“Social Housing” – a Way to Assure Housing for Everyone
“Social Housing” has been touted as the way to resolve the current housing crisis. The best example of it comes from Vienna, Austria. After World War I, the City of Vienna began to create beautiful, mixed use, community oriented and truly affordable housing for a large percentage of its population.
This video, produced in 2021 describes what happened in Vienna, and shows how “Social Housing” can be attained elsewhere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVuCZMLeWko
EXAMPLES
One example of a jurisdiction that is moving in the direction of providing social housing: Montgomery County, MD – Housing Opportunities Commission https://www.hocmc.org/about-us/administrative/faqs/
“The Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County (HOC) is the county’s largest provider of high-quality, amenity-rich, affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households. As Montgomery County, Maryland’s designated Public Housing Authority (PHA) and Housing Finance Agency (HFA), HOC serves more than 20,000 Montgomery County households through a variety of innovative housing programs. HOC owns more than 9,400 apartments, townhomes and single-family home rental properties and leases or administers another 7,400 properties that provide affordable housing. We provide rental assistance to more than 8,000 low-income households through the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program and an additional 1,600 households through other types of subsidized housing programs. HOC also has financed more than 3,400 privately-owned multi-family buildings and helped more than 2,000 households purchase a home through the homeownership and mortgage program. HOC also maintains a pipeline for expanding and redeveloping its own housing portfolio into the future.
“Administering federal, state, county and private affordable housing programs, HOC develops housing, provides mortgage financing to developers and first-time homebuyers, manages rental units, administers rental subsidy programs (including the Housing Choice Voucher Program) and provides counseling and support services to lower income individuals and families in assisted housing.
“HOC is governed by seven volunteer commissioners who are appointed by the County Executive to serve five-year terms and confirmed by the County Council. The Commission usually meets on the first Wednesday of each month.”
For further information on Social Housing: https://www.socialhousingcenter.org/ An example of a “social housing” bill that was introduced in 2021 in the Maryland State Legislature: https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/cmte_testimony/2021/ent/1VtxC2NrJldGSdoqo2Rx2sUN9_l_ZYLLo.pdf