Europe Housing Forum

21/03/2022

Is the cooperation between Europe and Africa possible? How different those 2 regions are and how can we foster strong partnerships between Europe and Africa regarding housing?

Read more in the article below.

Did you know that the first ever Africa Housing Forum will be taking place in-person and virtually from the Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi from 12th to 14th May 2022? Forum will be hosted by Habitat for Humanity International, in collaboration with partner organizations and institutions. The Housing Forum will involve practitioners and stakeholders who will come together to tackle issues, discuss solutions and promote low-cost, affordable housing as a driver of economic growth in the African region. Registration is free for all participants. Discover more at: https://africahousingforum.org/

https://europehousingforum.eu/cooperation-between-europe-and-africa-towards-housing/

How can we foster strong partnerships between Europe and Africa regarding housing? The aim should be to mitigate informality and foster innovation as well as sustainable growth. Where is the best place to start? What plans are in progress? Here’s what’s happened to date and where there are furth...

05/02/2022

European Housing Innovation Awards were part of the Europe Housing Forum. The main objective of this contest was to showcase and reward meaningful initiatives that, through innovation and collaboration, contribute to solutions for affordable housing in Europe.

Meet the winners of the European Housing Innovation Awards:
1. MaterialMapper - winner for the ShelterTech Award for Technology category.
The first data platform enabling material reuse at scale to solve the problem of construction being the cause of over 40% of trash in landfills globally.
2. WohnZukunft – winner for the Best Practices Award category.
Promoting energy-efficient residential quarter management methods for CO2 and cost reduction.
3. Initiating Holistic Local Social and Affordable Housing Solutions - winner for the Public Policies Award category.
Developing a city-wide social and affordable housing strategy in Thessaloniki to combat homelessness and housing exclusion started in 2019 - amidst a vacuum in social housing policy and social housing stock.

03/02/2022

Europe Housing Forum 2021 was a hybrid event which aimed to bring together housing sector players to learn, collaborate and position housing as a key driver of sustainable cities and economic growth.

The Europe Housing Forum welcomed diverse stakeholders and practitioners engaged in the topic of decent, affordable and environmentally sustainable housing.

Europe Housing Forum is organized by Habitat for Humanity International.

Interested in watching recording of the sessions? Visit: https://europehousingforum.eu/

19/11/2021

Congratulations to Material Mapper - winner in ShelterTech Award for Technology category.

Brief summary of the winning proposal:
Material Mapper is the first data platform enabling material reuse at scale to solve the problem of construction being the cause of over 40% of trash in landfills globally.

It is an estimating and forecasting tool to locate reusable construction materials.

The city map shows all future demolition sites and allows user to search by address, type of building, type and quantity of material and date of demolition.

An advanced search tool allows to filter according to the type of building, date of demolition and quantities of each respective material category that would result from the demolition site.

A chart view projects all material types, quantities and date frames of availability.

Organization: MaterialMapper AS
Country: Norway
Type of organization: Start-up
Sector: Markets

Find out more:https://www.materialmapper.com/
Read about other finalists: https://europehousingforum.eu/awards/

This category is sponsored by Hilti Foundation

ShelterTech Award for Technology Category:
To recognise housing design and construction innovations led by the private sector that produce new housing construction technology improvements and advancements that improve the affordable housing construction at scale.

This category focuses on innovative technological solutions (products and services) that support the sustainable reactivation and transformation of housing and urban habitat towards a future with a healthier, more inclusive and resilient life.

19/11/2021

Congratulations to WohnZukunft – Energy-effcient residential quarter management methods for CO2 and cost reduction - winning proposal in Best Practices Award category.

Brief summary:
Birgit Gnädig, tenant in one of the applied quarters, summarized: ” I don´t want to miss this solution anymore. There is peace of conscience when I leave my apartment. I know, during my absence there will no heating energy be wasted. When I come back, my home is cozy and warm. This is a beautiful solution, and I am very satisfied”

The verdict of the tenants is surprisingly clear: We were skeptical, but now we are excited. We found “Digitization” weirdly at first, but heating cost savings now make the benefits visible. The verdict of commercial landlords from municipal and cooperative housing companies and the owner of large commercial campuses is also surprisingly clear: we have learned how digitization can make us mediators of major energy efficiency processes and strengthen our active role. At last, we can add significantly improved energy-saving processes to our portfolio– with low
investment costs– without having to fear a landlord-tenant dilemma.

Best Practice: Over the Five years that the project was in operation, we collected ideas from four different housing and real estate companies, combined them into a testbed with representative pilot project buildings and reference buildings at different locations and anticipated the digital future in the residential quarters by means of concrete implementations. For the first time, we have tested new, digitally supported business models with future potential, listed concrete questions, and evaluated key figures to find answers.

