“Our program to help seniors has really done a lot to improve the morale in our senior community!” I heard this as I sat at a NAHRO conference several years ago and thought to myself, “How the hell do you know?” It’s not that I questioned the value. In many ways I believe programs to… Read More Public Housing Authorties Need to Start Using Social Return On Investment!
Over the last year I visited 33 German cities, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 EU countries (who is counting?). I through several pictures of my travels in to illustrate and break up this longer blog. I managed in most of these trips to find a way to meet with a social housing company, a homeless organization, or… Read More What Did I Learn From a Year of Visting Social Housing Companies Around Europe
I visited the city of Mannheim Germany in October to speak with both city officials and social housing staff about affordable housing in this mid-sized German city. I met with Arno Knobel who works for the city of Mannheim. He focuses his attention on strategic issues including urban renewal and long term planning. For instance… Read More Social Housing in the German City of Mannheim
Federal, state and the state capital Stuttgart has promoted for decades the construction of social housing. In return, the owners have committed to comply with certain occupancy and rent restrictions. Basically owners will give tenants cheap apartment for rent with certain conditions. The person so entitled (usually the owner) may only leave a social housing… Read More Social Housing in Stuttgart: Make it Simpler Stupid
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
Housing Futures 