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TENANTGLOBAL

I N T E R N A T I O N A L U N I O N O F T E N A N T S ’ Q U A R T E R LY M A G A Z I N E October 2004

A word from Sven

page 1

A win-win set up!

Report from

the IUT Congress

page 3-6

IUT in Ljubljana,

Slovenia.

page 7

NAHT, USA, fights to

save social housing

page 8

Lisbon and gentrification

page 9

The Swedish Model

of housing subsidies

page 10-11

Collective living

in Kaliningrad, Russia

page 12-13

EU influence on housing

page 14-15

New literature and CD

page 16

C O N T E N T S

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2004

November 8-9: Housing and Urbanisation – trends and perspectives, Ljubljana, Slovenia.November 9-10: Quality of life in Europe and the role of social aspects of housing. Bratislava,Slovakia.November 28-30: UN / ECE - Conference on Social Housing. Vienna, Austria

2005

January 26-31: World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil.February 21-24: Housing the poor through the private sector. International workshop in Bangkok,Thailand.March 14-15: Informal meeting of the EU Housing Ministers. Prague, Czech Republic.May 20: DMB National Assembly / German Tenant’s Day 2005. Kiel, Germany.May 19-21: International conf. on restructuring large housing estates in Europe. Ljubljana, Slovenia.29 June - 2 July: “Housing: New Challenges and Innovations in Tomorrow’s Cities”. ENHR conferen-ce in Reykjavík, Iceland.September 6-8: Housing and Globalisation - call for papers! Asia-Pacific Network for HousingResearch. Kobe, Japan.October 3: International Tenants´ Day / UN World Habitat Day

2006

June 19-23: UN World Urban Forum, Vancouver Canada.

P.O. Box 7514103 92 Stockholm, Sweden

Tel +46-(0)8-791 02 24/791 02 25Fax +46-(0)8-20 43 44

E-mail: info@iut.nu Website: www.iut.nu

Publisher andEditor: Magnus Hammar

October 2004Publication Design: Cinna Gross

Cover Photo: Peter Forsman

Calendar

For more information: http://www.iut.nu/conferences.htm

A word from Sven, new IUT PresidentIn Birmingham, at the 16th congress of the IUT, I was elected as new IUT President for 2004-2007. I feel very honoured indeed and I look forward to three very exciting years.

IUT has a very important role to fill, by bringing tenants together from all across the world.Tenants in different countries have different experiences and different problems to tackle and wemust always seize the opportunity to exchange information and experiences.

One of the most important tasks is to constantly lobby for everyone’s universal right to good,sound and affordable housing. Also, everyone should be able to feel safe and secure in his or herdwelling.

The Congress adopted the statement “Affordable Housing for All”. Too many people liveunder poor circumstances, or even worse – they do not have shelter at all. There are too manythat can not afford to pay the rent.

In spite that the world’s governments have signed declarations that guarantee everyone’s rightto decent housing – there is yet very much to be done! And we will remind them!

The congress also dealt with the usual matters; IUT revised statutes, motions were discussedand decided upon, and a new IUT program for 2004-2007 was adopted. This program putparticular stress on the right to affordable rental housing.

Also, we have a very comprehensive and useful platform in the Tenants´ Charter. We now havethe instruments and we now need to make policy makers, researchers, decision makers and peo-ple in other key positions to pay attention to thecontents of the Tenants´ Charter. And to makethem act in favour of this Charter.

We in the tenant movement, nationally as wellas within the IUT Board and Secretariat, need tobe seen and heard in the debate whenever there isan opportunity. It is my aspiration and ambitionthat we shall bring our positions forward duringmy term of office.

IUT member organisations in:

AustriaAustraliaBelgium

BeninBosnia-Herzegovina

Canadathe Congo (Dem. Rep.)

CroatiaCzech Republic

DenmarkEcuadorEnglandEstoniaFinlandFrance

GermanyGreece

GreenlandHungaryIcelandIreland

IndiaItaly

Japan Latvia

Macedonia, FYR the Netherlands

New ZealandNigeriaNorway Poland

PortugalRomaniaScotland

Serbia and MontenegroSloveniaSlovakia

SpainSweden

SwitzerlandTanzania

TogoUganda

USAWales

Sven Carlsson,IUT President

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The IUT Congress in Birmingham, England, August 6-8,gathered some 80 participants from 20 countries. By invi-tation from TPAS, Tenant Participation Advisory Service,the IUT congresses run parallel with TPAS´ annual confer-ence. Altogether we were over 800 delegates that conferred,mingled, danced and exchanged views and addresses. It wasa win-win set up. IUT participants cast an internationalflavour to TPAS conference and IUT speakers providedTPAS´ delegates with information on the housing situa-tion in countries outside the UK. And without TPAS´ lo-gistics and invitation to participate in parallel events, suchas workshops and study tours, we would not ourselves beenable to organise such a successful congress.

The outcome?Well, as all of you who have participated in similar eventsknow, the outcome is rarely very dramatic. As it should notbe – if the preparations and pre-conference debate have beenproperly dealt with.

1. The congress adopted the Tenants´ Charter. It is now muchup to IUT’s 54 members to pursue their local and nationalgovernments to implement and bring these paragraphs intotheir recommendations, legislation and policies. The Char-ter, in seven languages, is available from the IUT website.

