What Vancouver can learn from Vienna model for affordable housing

[SpongeG]

Exhibit on at the Vancouver Museum

The Vienna model for housing sanity

No housing shortage, no waiting lists, no Ponzi scheme-like market scramble. Can Vancouver learn anything from the Austrian way?


In Vienna, 60 per cent of the population lives in social housing projects and there is no shortage of publicly subsidized, rent-controlled units.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF VANCOUVER

Vancouver and Vienna often end up on the top of the "most liveable cities" lists, ranked highly for their quality of life, air, health care and education.

But the two couldn't be more different in one crucial aspect.

Vancouver is a region racked by the negative effects of spiralling real-estate prices and rents, with people bitterly divided over the causes and solutions amid warnings that young people's futures, businesses and urban life are being seriously damaged.

In Vienna, 60 per cent of the population lives in social housing and rents are set so that people pay no more than 30 per cent of their income. There is no housing shortage, no years-long waiting lists for subsidized housing, no mad scramble to pour money into a real estate market that feels like a Ponzi scheme.

When the city releases land for new development, architects, developers and non-profit groups compete to come up with designs that demonstrate how they will create attractive living spaces and a socially integrated community.

This month, Vancouverites are getting a chance to look closely at what's called the Vienna model and talk about whether one city could learn lessons from the other.

The Museum of Vancouver is hosting the travelling exhibit the Austrian government has sponsored on the Vienna model – recently arrived from New York, where it was popular – and a series of debates and tours has been organized around that. In a city desperate for solutions, that's generated a lot of public interest.

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[cornholio]

Austria is a very socialist place, much more so then Scandinavian countries. Its just never talked about much. But yes sooner or later the government will have to get involved in housing in a BIG way. And the sooner the better. Things are not under control and the government is asleep at the wheel. Free market is all nice and good when it works, when it stops working and begins to negatively effect the population thats when it is time for the government to step in. Following the model Austria uses is as good a start as any.