Four members of the Metropolitan Research Institute gave presentations in different sessions of the Europe Housing Forum 2021 that was organised by Habitat for Humanity between 16-19 of November 2021.
József Hegedüs in contributing to the session on “Diverse approaches and common challenges to housing” emphasized that the most important determinants of housing outcomes and thus of the affordability problem are economic potential of the urban environment and the national/local welfare system. Different housing interventions have different outcomes in economically strong cities where housing affordability is the most crucial issue, and in shrinking areas where quality of the stock and large share of empty and abandoned housing creates the impediments.
Éva Gerőházi, participating in one of the side events of the conference (REELIH Regional Conference II.) called the attention of the audience that the energy efficient renovation of multi-family buildings in countries like Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina or North-Macedonia requires first to establish the legal and organisational foundations of the renovation (e.g. legislation on Home Owners Associations, metering consumption, development of financial products) before energy poor households can be the specific targets of interventions.
Nóra Teller Nóra spoke in the outbreak session “Is housing the solution to homelessness in CEE?” chaired by Ruth Owen, deputy director of FEANTSA on the opportunities of tackling homelessness through housing solutions in the CEE region, along with colleagues from Chechia – Jan Milota (Platform for Social Housing), Slovakia – Tomáš Dobrovič (Nota Bene, Slovakia) and Poland – Jakub Wilczek (President of the Polish Federation for Resolving the Problem of Homelessness, vice-president and representative of Poland in FEANTSA). The speakers reviewed ongoing and past initiatives, like housing first and housing led interventions, in their respective countries, lessons learned from these programs, and the barriers and obstacles that hinder scaling up service delivery which is based on providing housing for the most vulnerable groups. Whilst the most progressive approach and strategic mainstreaming of Housing First is present in Czechia, local small pilots in Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary seem to be important but are technically very marginal compared to the national shelter-based homeless provision systems. The speakers also concluded that EU funds have been an important lever in paving the way for more progressive solutions to tackling homelessness, but systemic changes are needed to handle affordability and tenure security issues.