2. The congress also adopted the revised IUT Statutes. Whatperhaps affects our members the most are the new mem-bership categories, and appurtenant fees. From 2005 therewill be three categories; Board members, Members, andAssociated Members.

The fee for Board Members will be, as previously, negoti-ated according to their respective turnover and ability (andwillingness!) to pay. The minimum fee today is 1500 Euro,or 1850 US$. Members will pay a minimum fee of 50 Euro.Finally, Associated Members are all those who are catego-rised as consumer organisations or other organisations thatinclude issues as secure tenure, access to affordable housingand tenants´ rights in there work programs. Also, presentIUT members that can not afford to pay the 50 Euro feewill become Associated Members.

THE IUTCONGRESS

TPAS and IUT joint opening ceremony. From left; retiring IUT President Elisabet Lönngren, TPAS Chief Executive Phil Morgan, retiringTPAS Chair Ms Angela Clapp and Peter Dixon, Chair Housing Corporation England. PHOTO: PETER FORSMAN

A win-win set up!

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Housing and the effects ofHIV and AIDSTwo statements were negotiated and adopted; one regard-ing the effects of AIDS and HIV, with special emphasis onthe loss of breadwinners. When household members, whocontribute to the family income, fall ill and can not contin-ue working - this has grave effects, often resulting in evic-tions and homelessness. Other direct or indirect effects areincreasing number of street children and mothers, sisters ordaughters who are forced to enter prostitution.

Affordable housingThe second statement concerns the increasing lack of af-fordable housing around the world. This scarcity often de-pends on the selling and privatisation of public or socialhousing, or decreasing government financial assistance tosocial housing.

Homeownership has been the leading star for many gov-ernments. These in fact even though that rental housing isthe most common tenure form in the world, and will doubt-less stay so. Many, particularly in the developing countries,live as tenants of necessity. But many in Europe and in NorthAmerica and Australia live as tenants as of choice because itis convenient and they prefer to spend their money on oth-er services or goods.

There will always be a need for affordable housing. Ac-cess to affordable and sound housing is, with regard to na-tional economy, more financially sustainable in the long rum.

It could be me…And worth considering – anyone of us, today physically andfinancially well off, can quite easily become less well offthrough divorce, illness, unemployment or other unexpect-ed and unwanted occurrences in life. Then we too would inmany cases look for affordable housing!

Housing and DemocracyAffordable housing also has an impact on political stability.Societies that can provide its inhabitants with housing aregenerally politically more stable. Lack of affordable housingcan contribute to a breeding ground for unstable and un-democratic societies.

New IUT PresidentMr Sven Carlsson of Sweden was elected as new IUT Pres-ident for 2004-2007. Mr Carlsson succeeds Ms ElisabethLönngren as IUT President. Mr Carlsson, as Ms Lönngren,is a long time elected representative of the SUT, SwedishUnion of Tenants.

Why now Sweden again? Well, primarily for practical andfinancial reasons as the IUT Secretariat is sponsored by the

SUT and is accommodated in the SUT headquarters inStockholm.

Mr Carlsson said that the IUT faces a multitude of tasksbut he wanted to emphasise two; Affordable housing foreveryone and secure tenure. “Affordable, secure and decenthousing is a human right that must remain our priority. Wecan never tamper with these demands. We, The IUT and itsmembers, must raise our voices, sharpen our pencils, and bepresent in the debate whenever we can”.

Thanks to his namesake, the English national foot ballcoach, Sven will be for ever remembered by - at least - theBritish delegates!

Study visits and workshopsThe IUT congress delegates also had a choice of work shopsand study visits. IUT and TPAS together offered over 70different workshops and several study visits to nearby hous-ing estates and to the historical Shakespeare country. A fewextracts;

Ms Nadja Horvath of the Austrian Tenant Organisationdiscussed the future of the housing in Austria. Today,Vienna has a stock of over 75 per cent rental housing. Butwill housing stay as a public task or will it become an issuefor the private market in the future?

Mrs Alicja Sarzynska President of the Polish Associationof Tenants reported of a Poland in deep financial and socialcrisis, with 20 per cent of the population being unemployed.Many less well off tenants live in very insecure conditions.Mrs Sarzynska outlined the background to the present dif-ficult housing situation in Poland.

Mr Georg Hardt presented the Swedish model for hous-ing subsidies – see page 10.

HRM, King Dr. Frank Eke, representing the Nigeriantenants, described a housing and rental market which insome perspectives are familiar to us in the (over?)developedworld. But with regard to issues like secure tenure and rentsetting - any attempts to make comparisons become irrele-vant.

”Bush proposes radical housing cuts and 3,5 million USfamilies experience homelessness each year”.” said MrMichael Kane, Executive Director of National Alliance ofHUD Tenants, NAHT. Read more on page 8.

Hand outs from the IUT workshops are available onwww.iut.nu/conferences.htm

Last, but not least – thanks TPAS!Without your co-operation, logistics, helpfulness and pa-tience we could not have done it. Yes, a congress – but notwith so much of everything for everyone! Special hugs toJanet Killilea and her staff!

