This publication was developed under the framework of the EU-supported project “The way forward for reforms in the housing sector: empowering grass root homeowners’ associations in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine” by the NGO Charity Humanitarian Centre “Abkhazeti”. The content of this publication does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union.
Ensuring affordable housing is an ongoing global challenge. The 2008 World Economic Crisis that was partially fueled by “Housing Bubble” – price increase on real estate, which was followed by the rapid drop of prices, has put on agenda the topics of the housing market regulation, maintenance and development of the existing housing fund, its sustainability and affordability.
There are different definitions of what affordable housing refers to, however, in general it can be noted that this is housing affordable for the households with low income. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), families that are bound to spend 30% of their income on housing are considered to be financially burdened for buying food, clothing, covering transportation and healthcare expenses, and thus might need affordable housing. Ensuring affordability of housing is a part of urban planning and social policy. Raising affordability of housing by subsidised rents and by supporting affordable house ownership facilitates deconcentrating of poverty and the creation of mixed income neighbourhoods and bringing diversity. The mentioned steps support the social mobility and the economic advancement of the disadvantaged households.
UNECE suggests to define the affordable housing in a way that it fits to the low income households “when the expenditure on adequate housing leaves a household with enough income to pay for other basic expenditures. Social housing refers to the social rental housing[for socially vulnerable households] found in many countries”. By this definition of the affordable housing, the monthly payment for an affordable house should leave a household with enough income for the basic expenses.
The right to housing is recognised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. The Article 25 paragraph 1 of the declaration provides that “(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control”.The principle of housing affordability is related to this right because regardless of social status, living in an adequate housing is a human right. The component of an adequate housing is found in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. According to the Article 11, paragraph 1 of the Covenant: “The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent”.
It is important to mention that the last edition of the Constitution of Georgia included the definition of a right to decent housing. Here a question arises, what type of obligations proceed from this right and what international models are in place for achieving that the conditions of decent and adequate housing are met? Thus, it is interesting to consider the local experience and learn about the international approaches about affordable housing.
Germany
Housing policy in Germany is distributed among the federal, regional (land) and local municipality levels. Since 2006, the major actors of social housing are the regions(lands).In Germany for the housing with government support the term “‘publicly subsidised housing” or “housing promotion” is preferred rather than affordable or social housing. Half of the population of Germany resides in a rented housing. Thus, the tradition renting a housing is common and this is caused by the mobility of the working age population and a lifestyle that promotes mobility and a change of residence. Social housing occupied 5% of the total German housing stock in 2010. For financing social housing some of the incentives in Germany are: public subsidies – grants or tax relief to cover the rent. After the period of amortization passes, it is possible to put these houses on the rental market.Municipal housing companies try to provide housing that is affordable for low-income households. Apart from this, special subsidies are provided for the socially vulnerable persons. In 2015, the Alliance for Affordable Housing and Building – that brings together public sector and private sector stakeholders – drafted recommendations for promotion of the construction and energy efficient refurbishment. Based on these recommendations, a 10-point action programme was drafted for the stimulation of the affordable residential construction. The recommendations promote energy efficient buildings and call upon a number of initiatives to remove the administrative burden for the affordable housing.
Italy
The affordable housingin Italy is to meet the needs for housing for those who cannot otherwise access the housing and rental market however still is able to cover subsidised rental fees or lower purchase prices set by public or private housing providers.
The public residential building sector (ERP), “the public housing”, is intended for the disadvantaged social groups, is financed with entirely public funds and non-repayable contributions. Apart from this, there is so-called “free” housingprogrammethat is financed and implemented at market conditions on the private initiative of the market operators. Apart from this, there is housing provided by the private or private-public investments through the special real estate funds, tailored for those, whose needs have not been metthrough the ERP or by theprivate initiatives. This segment in Italy is called Social Housing (ERS) that can be classified as Social Housing.
According to the Decree of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport of 21 June 2017, the tenants of the social houses can become owners of the houses in question in the period of 7 years. The type of the arrangement offered is a “rent to buy”. This type of housing according to the decree is a social housing. To be eligible for a family unit for this programme, it is required not possess another housing. The beneficiary cannot sell the house within 5 years of paying off the mortgage.
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