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Description
Increasing inaccessibility of housing results in higher violation of the right to adequate housing in Slovenia. Landlords often give appartments only to well situated people, discriminating against foreigneres, low-income, students and non-employed persons. The rental contracts are often only provisional, payments hidder and non-transparent. Our main objective is to enable establishment of housing cooperatives in Slovenia and contribute toward a provision of affordable, safe and community-lead housing. We will involve diverse stakeholders in the process: initiatives for housing cooperatives, NGOs, civil initiatives, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, municipalities and public housing funds, the general public, banks and financial funds. In the long run our indirect target groups, the younger adults and the elderly, are to benefit the most, as they are also the ones who are most exposed to the housing shortage and living in housing poverty.
We are going to:
- Develop a housing cooperative model for Slovenia through a participatory process, necessary for establishment of tangible cooperative projects and serves as the basis for advocacy.
- Raise awareness, inform and activate the target groups.
- Position the NGO sectors as the promoter and advocate for housing cooperatives. We will systematically connect and strengthen the NGO sector through training and mentorship.
- Contribute to the adoption of legislation and measures that will enable establishment of housing cooperatives through advocacy on the state and local level
Each project partner from Slovenia has a specific expertize that will help us to address the issue more in-depth. IPOP has vaste experiances in spatial planning, PINA in organization and moderation of group processes, Avanta Largo with communication campaigns while the PHF is involved as a critical stakeholder. The partner from Norwas has specific knowledge on housing coops.
Summary of project results
In Slovenia housing is becoming increasingly inaccessible, thus violating the human right to adequate housing. The housing stock is decrepit, there is a shortage of non-profit housing, 30% of the population lives in housing poverty, the rental market is unregulated, housing prices are rising faster than wages, and alternative forms of housing are underdeveloped. The number of homeless people exceeded 6,700 in 2016. The key reason for the housing crisis is underfunded housing supply. The economic crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic coupled with inaction will only make matters worse. With the rise of the turism and short-term rental the housing problem became even grater.
The project focused on promoting the housing cooperatives as a form of housing that could provide safe, modern and inclusive approach to providing affordable and quality housing, successfully combining public and private resources, and could therefore significantly complement the non-profit public housing offer. They prepared the cooperative model for Slovenia and shared it among key stakeholders and advocate for the adoption of legislation and measures encouraging the establishment of housing cooperatives at the national and local level.
During the project implementation the model was developed and will be tested in the future as they managed to get additional funds from other donors to set up a pilot housing cooperative. 4 other coopeartive housing are planned (the municipalities included them in their plans) in 4 different towns in Slovenia.
Summary of bilateral results
The bilateral partner provided training on participatory decision-making processes and solution development.