Text: Magnus Hammar, IUT

THE IUTCONGRESS

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Former IUT PresidentElisabet Lönngren andDeborah Pippen, TenantsUnion ACT, Australia.

Cora Carter, TAROEEngland.

Alicja Sarzynska, President of the Polish Association ofTenants and Richard Hewgill, Chairman of TPAS, England.

Front: Magnus Hammar,IUT, and HRM King Dr

Frank Eke, Hon.President of the National

Union of Nigerian Tenants.Back: Bengt Lundström,Sven Bergenstråhle and

Barbro Engman,President of the Swedish

Union of Tenants.

Party time! From left:Helene Toxværd from theDanish Union of Tenants,Lars Aasen representingthe Norwegian tenantsand Mária van Veen,Director of the Neder-landse Woonbond.

Elisabet Lönngrendelivers farewellgreetings as IUTPresident

From left; StanislavKrecek, President of theCzech Union of Tenants,Christina Wessling andBarbro Engman of theSwedish Union ofTenants.

ˇˇ

PHOTOS: P. FORSMAN AND M. HAMMAR

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Statements from the IUT congress, with 24 signatures.These have been sent to governments, and local authorities in all respective IUT-countries.Copies are available from: http://www.iut.nu/conferences.htm#Congress_04

THE IUTCONGRESS

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The transitional experienceIn the last fourteen years, the transitional countries havegone through many drastic changes particularly in the hous-ing area. In this respect, most transitional countries have alot in common. They all experienced a general sell off offormer social flats at very low prices while the governmentsdid not realize how much damage that would cause. Thehousing prices rocketed on all markets and pushed the mostvulnerable social groups to the edge of the market, particu-larly as the social housing became one of the last prioritiesin most countries. Most flats available on the market areaffordable only to the more affluent citizens. Denationali-sation in most transitional countries caused a total confu-sion, injustice and an unbelievable breach of human rightswith many families losing their home they had lived in fordecades.

The Tenants Association of Slovenia has been strugglingfor twelve years to improve the position of the tenants tohardly any avail. Each failure, however, gives us even morestrength to carry on fighting for the rights of the tenants.

It´s a challenge!This year we are talking over the regional CEE IUT officewhich is a great challenge, an opportunity and a liability

for us to link the tenants in the transitional countries. Ourobjectives will be:• Providing information on how to arrange the tenancy indifferent CEE countries.• Collating information and composing an overview of thetenancy legislation and court practice in Europe and in theUSA.• Establishing the data base of the problems caused by thetransition in the CEE countries.• Forming proposals of the IUT measures for solving theproblems of the tenants in CEE.• In cooperation with the relevant EU institutions, estab-lishing good practice in the area of tenancy in the EU.

Our priority will be to establish what the present situa-tion is in the transitional countries. For this purpose we arealready preparing a questionnaire on the tenancy in thesecountries. It will be introduced in our meeting on 3rd and4th December in Ljubljana when we will also have an offi-cial opening of our office.

What we want to do in our office is to gain a clear andthorough picture of the housing situation in the countriesof CEE, which problems are country specific and which arecommon to us all, and establish a thorough plan how tofight it. We know that some countries are more affectedthan others, the legislation and tenancy vary but we believethat the variety itself is a starting point for our future workand that we should unite to solve this issue in the CEE.

Fore more information, please contact Ms Lidija Bertoncelj,e-mail: lbertoncelj.cup@siol.netwww.zdruzenje-najemnikov.si

Ms Mateja Fajs and Ms Edita Stok are among those who will represent the regional CEE IUT office in Ljubljana. Here together withSven Carlsson, IUT President.

Change-over from Prague to Ljubljana

The IUT Congress handed over the baton and the

responsibility for the IUT office for Central and

Eastern Europe, CEE, to the Tenants Association

of Slovenia.

Text: Lidija Bertoncelj

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NAHT, USA, gives President Bush a notice to quit!

60 000 families this year are under the threat of forced

evictions from their homes by the current federal cuts

of subsidy payments to housing authorities. In 2006

another 250 000 households are threatened and

900 000 in 2009.

For NAHT, one fact is clear; it is the tax cuts for the richand the war in Iraq that are responsible for this bad housingpolicy. In this particular electoral year, the National Alli-ance of HUD Tenants, NAHT, couldn’t miss out on betray-ing the on-going erosion of the national’s affordable hous-ing supply as private owners opts out of the HUD subsidycontracts.

NAHT´s annual conference took place in WashingtonDC, in June. This was an exceptional opportunity to deliv-er a giant and loud “notice to quit” to President Bush and toHUD Secretary Jackson, who recently declared that “pover-ty is not a condition, it’s a state of mind” …

Three buses transported the conference delegates to HUDheadquarters where they joined local demonstrators. On thefinal day of the conference a large group of delegates partic-ipated in actions in the Capitol with its senators and con-gressmen. In the morning we participated in a Senate Fo-rum together with one senator and the assistants of threeothers. This is one way how US citizens can meet with theirelected state representatives. After lunch NAHT delegatesmet with some of their own elected representatives fromrespective states. Republican representatives had been invit-ed, but none showed up. Democrats representatives gaveinsurance that the situation will change if George.W. Bushis not re-elected.By Jaquay Tiset, IUT and CNL, France

USA Tenants Fight toSave Social HousingIn the USA, unregulated markets and government

policies to undermine social housing are aggravating

a chronic problem of homelessness.

