Special Rapporteur participates in debates on social housing in Belgium

On June 24^th, the Special Rapporteur Raquel Rolnik attended an event at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), in Brussels, on “Social Housing: what role for the European Union?”. The Rapporteur presented her report on recent trends on housing policies and the right to adequate housing.

In the same event, Karima Delli, member of the European Parliament, presented a report on social housing, and Raymond Hencks, member of the EESC, presented the Committee’s opinion on “Issues with defining social housing”. These presentations were followed by others on the theme from members of EESC, Eurocities, Committee of the Regions and European Commission. The event was very important considering this is currently a moment of housing crisis in Europe.

On the same occasion, she also participated on a two-day colloquium promoted by Cecodhas Housing Europe (The European Federation of Public, Cooperative & Social Housing) in Leuven, on June 24-25. Cecodhas is a network of 45 national and regional federations that together gather about 41 400 public, voluntary and cooperative housing providers in 19 countries.

Called “Where is housing in the future social contract? Housing in times of welfare transformation: what are the new challenges and how to answer them”, the event discussed the current welfare changes and the future challenges to propose common principles and objectives that fiscal and economic policies in the European Union have to achieve in order to ensure for all decent living conditions, specially access to housing. It brought together practitioners, political decision-makers, academics and professionals involved in the housing sector in order to know more about current trends and challenges and future perspectives. The Special Rapporteur gave a key-note opening on June 24^th, presenting the report presented to the UN General Assembly on housing finance that analyses the impact of prevalent housing finance policies and the current financialization of housing production which undermine the right to adequate housing, specially of those living in poverty (link).