Axel Gedaschko, president of the German GdW, announced in his laudatio speech for this best practice project:
“Finally, the point is to decorate best practices and then handing over these results to other housing companies as an example that should be duplicated. There are chances which are much more intelligent than imaginations of politicians and brains of ministers.”

Organization: green with IT e.V.
Country: Germany
Type of organization: NGO
Sector: Association for digitally driven energy efficiency solutions in quarters
Subject area: Energy efficiency of residential buildings/energy poverty
Geographical scope: National
Start year: 2015

Find out more: https://green-with-it.de/
Read about other finalists: https://europehousingforum.eu/awards/

This category is sponsored by Whirlpool

Best Practices Award Category:
To recognise innovations in adequate and affordable housing solutions along the housing continuum with the potential to scale, resulting in material reduction in the affordable housing deficit and improved living conditions of low-income households.

This category focuses on initiatives promoted by either public or private actors, public-private partnerships, or individual persons that implement notable practices to overcome or mitigate challenges and problems in housing, while taking into account sustainability, inclusiveness and needs of vulnerable populations.

19/11/2021

Congratulations to Initiating holistic local Social and Affordable Housing Solutions - winner in Public Policies Award category.

Brief summary:
The development of a city-wide social and affordable housing strategy in Thessaloniki to combat homelessness and housing exclusion has started in 2019 led by the Municipality of Thessaloniki and supported by the URBACT ROOF Network. It intervenes in a Greek context where there is no overarching housing policy, 0% social housing stock and one of the most severely affected countries in the EU in terms of housing cost overburden for low-income households (over 70%).

The participatory processes involved has led to joint planning with NGOs, local authorities, universities, activists, practitioners, ministry representatives in the city actively engaging in the initiative and collectively designing measures. The first intervention undertaken collectively has been the finalisation of a first of its kind baseline study on housing supply and demand and housing exclusion in the metropolitan area. The study has created the backbone for data driven policy making and of the setting up of a Social Rental Agency (SRA) under MDAT which will socialize public and private properties ensuring housing provision to those most in need in coordination with Municipal services and national homelessness programmes.

In tandem, it will support the energy upscaling of the aging housing stock in the city, combating energy poverty as well as urban shrinkage. In order to support the identification of specific housing stock MDAT is starting a mapping exercise for the identification of closed/empty homes (estimated at123,000 units out of 480,000) that can be brought into the programme and ensure the utmost impact in terms of:
1) energy upscaling,
2) urban regeneration,
3) social inclusion and social mix,
4) inter-generational support,
5) combating urban shrinkage,
6) increasing the sustainability and viability of integration and inclusion programmes for homeless, refugees, Roma, unemployed, disabled persons.

Organization: ΜΑΘ ΑΕ ΑΟΤΑ- Αναπτυξιακή Μείζονος Αστικής Θεσσαλονίκης ΑΕ Αναπτυξιακός ΟΤΑ Major Development Agency of Thessaloniki – MDAT
Country: Greece
Type of organization: Inter-municipal company for public benefit
Sector: Local development
Subject area: Combating housing exclusion for multiple vulnerable groups (homeless, low-income HHs, Roma, migrants)
Geographical scope: City
Start year: 2019

Find out more: https://mdat.gr/?lang=en
Read about other finalists: https://europehousingforum.eu/awards/

To recognise ground-breaking innovations in housing policy that create a more enabled environment for affordable housing and provide best practices to impact housing policy around the world.

Public Policies Award Category:

This category focuses on innovative public policies proposed by public actors (agencies, companies, organisations, networks, associations, partnerships or bodies) across all sectors and levels of government that help improve housing conditions, and promote participatory processes, involvement of civil society, the private sector and other levels of government, and inclusive governance, while taking into account specific needs of low-income and vulnerable populations.

19/11/2021

Day 4 - the final day of Europe Housing Forum is about to start.

Join us virtually and share your experience: https://europe-housing-forum.dealroomevents.com/registration

Sessions today:
13:00 - 14:30 Plenary - Affordable financing models and business models for renovation: how to finance renovations in Central and Eastern Europe and not drive costs up (Europe Focus)

Breakout Sessions (14:30 - 15:15)
1. Harnessing innovation for inclusive and green renewal of social / affordable housing neighbourhoods in Europe
2. Dynamic approach to social housing: Is it possible to organize social housing in Central and Eastern Europe as one of the elements of one’s housing career?
3. What implications does the Fit for 55 package have for Central and Eastern Europe region?
4. Models to bring together stakeholders to scale up multi-apartment renovations in Central and Eastern
5. Voices from the field: Policies and systems to ensure equitable access to housing in informal settlements in the Global South

15:30 - 17:00 Closing Plenary - The role of large cities in providing affordable housing in Central and Eastern Europe (Europe Focus)

17:00 - 17:45 Award ceremony: European Housing Innovation Awards

18/11/2021

Day 3 is over.