The National Coalition for the Homeless estimates that 3.5million US families experience homelessness each year. Al-though it is well-established that the private sector cannotproduce housing affordable to low income families that needit without massive government assistance, the US govern-ment has not sponsored a new low-cost rental housing pro-duction program since 1983.

The explosion of massive, visible homelessness dates fromthat time, as the low income population which needs gov-ernment housing assistance has grown more rapidly thanthe available supply. The problem has been made worse bythe lack of private market rent controls in the US, whichputs much of the rental housing stock beyond the reach oflow income families, who must double and triple up to avoidhomelessness. (Only New York, California, New Jersey andMassachusetts allowed rent controls ten years ago; these reg-ulatory systems have all been weakened or repealed by thereactionary “property rights” movement in the US in thepast decade.)

“the American Dream”In its housing policies, the Bush Administration has empha-sized assistance to first time homeowners through down pay-ment assistance and access to low cost credit. While this ver-sion of “the American Dream” undoubtedly works for someworking and middle class families, most poor and workingpeople in the US are unable to purchase homes due to poorcredit, unstable or low incomes, and high costs in manymarkets.

Although most states and large cities maintain some sortof rental housing production programs, their resources arewoefully inadequate and fall far short of housing needs. Onlythe federal government, through its housing agency HUD,the Department of Housing and Urban Development, hasthe potential resources to meet thechallenge. But since the Reagan Ad-ministration’s dramatic cutbacks ofHUD programs in the early 1980’s,the nation’s supply of affordable sub-sidized rental housing has stagnatedand declined.

By Michael Kane, Executive Directorof NAHT, National Alliance of HUDTenantsE-mail:michaelkane@saveourhomes.orgwww.saveourhomes.org

IUT correspondent M. Tiset, middle, and NAHT demonstratorsspeak out.

Michael Kane

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For nearly 50 years until 1986, the legislation in place didn’tallow lease raises in Lisbon and Porto. Knowing leases wouldremain unchanged, landlords demanded high premiums forfirst contracts. Portugal thus had the highest initial lease val-ues per square meter in Europe, even tough the average in-come of its population was among the lowest in the Europe-an Union.

456 % risesAfter 1986, when lease freezing was over, leases were updatedby, firstly, a special correction factor and afterwards an annu-al increase raise dependent on the inflation rate. The resultwas that a lease on an apartment dating from 1970 accruedby 456% in the last 18 years, an amount considerably abovethe inflation in the same period. Notwithstanding, old leasesare still significantly lower than new leases, particularly onthose apartments which were never renovated (the majority)since renovations usually imply a substantial lease raise.

Young people buyHowever, the housing rental market in Portugal is rather small,as young people usually prefer to buy instead of leasing. Thisis mainly due to the policy pursued by government in thelast decades, based on generous subsidies to interest rates forhouse purchasing loans, making the amount due monthly tothe lending bank generally lower than a new lease.

Staying or leaving?According to the announcement recently made by the Gov-ernment, the main policy change will be the complete liber-alization of old housing leases. The landlord makes an initialproposal of a new lease (increased), which the tenant willeither accept or reject. The tenant can also try to negotiate bymaking a counterproposal. If the landlord rejects it, the leas-ing contract is terminated and he will have to pay the tenanta compensation for leaving. The value of this compensationwould amounts to 24 times the lease he asked for in the ini-tial proposal.

Should this new law be approved, a tenant wanting to stayin the apartment he/she rents has to make the landlord be-lieve he/she is interested in leaving. The landlord, fearing hewill have to pay a huge compensation, will thus be persuadedto make a low proposal for lease increase. On the contrary, atenant wanting to leave, will try to persuade the landlord he/she is interested in staying, so that the lease increase is higherand the compensation for leaving also higher.

PORTUGAL New housing rental legislation raises concern among city tenants

New housing legislation was recently announced in Portugal. This will deeply affect

people of low to medium income living in popular neighbourhoods.

If lower income residents are expelled from the city centres to the peripheral sub-

urban areas this would also transform the present vivid and colourful quarters into

after-six o’clock dead office blocks or housing for the ascending middle classes.

My home at stakeThe Associação dos Inquilinos Lisbonenses (AIL) has signi-fied its strong reservations to this new law. AIL fears that inthis sort of poker game between landlord and tenant, wherethe stake is the right to live in a house to which one aredeeply attached for sentimental, moral and family safety rea-sons, the winner will be the party with the highest financialability to “bluff”, i.e. normally the landlord.

Text : António Maria da Silva Freire, Associação Inquilinos Lis-bonenses, AIL – Portugale-mail: antonio.freire@caixabi.ptwww.alp.pt

Tiled houses are common in Lisbon. PHOTO: M.HAMMAR

1010

Housing – one of theSwedish “systems”The former European Commissionerfor the Environment, Margot Wall-ström, from Sweden, has ironically re-marked that Swedes often use the ex-pression “In Sweden we have a system”,as an answer to all kind of questions.The expression implies that there is acoherent and logical model with a sub-stantial degree of public participation.This description does not reflect thesituation of housing subsidies in Swe-den. Housing subsidies in Sweden areunfair to the rental sector, ineffectivewhen it comes to income distributionand involving less and less public par-ticipation over the years.

