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You don’t know what you have until it’s gone… This widely shared life lesson corresponds to public, cooperative and social housing, too. Access to a decent, affordable home is the foundation of pretty much everything else. At the same time the lack of it is at the core of the urban crisis that unfolds in many metropolitan centres across Europe, widening inequalities and generating a number of social challenges.

If you follow the news in the EU Member States that have had elections or that are in the middle of electoral campaigns it is evident that housing is a hot topic on the political agenda. Realisation of the importance is a good first step. Actual implementation of the right mix of measures, as there is no one-size-fits-all solution for housing, is the much tougher second one.

Our world is changing faster than the ways we provide homes. Housing providers will need to operate in a totally different ecosystem and they are already investing in social and technological innovation that will allow them to be future proof.

At the same time, we must keep in mind that there is no magic switch. Once policy-makers take steps back concerning housing policies, it’s very difficult to recover. It’s hard to start a housing system from scratch; we see this clearly in many countries, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe that are currently exploring ways to diversify their housing offer as a response to growing needs. Social Platform continues to call for more investment in the housing sector. As well as addressing present needs with immediate effect – such as improving people’s skills, health conditions and employability – investment housing, health, employment and social services can prevent or reduce future needs that would give rise to additional costs and reliance on services in the future. Read more on Social Platform’s work on investing in services here.

This crossroad is a timely occasion for all of us to make noise in support of what we have in this post-truth era that reproduces stereotypes and myths around housing. Housing Europe has therefore teamed up with large group of partners to bring the first International Social Housing Festival (ISHF) to life. We have many reasons to celebrate as well as numerous great examples to share of the work housing associations carry out on the ground changing people’s lives.

There’s still a lot to be done, many changes we have to embrace so that we can provide the future homes. We therefore need a broad alliance of all forces to deliver this vision. We invite you to be part of it, too!

By Sorcha Edwards, Secretary General of Social Platform member Housing Europe, the European Federation of Public, Cooperative and Social Housing.
@HousingEurope