Metropolitan Research Institute

Metropolitan Research Institute, Budapest

Housing policy

Hungarian Social Report: Housing market and indicators

József Hegedüs, Eszter Somogyi and Nóra Teller assessed housing market trends and indicators for the 2019 Social Report. The volume takes a look at Hungary’s key social and socio-economic phenomena in nineteen studies. MRI’s researchers compare housing regimes and periods before and after the global crisis – and find the reemergence of some pre-crisis issues.

Tárki, one of Hungary’s most renowned social research institutes, has been publishing its edited Social Reports biannually since 1990. The issues take broad overviews of well-being and progress in Hungarian society, and aim to contribute to evidence based decision making. The Reports collect the analyses of outstanding social scientists, and have gained outstanding reputation over time, cited by media, public administration and academia in and outside of Hungary.

The present volume, whose English version was made available to the public on 5 February 2019, takes a look at social and demographic indicators and questions of social mobility. A number of essays focus specifically on vulnerable groups, and on evolving values and attitudes. The chapter on housing, authored by lead MRI experts, is featured in the part on non-material well-being.

The full Social Report 2019 is available for download through the website of TÁRKI. On this website, previous English editions are also available. The 2019 edition was funded by the State Secretariat for Social Affairs and Social Inclusion at the Ministry of Human
Capacities.

Reimagining Inclusive Cities: MRI on Chennai Housing Symposium

MRI managing director József Hegedüs and researcher Vera Horváth presented on “ReImagining Inclusive Cities: Planning, Land, Housing, Infrastructure” in Chennai, India on 16 November 2018. The two-day symposium, on 15-16 November, was organised by the German development Agency GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), and supported by the government of Tamil Nadu. The event brought together leaders and policy makers from the central, state, and local governments tasked with housing and urban land management; as well as researchers, NGO representatives and private sector actors from India and all over the globe.

FEANTSA 13th Research Conference on Homelessness – September 2018, Budapest

The 13th annual Research Conference on Homelessness of FEANTSA, the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless, took place in Budapest on 21 September 2018. This year’s topic was “the Economic and Social Integration of Homeless People”. The event was co-organised by FEANTSA’s European Observatory on Homelessness, the Shelter Foundation of Budapest, and Metropolitan Research Institute – with particular efforts of Nóra Teller, editorial board member of the European Journal on Homelessness.

The event drew considerable attention, hosting 180 participants from almost 50 countries, representing academic lecturers and researchers, NGOs, think tanks, and municipal representatives among others. Participants arrived from all over the globe, including from beyond Europe – including the US, Australia, and South Africa. The conference was opened by Ian Tilling, FEANTSA’s president; and József Hegedüs, the managing director of Metropolitan Research Institute.

Presenters and discussants were organised into 18 seminars (6 parallel seminars in three time slots).  Seminar 2 on “Encountering Homelessness: Ethnography, Engagement and Critique” and seminar 10, “Social and Financial Advantages of Housing First” were chaired by MRI’s Nóra Teller. Seminar 3 focused on MRI current EU-funded project HomeLab, connecting housing and employment service provision to vulnerable persons in the Visegrad 4 countries – this session was chaired by József Hegedüs, and included MRI staff as well as representatives of our consortium partners.

The full conference programme is available here.

HomeLab: Integrated Housing and Labour Services in the Social Rental Enterprise Model (2016-2019)

Project duration: 2016 october – 2019 march

Client: Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) of the European Commission. 

MRI is the coordinator of HomeLab.

HomeLab aims to implement the Social Rental Entreprise (SRE) model in five pilot projects in four Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries ((CZ, HU, PL, SK). The pilots allow the adaptation of the model to the local circumstances in countries with varying social benefit and service provision systems, taking into account the differences in the institutional environment, housing systems and labour market conditions. Based on the experience the refinement of the SRE model will be developed for each pilot that will contribute to scaling up the results, to the possible adaptation of the model both on national and on EU level in order to ensure institutional and financial sustainability beyond the grant period. Furthermore, based on the synthesis of the national models EU level recommendations will be developed with regard to how the EU could support/promote the wider application of the SRE model in other Member States.

Analysis of József Hegedüs and Eszter Somogyi in CSO’s publication

The Central Statistical Office of Hungary just made accessible on its website the edited publication of researchers’ analyses of the data collected on CSO’s 2015 national representative housing survey. The first chapter of the publication, by MRI staff members József Hegedüs and Eszter Somogyi, address the links between social inequalities and the affordability of housing – a question often treated in the international literature, and also drawing increasing interest in Hungary in recent years.

Housing Mobility Patterns in Segregated Neighbourhoods: Nóra Teller’s presentation on ENHR 2018

Nóra Teller presented her findings on Housing Mobility Patterns in Segregated Neighbourhoods in Uppsala, Sweden, in Plenary 3 of European Network of Housing Researchers’ 2018 annual conference. The presentation explored the patterns of housing choices of those who have lived in segregated neighbourhoods and how the households’ choices interplay with broader social issues like economic inequalities, ineffectiveness of housing policies and broader discrimination on the housing market. Based both on case studies and quantitative data the above-mentioned processes were presented, focusing on Roma poverty neighbourhoods’ developments and policies addressing segregation mechanisms.