Housing as a milk cowThe popular view of housing subsidiesin Sweden is perhaps that the publicsector spends a huge net amount onhousing. But when we compare taxesin total (the state income) with subsi-dies in total (the state expenditures) avery different picture appears, see dia-gram 1. In 1991 there was a clear, al-though small, net amount of publicmoney spent on the housing sector.Today the situation has radicallychanged, and the housing sector pays alot more in taxes than it gets in return.The housing sector can easily be char-acterised as a cash cow!

When it comes to housing subsidiestax deduction and housing allowancesform the lion’s share, see diagram 2.Tax deduction (30% of the interestrate) applies to owner-occupiers only.Housing allowances are paid to pen-sioners, households with children orhouseholds with applicants in the agebetween 18-29, and are related to in-come and housing costs.

Interest subsidiesas a major tool for newconstructionThe interest subsidies have traditional-ly been one of the most important sub-

sidies but the present rules are muchstricter than before. Interest subsidieswill be paid to new construction andrenovation projects, if they reach “low-est acceptable standards”. The subsidyamounts to

30% of interest charge, based on afixed interest rate (currently 4,21%) ofthe project, together with an absolutelimit per each project. Owners-occupi-ers are not eligible for interest subsidies.

Investment grants are meant to facil-itate new construction in areas withhousing shortage. Depending on thedegree of housing shortage the grantsvary between Euro 9,900-23,100 perflat constructed, and will be given onlywhen interest subsidies have been grant-ed. The costs of project must also be“reasonable”.

The public sector gives credit guar-antees to projects (both new construc-tion and renovation) that have beengranted interest subsidies. Guaranteescan be provided up to 90% (in somecases 95%) of the market value and onlyto loans advanced by financial institu-tions operating in Sweden.

Other subsidies, comparatively small,are also given. Municipal companies

Housing subsidies in SwedenBy Georg Hardt

with extremely bad economies, mainlybecause of surplus of housing, are giv-en financial support, together withsometimes tough stipulations. Othersubsidies worth mentioning are supportfor environmental purposes, for exam-ple decontamination of radon andmore efficient use of energy.

Subsidies, but moreselectiveFollowing a trend in the western worldsubsidies in Sweden have become lessgeneral and more selective/income re-lated. Together with a reduction of thesubsidies this causes some serious prob-lems, and the topic will be dealt withmore closely in the next issue of Glo-bal Tenant.

Georg Hardt is Rent Negotiator, with theSwedish Union of Tenants.E.mail:georg.hardt@hyresgastforeningen.se

Public and private rental 16th and 18th century housing in Stockholm. PHOTO: MAGNUS HAMMAR

1111

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

3800

4500

7436

3289

Taxes in total Subsidies in total

EURO, million

Subsidies and taxes 1991 and 2004

1 5711 375

24458 13 28

Housing allowances

Interest subsidies & investment grants

Credit guarantees

Tax deduction

Government offices

Others

Subsidies – an overview

EURO, million. Year 2004, total 3 289.

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In the Mayor´s office, there is a modelof how the Victory Square in Kalinin-grad will be reconstructed. Accordingto the new general plan, modern Sovi-et buildings and old German houseswill become more of an entity. TheLenin Statue will be replaced by anarchangel, when the gigantic Russianorthodox cathedral Christ the Saviourwill be inaugurated in 2006.

During the last years, some new busi-ness buildings and shopping centres inshining steel have been erected in amaz-ingly high speed. Around the centre,“New Russians” are designing new vil-las or restoring old German houses, risehigh fences and in install frightful dogsbehind.

But most of the citizens of Kalinin-grad still live in low quality buildingsfrom the Soviet era, with entries smell-ing of cat pee and cabbage. However,the apartments are equipped with bath-rooms, functional kitchens and in thesmall but cosy rooms you will find nicecarpets, comfortable sofas and floweredwallpaper.

Collective living in

KALININGRAD Text: Gunnel Bergström

The Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, with one

million inhabitants, has many collective flats as

a heritage from the Soviet era. People share

kitchen and bathrooms, even if they are

strangers. Some find it terrible, while others en-

joy the collective life.

Collective flats withshared bathroomsLilya Prishep is the head of the residen-tial office, under the Mayor. She has tophone a colleague to get the currentfacts: “Around half a million people areliving in the city, in some 140 000 apart-ments. Most of the flats belong to themunicipality. We have no exact figuresabout how many tenants there are, butyou see a tendency to privatize the apart-ments”

Mrs Prishep continues: “Probably40 000 apartments are shared by sever-al generations of a family. And apartfrom this, there are about 15 200 “kom-munalkas”, where several households,not related to each other, live in thesame apartment and share bathroomand kitchen. Some 3 300 of these are“obshezhityes”, municipal dormitoriesfor students or workers.”

In Soviet times, the rent was extreme-ly low, and electricity and water servic-es were free. Today the rent has goneup, and heating, water, gas, electricity

and telephone bills are very high. Manypeople need to have 3 different jobs tomake ends meet.

