New chairman Gehbauer: This is how he wants to combat the housing shortage!

New chairman Gehbauer: This is how he wants to combat the housing shortage!

Last weekend the Association Day of Non-Profits took place in Seestadt Aspern, where Michael Gehbauer was elected as the new chairman. In his keynote speech on Thursday, Gehbauer addressed the challenges facing the non-profit housing industry, including the rent control and the housing construction slump in various federal states. Internal discussions about the current situation were already held on Wednesday following reports from all regions of the country.

One of Gehbauer's central concerns in the GBV association is the promotion of women. This is considered particularly important in order to create a balanced and sustainable living environment. At this meeting, Gehbauer also handed over the chairmanship of the Association for Housing Promotion to Andrea Washietl, who works at Sozialbau AG. Gehbauer announced internal changes to modernize the audit department and the GBV office. With his election to the top of the association, he wants to bring a breath of fresh air and new impulses into the organization.

Challenges in housing construction

The discussions about the social housing offer are also strengthened by current findings from the Hans Böckler Foundation. A study shows that the German state uses three central instruments to promote affordable housing: housing benefit, financial support for social housing and rent controls. However, these measures do not fully achieve their set goals. Despite an increase in supply, the funding of social housing has problems due to time limits and a funding volume that is too low.

What is particularly alarming is the fact that with the current level of funding in the ten largest German cities it would take around 185 years to close the gap in affordable housing options. In addition, the rent cap only has a limited effect due to numerous exceptions and deficiencies in its application. If applied consistently, landlords in 44 major cities would have to reduce their premiums for new rentals by an average of 17 percent in order to bring rental prices to an appropriate level.

Housing benefit and rent burdens

The housing benefit, which is intended to reduce rent burdens, only reaches a fraction of the affected households. Many of these households still have a high rent burden and housing benefit has no direct effect on rent development. According to the study, 5.6 million urban households have to pay at least 30 percent of their income for their accommodation. It is noted that people living alone at or below the poverty line, who can pay a maximum of 5 euros per square meter, are particularly badly affected.

The researchers urgently call for a rebalancing of existing instruments and more investment in social and non-profit housing support. Social housing remained underfunded over the years; In 2014, only 12,617 subsidized apartments were newly built. There is a serious backlog, especially in the metropolises, where there is a shortage of 880,000 affordable apartments. In addition, rents in new social housing are often higher than what is affordable for households below the poverty line.

The findings of these studies reflect the complexity of the topic and the challenges that both the new chairman Gehbauer and the entire housing community have to overcome. The pressure to improve the housing situation for everyone is in the air while the new measures and approaches are tested for their effectiveness.

For more information about the respective study situation and current developments in the areas of housing construction and rent control, see the reporting from the standard and the Hans Böckler Foundation.