A city tour over homelessness sounds like something that could be exploitative. That was my first thought. How could a company or a person consider taking a group of people on a tour about the misery of homelessness? Even more, how can a company think that it is ok to charge a fee? The answer… Read More Sleeping on the Street is an Art- Being Homeless in Berlin
Today I am writing a little about my host here in Germany which is called the Gesellshaft für Bauen und Wohnen (GBH). Yes that is quite a mouth full. Let’s translate that to English and try again. The Society for Building and Living would be the direct translation. Let’s simplify that one more time and… Read More Refugee Housing in Hannover built by GBH: Safe, Decent and Sanitary
Last Saturday, somewhere in the neighborhood of 12,000 refugees arrived in Munich in one single day. The large number puts a punctuation point on what is quickly becoming a race against time to find, build and provide enough housing for the new arrivals especially before winter comes. The German government decided last week to commit… Read More Social Housing’s role in the German Refugee Crisis
Overview The population of Cologne is around 1.016 million. That makes the city around the 4th biggest in the entire country. Population estimates show that Cologne is expected to grow in the upcoming years. I believe the prognoses that are out there now will change dramatically and believing anything right now is dangerous. With the… Read More Cologne Social Housing- Tale of a Growing City
On August 31st, I joined a delegation of housing professionals from Canada, the USA and the Netherlands in Dusseldorf Germany. Dusseldorf lies in the German state of North Rheine Westphalia (NRW). In total, there are 16 different German states. NRW is the largest German state in population and the fourth biggest in sheer size. Four… Read More National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) visits Dusseldorf
I came across this today when researching social housing in Bavaria. Pretty cool. “The Fuggerei in Germany is the world’s oldest social housing complex still in use. It is a walled enclave within the city of Augsburg, Bavaria. It takes it name from the Fugger family and was founded in 1516 by Jakob Fugger the Younger… Read More Oldest Social Housing in the World
Dutch Social Housing Changes : Part II-Fallout for Social Housing Sector: In part one of this series I discussed the history of Dutch social housing and the issues in the late 90’s going into the 2000’s. The end result is the social housing industry must now focus more on helping those with social disadvantages while… Read More Dutch Social Housing-Changes Part II: Fallout
Social housing in the Netherlands enjoys a long and rich tradition. Social housing associations ensure that more than 2.4 million households in the Netherlands have access to adequate and affordable housing. That means almost 40% of all Dutch live in social housing. The history of social housing becomes especially interesting when looking at the housing… Read More Dutch Social Housing-Changes Part I
I visited the German city of Kiel in late July of 2015. I met with Emily Sittel from the department of Housing and Social Help. Attending the meeting from the Ihre Forderbank was Imme Reiben-Mucha a specialist in real estate funding. We discussed the theme of social housing in the city of Kiel and how… Read More Social Housing in the German Port City of Kiel
We work extremely hard every day trying to not only house those who have the least but trying to improve their physical, psychological and economical prospects. The work is tiring, often thankless and in many instances does not offer much fruit for all of the work and effort put in. A former boss of mine… Read More Public Housing and Social Enterprise: A Match Made in Heaven
Housing Futures 