– No, they do not exist here, LilyaPrishep answers, when asked about ten-ants organisations.

Beauty and povertyIn the outskirts of Kaliningrad city, youwill find several low worn out Germanhouses. Where Katya lives, they havegas heating, water and sewage.

Katya is 20 years old. She lives in oneroom together with her mother and twosisters, 17 and 18. In the other roomlives an old lady with her son. They twohouseholds have one stove each in thepoor kitchen with naked bulbs. Redfresh flowers are standing in a crystalvase on the table. The fire is always lit,to avoid leaking gas! There is a tinybathroom, but the girls prefer to showerat a friend’s place or go the local “ban-ya”, which is a Russian kind of sauna.

– We are lucky to have water bothday and night, as we are living on theground floor. Many households, also in

13

modern houses, get no water at all dur-ing the night.

Katya explains that there are certainrules for taking care of the apartment;“We are five persons here, so we are re-sponsible for one week at a time.”

– I would not mind moving out ofthis flat, she continues. The house is inbad shape, and there is no use com-plaining. Recently we painted the stair-case ourselves.

Katya is well dressed in a leather coat,and like many Russian women she

KALININGRAD– Russia within the EUKaliningrad County is a Russian

enclave between Lithuania and

Poland. It used to be a part of

East Prussia, but during World

War II it was bombed by Eng-

lish planes, and later besieged

by the Soviet Red Army. When

the new borders of Europe were

staked out after the war, Stalin

demanded that this territory

would be a part of the Soviet

Union, and he closed it as a mi-

litary zone. Since the beginning

of the 1990s, Kaliningrad is

open for foreigners, but foreign-

ers need a Russian visa.

– Kommunalka! she exclaims. Pleasedon´t talk to me about kommunalka! Imoved from it two years ago to live ina flat of my own. I miss the kommun-alka life so much I want to cry! I havespent all my life in kommunalkas.

– You never feel lonely there, she says,there is always somebody to talk to.

In the last flat I visit there are fivehouseholds living in one room each.They share a kitchen and a bathroom.There are gangsters living next door,says Elena lowering her voice.

– But they are always very sweet tome, when they knock on the door, ask-ing for a cup of sugar. And they werealways prepared to defend me if I wouldneed it!

Of course, I think to myself, kom-munalka life must be very dependenton the people who are living there. Butprobably Elena would change any dullatmosphere with her guitar and songs!

Gunnel Bergström is a freelancejournalist.E-mail: gunnel.bergstrom@telia.com

Katya is always lookingbeautiful, in spite hermodest living conditionsin a Kaliningradkommunalka.PHOTO: ANDREEA ERLI

Living in a kommunalka is still verycommon in Russian cities. Whether youlike it or not, it is very much depending onyour neighbours – and yourself!LLLUSTRATION: IGOR PASCHTCHENKO

.

looks perfect, even though she livesunder very tough conditions. Katyaworks as a book keeper at a TV factoryand spends her evenings with friends,sometimes at bars and discos.

– I want to spend my life in Kalinin-grad. We are closer to the West herethan they are in Moscow.

Kommunalka nostalgiaElena is around 40 and she plays theguitar and sings romantic songs with adark voice.

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1. State support and EU competition

According to the ruling of the European Court of Justice in2003 (The Altmark case), the EU rules allow state supportwhen four conditions are met:a. The recipient undertaking must have public service obli-gations to discharge and those obligations must be clearlydefined.

b. The parameters on the basis of which the compensation iscalculated must be established in advance and in an objec-tive and transparent manner.

c. The compensation cannot exceed what is necessary to coverall or part of the costs incurred in the discharge of the publicservice obligations, taking into account the relevant receiptsand a reasonable profit.

d. Where the undertaking is not chosen in a public procure-ment procedure, the level of compensation must be deter-mined by a comparison with an analysis of the costs that atypical transport undertaking would incur (taking into ac-count the receipts and a reasonable profit from dischargingthe obligations).

Procedurally, this means, that EU member states need notnotify such compensation to the Commission. But, of course,the Commission remains free to take up cases on its owninitiative or on a competitor’s complaint. It may order com-pensation payments to be recovered, when it considers thatthe conditions set out by the court are not met.

The Swedish case:The Swedish government has since 2000, financially sup-ported weak Public Housing companies. The private sectorhas not been able to apply for these grants. Both the Proper-ty Owners´ Federation, in June 2002, and also the SwedishGovernment (because they want an acceptance from theCommission) have reported, filed complaints, to the EUCommission.

The Property Owners´ Federation claims that subsidies goagainst the competitive rules of EU and EC Courts.

The Swedish government claims that the public housingstock in Sweden is comparable with social housing in otherEU countries, and as such excepted from the EU rules oncompetition. By law in Sweden, it is the responsibility of the290 municipalities to supply housing. And municipal com-panies in Sweden can not, by law, go into liquidation, as anyprivate company can.

The German case2 :The European Commission has decided to refer Germanyto the European Court of Justice because of its discrimina-tory rules on housing grants. The Commission considersthat the German rule whereby houses outside Germany areexcluded from the scope of the grant for the construction oracquisition of personal accommodation, available to personssubject to unlimited German tax liability, is contrary to theEC Treaty provisions on the free movement of persons.Germany replied to a formal request from the Commissionto change the legislation by defending the rules and declar-ing that it was not willing to change its legislation.

