Basel: Government Council implements "right to housing
The Basel government council has presented measures on how it intends to implement the constitutional initiative "Right to Housing". Among other things, a housing foundation and a fund are planned.
With the measures, the Government Council intends to create housing for low-income earners. Overall, the share of cooperative housing, low-cost public housing and housing from the new foundation is to be increased from around 13.5% today to 25%.
A new public-law housing foundation is to build up a portfolio of up to 250 apartments, which will be rented primarily to people with small and medium incomes. An initial contribution of CHF 35 million is planned for this purpose.
A fund of CHF 1.8 million is intended to help low-income households finance share certificates in cooperatives or other non-profit housing organizations. This is because financially weak households are clearly underrepresented among cooperatives, according to the government council. The financial hurdles to joining a cooperative are to be reduced and the mix improved.
Furthermore, the government council wants to triple the supply of low-cost municipal apartments in the canton of Basel-Stadt from 500 today to 1,500. To ensure that the apartments can be offered at reasonable prices, the construction method is to be adapted and a renting system based on cost rent is to be introduced.
In addition to the new measures, rent subsidies will continue to be available to the same extent as before, the government council added. Currently, more than 17,000 households, or 20% of all rental households, receive such subsidies as part of social assistance, supplementary benefits or family rent contributions. (ah)
