has been going through for months makes it difficult to approve urgent measures in this field.

In July, the resigning government presented a “shock” project that intended inject 1.2 billion euros to speed up the creation of social housing, but the Minister of Economy at that time, Bruno Le Maire, froze these proposals, due to the complicated economic situation that the country was going through, with a public deficit that exceeds 5%.

Measures that sought to support the middle class, create a “shock offer” to alleviate the shortage of social housing, and reduce the administrative process to access this type of homes. However, the dissolution of the National Assembly and the advancement of the legislative elections In June, which caused the Macron government to resign en bloc, it blocked all of these proposals, which to this day remain on hold.

The suspension of the construction of social housing has already been cause for debate in 2018when the Executive approved the “solidarity rental assistance” to alleviate the lack of public housing. Financial help to pay the rent that households in need can apply for economic difficulties. However, once again, the cut in social aid has caused many families to also be left off these lists.

According to data from the National Social Housing Control Agency (Ancols), despite the increase in applications, the allocation of social housing fell considerably from 467,000 in 2018 to 418,000 in 2022. According to experts, it also influences stays in these homes are becoming longer and longer and the rotation slows down. Added to this is the new applicant profile: workers under 40 years of age. “The applicants are people who work, have a salary close to the minimum wage (€1,426/net in France), many single parent families and who are looking for housing throughout the territory, including medium-sized cities,” explains Cosse.

A new profile caused by the fall in the purchasing power of the French and the increase in housing prices. In cities like Paris, the square meter already exceeds 10,000 euros. In general, expensive living in large French cities puts the working class on the ropes, but increasingly a middle class in danger of extinction.

When the social democrat Olaf Scholz fisigned its coalition pact with the Greens and the Liberal Party (FDP) in December 2021, including among its priority objectives the construction of 400,000 new homes per year, of which 100,000 would be social housing. Los rents had skyrocketed across the countryespecially in Berlin, a city that in the country had been a oasis compared to the prohibitive prices of other European capitals. From being an area with more or less stabilized rents, it went to levels similar to those of the cities recognized as expensivelike Frankfurt or Munich. In ten years, the average rental price had practically doubled, with a cumulative increase of over 90%.

Scholz had the firm intention of stop the rise in prices with support for the construction of those 100,000 social homes per year. But it fell short of that goal in both 2022 and 2023, with about 25,000 and 33,000 units, respectively. The total social housing in Germany is 1.08 million units.

Other preferred objectives appeared, in a Germany that with the Russian invasion of Ukraine became aware that its Army was so outdated like other essential infrastructure, from the railway network to digitalisation. Four months after the new government was formed, Scholz announced an investment package never seen before for Defense -100,000 million euros-. The between 38,000 and 45,000 million planned to support the construction of social housing, to be distributed over five years, went to a background. Added to this was the pressing need to resolve the energy crisis precipitated by the war, in a country until then heavily dependent on Russian gas, oil and gas.

From the great promises we moved on to the great reproachesuntil the coalition was blown up with the departure of the liberals from the Government, which opens a period of greater uncertainty. The Government, now of socialme, Scholz’s coalition formally maintains its plan, structured in 14 points and which contemplates measures such as the conversion of empty office buildings or the granting of low-interest loans. But it is still not translated into reality.

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Public housing in the UK is mainly intended for rentalalthough there are also some mechanisms to buy accommodation, as well as hybrid models. In the case of rent, this is divided between the social tenancy –which offers accommodation up to 50% cheaper than in the private sector– and the affordable lease –whose prices can reach up to 80% of their equivalent on the free market–. They currently exist in England, financed mainly by local administrations and non-profit organizations. This figure represents 16% of the total housing stock (four points less than in 2000).

The supply of public housing has suffered important changes in the last decade. In 2011, the vast majority of accommodation was destined for social rental, but this figure has been progressively reduced in favor of affordable rental until it represents only 15% of the total public housing. This situation has put into alerts the main organizations specialized in this matter. According to a report prepared by the NGO Crisis and the National Housing Federation, the construction of 145,000 public housing units per year is necessary to meet demand, of which 90,000 must be allocated to social leasing.

For now, the initiatives implemented by successive governments have been left behind.goals of this objective. The Conservative Government launched the Affordable Housing Program (AHP) in 2021, which offers Grants to cover the costs of building affordable housing in England. Despite the significant investment, about 14,000 million eurosthis program only contemplates the construction of a total of 157,000 public homes until 2026, of which 33,500 are intended for social rental.

Beyond rent, there are some programs for purchasing affordable homes. One of them is the ‘Right to Buy’, which allows tenants to purchase their rental home with a discount of up to 70% or a maximum of 121,000 euros (162,000 euros in London), as long as this is their only residence. and have lived in public housing for a minimum of three years. Another model is ‘shared ownership’, which allows you to buy between 10% and 75% of the home and pay rent for the rest.

Despite these programs, the in recent decades is evident. The Labor Government has set as its objective the construction of 1.5 million accommodations in the next five years, but experts warn that this objective will not be possible if the money to build is not found first. at least 90,000 social rental apartments every year only in England. “It is a moral mission of the Labor Government to recognize the problem and build the social housing we need,” the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, acknowledged at the end of September.. The waiting lists to access affordable accommodation, however, continue to increase.