October 2022 digital edition

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Lessons on housing from Zurich q Esther Alegre, a resident of Sostre Civic co-op in Catalonia, Spain By Anca Voinea Representatives from housing co-ops around the world met in Zurich on 22 September to explore how effective policies can foster affordable cooperative housing. The event was hosted by WBG Zurich, the largest of nine regional associations of Swiss housing co-operatives. In Zurich there are 100 housing co-ops with a 23% market share of all apartments in the city. Nationally, there are 1,700 limited profit housing organisations, including housing co-ops. Together these account for 10% of the total housing stock in Switzerland. In 2011, the city set a specific goal to increase the proportion of apartments by not-for-profit housing organisations from a quarter to a third of all rental apartments by 2015. This target has been met and the city still views co-ops as crucial to the promotion of affordable housing. City-led mechanisms to support housing co-ops include interest-free loans for land purchase, and free long-term renewable leases on city-owned land. Stephanie Fürer, scientific associate, Swiss Federal Office for Housing Switzerland (UNECE) said the country also supports co-ops through its Rolling Fund. Money is granted to co-ops based on the quality of dwellings, disability access and environmental considerations. This fund is administered by co-op umbrella organisations and proceeds from regular amortisations are reused for new loans. Support is also granted via the Bond Issuing Cooperative for Limited Profit Housing, established in 1991 by the Swiss government and the co-op housing movement. It raises cheap finance for non-profit house-building. “There’s close monitoring on who gets the money for what projects so the default rate is close to zero,” said Fürer, adding that the scheme has no cost to the government. “It’s something that could be copied by other countries, if there’s political will.” A key ingredient in this success is the autonomy of co-op apexes, who administer the process. “Needs are met well because the umbrella organisations know what they need – they are close to the members,” added Fürer. 26 | OCTOBER <strong>2022</strong>
Julie La Palme, secretary general of Cooperative Housing International (CHI), said: “We can see the success of co-operative housing in Switzerland, and particularly, here, in Zurich ... and this is a model that is worth emulating in other parts of the world. But Sorcha Edwards, secretary general of Housing Europe, warns that increasing supply alone will not solve the housing crisis in Europe or around the world. She referred delegates to her organisation’s 2021 report on affordable housing, which looks at strategic land policy, purposeful investment and good governance. “A co-op approach to housing has to be part of the solution to this massive global crisis,” she said. “But it doesn’t come on its own. We can’t only rely on people power; the right regulatory structures and financing must in place to allow those co-operatives to flourish.” Housing Europe’s research found that the sector is more likely to promote micro grids for local renewable energy production. Some regulatory constraints prevent co-ops from using the local grid to share the energy they produce between different buildings. Legislation can also be a barrier. In East Europe, housing stock is primarily in individual ownership and there is a lack of regulatory frameworks, institutions and instruments for rental and co-op housing. Seeing that they faced common challenges, groups from Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia and Slovenia set up MOBA Housing SCE, a European network of housing co-ops, in 2017. “Financial actors are not willing to take risks. They’re not willing to support pioneers and experimental actors, and since the sector doesn’t exist, we only have pioneers and experimental actors,” said MOBA’s Zsuzsi Pósfai. MOBA SCE set up its own Housing Development Fund in 2021 with €21,600 (£19.260) of seed capital from ABZ housing co-op in Zurich. “It looks like we will be able to add some additional seed funding from another grant into this accelerator. And from this MOBA can give short-term loans to its members,” added Pósfai. Members applying for loans have to pitch their project to MOBA, which assess its financial viability. They must pay an affordable interest on the loan to the co-op, which will cover the operational costs. In Barcelona, Sostre Civic co-op runs multiple housing projects across Catalonia, the most recent being Cirerers, launched in 2016. The city of Barcelona granted Sostre land to build housing units in Roquetas, a neighbourhood close to mountains. Residents have now moved in. “It is important to have Sostre Civic because they provide the tools that groups can then use and take decisions in their own projects,” said Esther Alegre, one of the residents of the co-op. Ander Zabala Gómez, administrative assistant of Sostre Civic, highlighted the importance of having an ethical bank to get co-op housing projects off the ground. “The solidarity economy network makes it possible for these ethical banks to exist. You need a whole ecosystem that supports each other. Traditional banks do not trust housing co-ops,” he said, adding that the city’s support through the lease of the land was also crucial to the project’s success. Some co-ops support other co-ops abroad. Switzerland’s largest housing co-op, Allgemeine Baugenossenschaft Zürich (ABZ), runs a solidarity fund which has backed 45 projects worldwide with CHF1.35m (£1.26m) in the past three years. The symposium also explored the idea of members who can afford it paying more to subsidise the rent of members on lower income. The co-operative principle of equality can be interpreted differently by different co-ops, said Blaise Lambert, CEO of the UK's Confederation of Co-operative Housing and a board member of CHI. “There are opportunities with varying price models for people on higher incomes to be supporting people on lower or even no incomes. But again, there are some in the co-op housing world who think that that’s a complete anathema to what the model should be about – everyone paying the same.” Overall the key lessons to be drawn from the symposium were the need to have enabling legislative frameworks, supporting local and national governments, a wider co-operative ecosystem and ethical finance providers. p Julie La Palme from CHI tells delegates there are lessons to learn from Zurich A CO-OP APPROACH TO HOUSING HAS TO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION TO THIS MASSIVE GLOBAL CRISIS OCTOBER <strong>2022</strong> | 27
Page 1 and 2: OCTOBER 2022 FROM WATER TO ENERGY:
Page 3 and 4: Co-ops and their communities brace
Page 5 and 6: NEWS RETAIL Management shake-up at
Page 7 and 8: unifying force across the UK. She w
Page 9 and 10: He called on the government to tack
Page 11 and 12: COMMUNITY Residents add a church an
Page 13 and 14: COST OF LIVING CRISIS Conference to
Page 15 and 16: EUROPE EU Care Strategy package rec
Page 17 and 18: USA Co-op leaders given new places
Page 19 and 20: NEW ZEALAND Fonterra rethinks sale
Page 21 and 22: KENYA Co-op Bank of Kenya reports 4
Page 23 and 24: WHO ARE YOUR MEMBERS? Our members a
Page 25: PREVIEW Ways Forward 2022 - Co-oper
Page 29 and 30: t Jackson was flooded in August whe
Page 31 and 32: at the regulatory system, and a rev
Page 33 and 34: gas permanently and ensure the gove
Page 35 and 36: “If you or someone you know is st
Page 37 and 38: CREDIT UNIONS WILL CONTINUE TO DO W
Page 39 and 40: Carter explains that this kind of c
Page 41 and 42: group also offered a special discou
Page 43 and 44: sustainable and organic products. I
Page 45 and 46: through the cost of living crisis,
Page 47 and 48: (completed in 1883) were built and
Page 49 and 50: www.cch.coop cooperative.housing #c
Page 51 and 52: LEARNING AND NETWORKING FOR CO-OP P

October 2022 digital edition

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?