As we close another day of The Europe Housing Forum we would like to thank all of the speakers, moderators, and participants for making the event such a great learning and sharing opportunity.

Day 3 started with a plenary where we tried to look for solutions of energy poverty in Central and Eastern Europe through energy and social policies.

As parallel breakout sessions started we had a chance to hear about climate smart solutions for resilient housing, challenges and opportunities of improving Cooperative Housing in Central and Eastern Europe as well as to dwell into possibilities of cooperation between and towards housing. We also discussed the initiative and took a look at Central and Eastern Europe region (which surprisingly doesn't have to be that similar).

The program continued with a roundtable on energy efficiency renovations as means of addressing energy poverty in the COVID recovery in Europe.

Last discussion of the day showed us that there is much work needed in the field of affordable housing. We discussed affordable Housing initiative and the New European Bauhaus: EU policy implications at national and local levels.

Just a reminder. Tomorrow (Friday Nov 19,2021) is the last day of The Europe Housing Forum. Agenda is packed with great and inspiring session. Come and join us online: https://europe-housing-forum.dealroomevents.com/registration

18/11/2021

Join us in 60 minutes to discuss similarities and differences between Central and Eastern Europe.

With shared history baggage and analogous problems faced nowadays, Central and Eastern Europe region countries are often perceived as very similar. The aim of this session would be to analyse this assumption in the context of housing. What is the role of central governments in tackling housing issues, are there national housing strategies and what is the main focus, what is the role of local authorities, what is the share of municipal housing of the housing stock, how has prioritizing ownership become so dominant? Are there any countries in the region that could be role models?

In order to participate in the discussion you need to register first: https://europe-housing-forum.dealroomevents.com/registration

Speakers:

Mincho Benov – National director, Habitat for Humanity Bulgaria
Zsolt Szegfalvi – National director, Habitat for Humanity Magyarország
Magdalena Ruszkowska-Cieślak – National director, Habitat for Humanity Poland
Roberto Patrascoiu – National director, Habitat for Humanity Romania
Zoran Kostov – National director, Habitat for Humanity Macedonia

18/11/2021

We are starting Day 3 of The Europe Housing Forum with discussion how to combine energy and social policies to address energy poverty in Central and Eastern Europe?

The most vulnerable populations and low-income households in Europe have been continuously suffering from the great challenge of energy poverty, which is the impossibility of families having enough funds to pay for basic energy needs. Energy poverty is a burden that affects Central and Eastern European countries in particular, and the causes of energy poverty can be related to poor quality construction of homes, lack of access to energy provision, privatization of the energy market, etc. To overcome this pressing issue, energy subsidies and energy efficiency policies need to be integrated with social policies, and the big question is how governments can provide policies which are well-designed, effective in the long run, and do not cause prices to increase in the energy market? A group of EU representatives and policymakers will discuss how to ensure that this policy mix is effectively implemented on different levels of governance, what are some existing good practices in Europe that can be used as inspiration, and how to engage citizen participation in the process to fight energy poverty.

Speakers:
Kadri Simson – European Commissioner for DG-Energy
Karlis Goldstein – Member of Cabinet with the Commissioner for Energy
Donáth Anna – Member of the European Parliament, Hungary
Andrzej Rajkiewicz – Vice-President of the Board, National Energy Conservation Agency, Poland
Elena Szolgayová – Architect and urban planner and Co-chair of the Housing 2030 initiative, former Director General of DG Housing Policy and Urban Development at the Ministry of Transport and Construction of Slovakia

Day 3 is packed with great and interesting agenda. Check it out here: https://europehousingforum.eu/program/

You can still register and participate online: https://europe-housing-forum.dealroomevents.com/registration

17/11/2021

Day 2 of The Europe Housing Forum is over.
Today we opened with discussion about Impact of climate change on vulnerable populations and the role of housing.

After that we continued with parallel discussions on Housing investments as a cross-cutting solution to tackle climate change and stimulate the economy, Applying market systems development approaches to housing: the journey so far, Housing innovation to radically improve the lives of low-income families and we tried to answer the question: Is housing the solution to homelessness in Central and Eastern Europe?

Roundtable in the afternoon focused on The role of public-private-people partnerships (P4) in promoting social / affordable housing opportunities: Advancing innovative solutions and the closing plenary explained Diverse approaches and common challenges to housing in Western, Southern and Eastern Europe.

We continue tomorrow with packed agenda (https://europehousingforum.eu/program/). You can still participate by signing up for free: https://europe-housing-forum.dealroomevents.com/registration .