Our Chief Executive, Jas Bains, recently spoke at the International Social Housing Festival. In this piece, he shares his experience of the event.
Introduction
I recently had the privilege to be invited to speak at the International Social Housing Festival. The event takes place every two years and draws in delegates from across the world to share experiences, network and explore potential collaborations for learning and funding opportunities. The UK Government acquired ‘Associate’ Country status in 2023 and has become eligible to apply for specific European Commission funding, mainly relating to research and innovation, which gives us the opportunity to be part of these conversations and explorations.
The content of my speech reflects longstanding personal thoughts that housing is part of the wider social economic, environmental system. And that as the change has accelerated, it is essential that social housing organisations engage with the structural issues posing long term risks, such as food insecurity, energy costs, worklessness, health, elderly and childcare, etc. More of this in later weeks and months as we prepare the groundwork reflecting the changing tide for housing associations led by Community Housing Cymru (Strategic Horizons).
Conference discussions
The conference opened, and a recurring theme throughout, with powerful messages about housing as a fundamental right and its importance as a platform for good healthcare, education, routes into work, self-esteem, dignity, love and stability. It was a reminder of how too often we can become absorbed with the idea housing is a speculative asset rather than the foundation of dignity. I shared the astonishment of the conference when American colleagues said neither the US constitution nor federal law explicitly guarantee housing as a human right. Conversations took place in similar vein about how market operators were commercialising social housing. There was much discussion about the problematic nature of defining ‘social’ housing’, with jurisdictions, administrations and institutional investors applying wide interpretations. Many saw this as mission-creep, away from our social purpose.
The chronic shortage of housing supply was discussed in various other sessions and conversations. German delegates spoke about how 13% of the population lived in households overburdened by household costs. That is, they spend more than 40% of total disposable income on housing. Spaniards commented on its second major housing crisis of the 21st Century. The first was a mortgage crisis, triggered by the bursting of the real estate and credit bubble. The current crisis is a rental crisis, characterised by unaffordable rents, and that is against a backdrop of consistently above average national economic growth. In Italy public housing has declined due to privatisation. Around 150,000 families are facing eviction, and currently there is no state budget allocated for social housing or rental subsidies. French colleagues described the situation as a systemic crisis, that is despite 3 million vacant homes with the situation impacted by declining construction rates.
My primary takeaway is we must do more when talking about housing to counter the dominant narrative of being characterised by the rise and fall of prices, a source of investment and wealth, as a consumer good and shift it towards why our homes matter. We need to talk more about how decent homes positively affect people. Equally, we cannot afford to be naïve to the economic reality in which government budgets are contracting.
However, it is doing neither state, market nor non-profits any favours by persisting with financial systems structurally misaligned with emerging risks, such as climate shocks, energy crisis and social breakdowns. We must find ways to restore long-term, patient capital to fund place-based investment by partnering with impact-driven investors leveraging institutional, philanthropic (great case study shared by Australian housing colleagues) and public funds. For that we also need better data tools including artificial intelligence to predict tenants at risk of health and tenancy decline and measures to quantify social and financial impact.
The importance of what has become the new norm for the housing frontline was shared by an outstanding Irish professor who came through a personal journey of childhood homelessness and associated traumas. She spoke movingly about the individuals and agencies who were around to steer a path to education through person-centred support, counselling and subsidised training, and the erosion of the safety net that has followed sustained periods of austerity. In the absence of what went before she said it was crucial social housing organisations were stepping in to help fill gaps. I understand that has its challenges as well as limitations, but hearing that call made me proud of Hafod’s neighbourhood coaching approach. You cannot put a price, but you can apply something far more important: value for all those our colleagues helping to prevent customers falling through the trap door. How can we do this more systematically is what follows in the next section.
The Danish system
There were good examples of place-making cited by delegations from Denmark and the Netherlands. Social housing organisations, municipalities and national governments were strong on the idea that people live better lives as part of a community. I was particularly struck with the Danes approach and briefly outline the exchanges below.
Firstly, some background to the Danish system. Each housing estate is a self-supporting economic unit, and the finances generated cannot be used elsewhere. When mortgage loans are repaid for dwelling construction, tenants continue to pay the same level with the extra going into the National Building Fund to meet maintenance, improvements and into new housing.
Of particular interest was the Fund’s data analytical capacity for social housing which is regarded on the same exemplary level as Singapore. I met with the Danish Social Housing Fund's President, Bent Madsen, who also happens to chair Housing Europe and came away convinced all social housing organisations should aspire to this standard.
Bent Madsen, said: “We know where you live, work, how your kids perform in school, even your health history. We use this anonymously to identify needs. Surprisingly, part-time jobs for teens improve school performance more than tutoring. We did not expect that.”
The plans also integrate crime prevention, employment support, and volunteer networks. Bent continued by saying: “In some areas, outcomes for vulnerable families are now better than in private housing.
“We are not just maintaining buildings; we are investing in communities. Right now, we are testing small clinics in housing areas to keep elderly residents out of hospitals.”
Investment Index
Where an opportunity for Hafod presents is the Danish Social Housing Fund was used as the trial for Plus Value’s newly created impact investment index.
The Index is a means to capture both social and financial impact relating to large scale capital investment projects, which investors and governments are keen to see and potentially groundbreaking because it could unlock significant new investment. Funding for the Index is provided by the European Commission.
Further conversations are to be held with our Danish friends to see if we can test a variation of the model on Hafod estates or a recently handed over new development. My other takeaway from this conversation is that Hafod is a forerunner in the neighbourhood conversations when the case for alignment of statutory services to community-led initiatives at neighbourhood level is coming to the fore (Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods; NHS Confederation: Resetting the relationship towards a model of health creation and care). We now need to take our work up another level to capitalise on opportunities being explored by health agencies to develop neighbourhood health services.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I consider it a privilege to have attended this conference and for Hafod to become the first Welsh housing association invited to present at this prestigious event. It was a powerful reminder why social housing is important not for what it is but what it can do for people. In talking about housing with messages that are values-based, this helps people understand housing as a fundamental right and need. Housing represents stability, and as shared through lived experiences by keynote conference speaker, Professor Katriona O’Sullivan, it created the possibility of a quality education, family, love and exciting future work.
Society falls into the trap that says you buy a house and keep moving up, and that your generation will be better off than the last. In terms of housing narratives, it was a reminder of the dangers of the current dominant narrative which does less to address systems but instead place fault lines with individual behaviours and actions (Grenfell, Rochdale etc). When the safety net disappears, they are characterised as lazy, feckless, etc. It was a prompt that if we want change, we must be intentional.
I want to end with a story expressed by a conference speaker. She spoke about well-intentioned colleagues who raised funds for a homelessness charity by doing a sponsored bike ride. Within weeks of completing the ride they were back to execute the same policies and practices that were compounding homelessness.