A great day for responsible housing in Europe

This week  the largest public not-for-profit housing provider in the world, Wiener Wohnen, and the French housing association Est Métropole Habitat Lyon, signed the Code of Conduct  for the European Responsible Housing initiative    The signing ceremony was hosted by the Austrian Embassador to Brussels, who herself used to live  in one of today’s protected homes in Vienna.

Karin Ramser, the director of Wiener Wohnen, and Cédric van Styvendael, director of Est Métropole Habitat Lyon, and president of Housing Europe signed the ERHIN Code of Conduct. Georg Niedermühlbichler, President of the Austrian Union of Tenants, the new housing councillor of Vienna, Kathrin Gaál and the Austrian ambassador Elisabeth Kornfeind delivered speeches at the ceremony which took place at the Austrian embassy in Brussels.

The signing ceremony was followed by a seminar in  Vienna House in Brussels on the Viennese social housing model and its crucial role in integration and empowerment of tenants.

The IUT has always maintained that housing is not only about providing people with “a roof over their head”, but that it should encompass a set of responsible practices in order to effectively achieve the social inclusion of residents. This means several things to tenants: involvement in decisions, proximity to services and jobs, provision of relevant information and training opportunities, etc. Following this vision, the IUT, together with Housing Europe and DELPHIS,  are running the  European Responsible Housing Initiative (ERHIN).