Rental and Co-operative Housing - A Necessary Complement to Ownership

Report

Day / Time Monday, June 19th / 16:30 - 18:30

Event Description

Part 1: The trend, today, is privatization of social and public housing in developed countries. We witness how the state and the public sector step away from its responsibilities, leaving the issue of access to affordable housing to NGOs and the private sector. In developing countries, rental housing is often undervalued and not considered an alternative to ownership. We will argue rental housing is a valuable tenure to virtually every household and therefore, should constitute a substantial element in the housing sector of every society. Part 2: Cooperative housing, especially those using methods of self-management, self-help and self-construction, has been successful in achieving housing accessible for low-income persons. Mr. Gustavo D Gonzalez will, through positive experiences from Latin America, show how non-profit cooperative housing has contributed to the realization of housing rights and, also, discuss the obstacles facing this model.

Session Language

English

Speakers

Magnus Hammar, Secr Gen. IUT

Gusatvo Gonzáles, Swedish Cooperative Centre; Martha J. Lewis, Tenants´ Rights Action Coalition, Van

Sayed-Iqbal Mohammed, Org. of Civic Rights, South Africa

Host Organization

International Union of Tenants and the Swedish Cooperative Centre

Host Organization Description

International Union of Tenants (IUT) is an NGO that was founded in 1926 in Zürich, Switzerland, with the purpose of safeguarding the interests of tenants, and promoting affordable healthy housing throughout the world. IUT has its Secretariat in Stockholm, Sweden . IUT is a non-partisan political organisation, working along democratic lines. IUT represents primarily national tenant organisations, but also secondarily regional organisations. As of January 2006, IUT had 55 members in 46 countries. IUT has Consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council and the ECE, Economic Commission for Europe - Committee on Human Settlements and Participatory status with the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France . Bi lateral projects: In 2005/2006 IUT established a Housing Information Centre in Belgrade . . The Swedish Cooperative Centre, SCC is a Swedish NGO working with international cooperation to fight poverty and injustice. It was created 1958 and work mainly with cooperative and other democratic local partner organizations. We have no political or religious affiliation. We currently work in 26 developing countries around the world with approximately 120 development projects and programs. Focus is Latin America, Southern and Eastern Africa and in East Europe . Main working areas are rural development, housing and habitat and financial services.

Website

www.utangranser.se

www.iut.nu

www.ocr.org.za

www.tenants.bc.ca

www.habitation.gouv.qc.ca

 

Report

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Title of Event: Name of Organisation: Date and time of the session:	Rental and Cooperative Housing, as compliments to ownership International Union of Tenants, Swedish Cooperative Centre June 19, 16.30-18.30
Key Highlights Estimated no of participants: 85 Stakeholder group representation at the event: housing rights groups, social housing groups, tenant associations reps. What were the expected objectives: To create an interest in rental and coop housing, and to inform the North American participants in European housing policies and cooperative housing construction in developing countries. What did the networking event achieve: Well, hopefully somewhat of the expected objectives. We also established new contacts with tenant groups in particulary Canada and in the US.
2. What were the core issues identified in your event as they relate to the theme and sub-themes of WUFIII? Definitely that cooperative construction and financing of housing is a sustainable and proven successful way to build housing in developing countries. That affordable rental housing, private or social/public, is a necessary complement to ownership in developed countries as a mean to increase social inclusion in urban socities.
3. What were the main points raised by panellists and participants in relation to these different issues? What new ideas have been generated as a result of the discussion? Hard to say after two hours.but we definitely managed to evoke an interest for the fact that many cities in Europe have a high percentage of social and public rental housing, which works well as social inclusion catalysts.
4. What process steps have been identified in your event that could help turn ideas into operational reality? n/a

 

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