ISHF 2022

In June 2022 we participated at the third International Social Housing Festival in Helsinki, Finland. It took place from June 14 - 17. The 2022 edition of the International Social Housing Festival (ISHF) explored housing as the foundation of good life. The festival highlighted the role of social, public and co-operative housing in achieving socially and ecologically sustainable living in our cities now and in the future. Colleagues of the Amsterdam housing associations organised three workshops.

Anne-Jo Visser, managing director AFWC, made a report of her experiences in Finland (only in Dutch):

Het Finse (sociale) huursysteem klinkt bijna te mooi om waar te zijn. Nauwelijks daklozen, huurwoningen met veelal veel gedeelde voorzieningen, een wijze van woonruimteverdeling die breed gedragen is, het mengen van huur en koop binnen 1 appartementengebouw en dan zijn de Finnen ook al vijf jaar het gelukkigste land ter wereld. Kortom, al het beleid is gericht op het tegengaan van verschillen in de samenleving en het voorkomen van dakloosheid en dat leidt tot een rechtvaardig woonsysteem.

De vraag is welke werkzame bestanddelen in Nederland overgenomen kunnen worden? Meer lezen? Open haar verslag hier> 

Anne-Jo werd ook geïnterviewd voor de website van Munifin (bank voor investeringen in publieke domein), lees het interview hier >

Throughout the continent, young people are in a more precarious situation than the generations before them. They face a polarized labour market and a shortage of affordable housing in the cities where economic opportunities await them. The consequence: a sharp rise in homelessness among young people and an increasing average age of leaving the parental home. Does ineffective housing policies create a new ‘lost generation’ in Europe? In this interactive session, we set the scene by presenting research on the housing situation of young people. We invited all participants to define the issues young people face in their home cities. We clustered the approaches carried out in various locations. In our discussion, we focused on: Temporary housing for youngsters - Co-housing for youngsters - The role of the neighbourhood for vulnerable youngsters.

You can download the report of the workshop. 

Every city has its ‘rough neighbourhoods’ where marginalization and stigmatization lure. These places have had the attention of policy makers for years. We now feel that there is a new elan in which the power of local communities is the key to a strong future for these places. In this event, the Amsterdam housing associations shared some tools we developed recently and invited partners in other countries to share experiences, best practices and challenges in other urban areas. 

You can download the report of the workshop. Photo: the workshopleaders from the Amsterdam housing associations.

The  European Commission has recently launched ‘fit for 55’: 13 legislative proposals to accomplish our European decarbonization goals. In 2015 we set our goals in Amsterdam. This package of proposals aims to set more ambitious goals and moreover find ways to achieve these goals. The overall goal is to reduce carbon emission by 55% in 2030 relative to 1990 and eventually to achieve climate neutrality in the EU in 2050. We would like to explore the transitions that housing providers across Europe need to make and learn from each other’s experiences. What are the main challenges in each country? With whom do they need to collaborate and how do responsibilities differ? How are tenants involved? And importantly, what can we learn from each other, to speed up the transition to really get ‘fit for 55’?