2. EU and rules on procurementHousing associations and registered social landlords are re-garded as “public bodies” and as such governed by publiclaw for the purposes of EU procurement law. Accordingly,contracts have to be advertised in the Official Journal of theEuropean Union. The EU procurement rules, Council Di-rective 93/36/EEC, apply for contracts over 200 000 Eurofor public supplies contracts and over one million Euro forworks.3

NB. It is the total value, not the annual value, of the mul-ti-year contracts that counts under the rules!

So a way to get around this is by breaking a big contractdown into smaller ones...

3. EU and VAT

VAT is one of the areas where the principal of subsidiaryapplies. But together with the issue of Competition rules,there have been opinions on trying to harmonize VAT, valueadded tax.

Through EU directive, 1999/85/EC, the member coun-tries of the EU had the possibility, on a trial period, to makeuse of reduced VAT till the end of 2003 on certain “labour-intensive services” e.g.- Renovating of private accommodation (not building ma-terial)- Hairdressing business- Small repair jobs (cycles, shoes, clothes etc.)

The aim was to assess its effectiveness in terms of creatingjobs and combating the black economy.

Nine countries - not Sweden, Germany or Denmark -

The European Unionhas influence on housingText: Magnus Hammar, IUT

Even though housing is incorporated in the principle of subsidiarity1 ,

several areas do exist where the EU has competence and will have effect,

or has already had effects, on housing.

rules

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applied for a reduction of VAT. The directive has now beenprolonged until December 2005.But the big issue still re-mains, whether it will be possible to harmonise VAT in all25 EU countries? Possibly to 15%, or 17,5% ? Big nationalrevenues are at stake!

4. EU and Standardisation

The European standardisation institutions are CEN (TheEuropean Committee for Standardisation), CENELEC (TheEuropean Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation)and ETSI (The European Telecommunication Standardisa-tion Institute). In the directive 98/34/EG2 these organs ac-knowledge the responsibility for the development of Euro-pean standards. It must be observed that these organs arenot EU organs, but institutes which, on a commercial basis,work with standardisation of e.g. toys, and then make pro-posals to EU.

How can EU standardisation have affects on the rents?One example: Today, many public and private intuitions

are busy trying to prevent crime and vandalism. Close cir-cuit cameras, locks, security alarms, safety doors and win-dows etc. are used. At present, manufacturers of these, andtheir organizations of interest, are involved in standardisa-tion of these products. We might assume that these manu-factures are not expected to present a “low” standard, butrather a “high” standard, which also would point at an ex-pensive standard!

Thus, there is a large private financial interest of stand-ardisation. Building companies can then be motivated toinstall better, but unfortunately more expensive, windows,doors and locks.

In the long run this can even effect on how insurance com-panies will formulate their rules for how and when insur-ances will apply. Together with a higher premium? Togethersuch changes and measures can entail higher housing costs.

5. EU and the Structural FundsToday it is not possible to make use of the structural fundsfor housing projects. Several of the ten new members fromeast and central Europe would like to see things otherwise.They would like to open up the possibility of using struc-tural funds for e.g. the renovation of houses, energy savingmeasures like insulation, new windows and for the exchangeof pipes and electricity cables. The Commission states thatif this was possible, the funds would be drained within a fewyears.

However, there are several funds that supply resources toupgrading of public areas such as parks, squares, playgroundsetc.

6. StatisticsWhat is a room in Europe?Within the EU today, there is lack of concordance as to whata room is! How big is a room? Does a room need a window?Most EU countries, when asked for statistics, use the UN /

ECE definition: Minimum 4 m2 (43 sq foot), and a mini-mum height of 2 meters (6.56 foot). But countries often usenational and higher requirements when they report on thenumber of rooms.

What is a dwelling housing?One example of misleading figures: in EU’s statistics, all HSB-flats (cooperative housing for profit) in Sweden are countedfor as social housing! And these 500 000 flats are sold andbought, just like any 99-year lease flat in the UK.

How much housing, how many dwellings, does a coun-try have?In France and Spain, 2nd homes, such as summer houses, areincluded in the statistics. This is not the case in most otherEU countries. In Spain these homes account for 14 per centof the total stock.

A tenant?Within the present 15 EU countries, there are different ide-as as to what a tenant is, and how many tenants there are. Itwill be even worse when Eurostat and others will try to col-lect data and statistics from the ten new EU members. E.g.sublettees are counted in some countries and not in others.

Cost of housing.There are two main ways in Europe today on how housingcosts are calculated;A. The output of housing services (dwelling, fuel and elec-tricity), as percentage of the total private consumption.B. Housing expenditures as a proportion of disposable in-come.

Using these two methods result in different answers.

A debate on different groundsThere is a danger that when ministers and other govern-ment representatives, researchers, representatives for non-governmental organisations etc. speak of e.g. homelessness,rents and the cost of housing, they use figures from quitedifferent output data.

