Tell the EU: Homes for people not for profit
To the European Commission, European Parliament and Council of the European Union
Petition
No matter who we are, or where we come from, we all deserve somewhere to call home. Homes create community. Now more than ever, European leaders need to step up and play an active role in holding our communities together.
For too long, governments have chronically underinvested in public homes and neglected their responsibilities, meaning our access to safe, affordable homes is in the hands of profit-hungry massive private developers and corporations.
We’re calling on you to:
- Accept that we can no longer continue with the system as is, the new Housing Commissioner should recognise this challenge throughout EU policymaking
- Direct funds to enable the delivery of public, cooperative, social, and community-led housing, this is our pathway as the way out of the housing crisis
- Support a movement for fair energy transition by leveraging transformative funds that bring together all existing tools, ear-marked annually for socially responsible renovations. This should include low-carbon housing supply targets, a broadened scope beyond renovation for real transformation
- Do everything in your power to address the issue of home exclusion, this could include supporting the right to housing, including housing exclusion as a core section of impact assessments for EU policies.
- Introduce European legislation that would limit short-term rental platforms’ impact on decent and affordable homes for people
- Address the imbalance of investment firms accumulating home ownership by ending tax breaks for investor firms
- Create directives to stop evictions and protect homeless people
Why is this important?
Europe’s extreme housing crisis is spiraling out of control. [1]
Sky-high rents and doubling house prices are causing misery for so many.
Young people are stuck living with parents for years. Entire neighborhoods are being hollowed out by holiday lets. And rip-off landlords are forcing people onto the streets.
But there’s hope: EU leaders are finally paying attention. Ursula von der Leyen promised action on affordable housing when she was re-elected European Commission President last month - the most powerful position in the EU. [2] Now we must hold her to it, and ensure affordable homes for all.
There’s a crack in the door. Before our moment passes let’s push the EU to take radical action to genuinely fix the housing crisis.
References:
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/news/article/2024/may/06/fix-europe-housing-crisis-risk-fuelling-far-right-un-expert-warns
[2] https://www.politico.eu/article/von-der-leyen-bets-big-on-housing-european-commission/
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