Today EU collects statistics related to housing throughEurostat – The Statistical Office of the European Commu-nities. A number of other institutions also collect statisticaldata; The European Mortgage Federation, UN / ECE (Eco-nomic Commission for Europe), The European CentralBank, OECD, RICS, and a number of individual EU mem-ber states.

All in all, there is much to be gained by using statistics –but the existing statistics of today are often old and unrelia-ble.

1 The principle of subsidiarity regulates the exercise of powers. It is intend-

ed to determine whether, in an area where there is joint competence, the

Union can take action or should leave the matter to the Member States.

Compliance with this principle may be monitored in two different ways,

either politically or legally.

Housing, defence, education, health care, and also taxation system are among

the areas where the EU do not have competence, and should be left to the

respective members to decide on.2 Source: RICS, European Alert August/september 20043 http://simap.eu.int/EN/pub/docs/thres/thres-en.htm

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Rental housing: An essentialoption for the urban poor indeveloping countries

This publicationfrom the UN Habi-tat fills a gap in thehousing literature.How many of ushave an image ofrental housing ind e v e l o p i n gc o u n t r i e s ?This book de-m o n s t r a t e sthat most

arguments le-ading to the current bias against

rental housing are highly flawed. Argu-es for more tenure-neutral housing po-licies, and urges governments to modifyregulatory frameworks, develop creditprogrammes and other forms of assis-tance to support housing production,with a view to creating more rental hou-sing and to improve the existing stock.Published by UN-Habitat. ISBN 92-1-131687-1 (printed). Available also fromUN Habitat website:http://www.unhabitat.org/programmes/housingpolicy/pubrental.asp

Getting It Right’ CD RomFrom TPAS, England: The ‘Getting ItRight’ CD Rom is now available. ThisCD Rom was developed as a resultof specific needs identified during thedevelopment of a tenant empower-ment strategy for Chester-Le-StreetTenants’ Panel, and the need to de-velop better practice in relation totenant involvement in Chester-Le-Street.The CD, consisting of around 14 vi-deo clips, with linking text, shows in-volvement work taking place. It is anaccessible learning tool to aid theestablishment of good practice in in-volving tenants and highlights inno-vative approaches to involving under-represented groups in tenant partici-pation. The CD also contains bestpractice examples, training program-mes, good practice guidance, check-lists and exercises to help staff andtenants develop an effective way for-ward, plus details of resources, use-ful contacts and web links.Available from TPAS,info@tpas.org.uk

Country Profileson the Housing SectorThe Country Profi-les on the Hous-ing Sector are in-tended to assistthe Governmentsof countries witheconomies intransition in im-proving the per-formance oftheir housingsector whilepromoting sustainable deve-lopment. They analyse trends and policydevelopments, and make an overall ass-essment of the political, economic and

Housing Policy:an End or a New Beginning

About practi-ses and les-sons learnedof local socialhousing poli-cies in CEEcountries.Part 1: PublicHousing Poli-cies and Eco-nomic and So-cial Perspecti-ves. Part I I:Country Profiles a. Rental Model (CzechRep. and Poland), b. HomeownershipModel (Estonia, Romania, Slovakia) c.Bulgaria. Part III: State and Local Gov -how to improve partnership.Published by the Open Society Institutein Budapest, Hungary: Available at: http://lgi.osi.huEditor: Martin Lux 2003. ISBN: 9639419 46X, E-mail: lgprog@osi.hu

Housing and Housing Policy in theNordic CountriesNordic countries are often thought tohave broadly similar housing policies,because they have traditionally had sim-ilar policies based on shared fundamen-tal values. In housing however thesecountries have distinctive national diffe-rences in housing finance, support poli-cy, tenure legislation and rent policy. Thisbook takes an in-depth look at housingpolicies in the five Nordic countries.Published by the Nordic Council. Editor:Martti Lujanen. ISBN 92-893-1027-9www.norden.org/publikationer

social framework of the sector in theprocess of reform. This work was initia-ted by the UN / ECE Committee onHuman Settlements in the early 1990sin response to requests from its mem-ber States.2000: Lithuania, 2001: Romania, 2002:Rep.of Moldova and Albania, 2003:Armenia, 2004: Russia.Published by the UN: http://www.unece.org/env/hs/cph/mail.htm

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NEW LITERATURE AND CD

October 4, International Tenants Day…was observed in several countries with different focuses. Aselection;

In Canberra, Australia, The Tenants Union; ACT, launched the“Leaking Roofs” report, and in Canberra they enjoyed the Te-nancy Week, the whole week!

In the US, NAHT together with NAC (National Coalition for theHomeless), organised protests in seven major cities such as;Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Dallas. The protest wasagainst the Bush´ Administration to cut 600 000 families fromthe federal Section 8 housing programme.

In Örebro, Sweden, the Tenants Union organised activities un-der the theme” Defend our Children’s´ Housing Environment”.

The Association of Tenants from Serbia and Montenegro setoff a campaign “They Have Rights Too!” “They” meaning theelderly in Serbia and Montenegro.

The Norwegian Tenants´ Association organised a Habitat Dayconference in Oslo under the theme of “Cities, Engines forRural Development”.

More information is available on: www.iut.nu/conferences.htm#TenantsDay04

Planning ahead?

In 2005 we observe the Tenants´ Day

on Monday, October 3.