Traduction de «locataires d'un logement social » (Français → Anglais) :

1. Notes that, as a result of the current economic and social crisis, on its own the market is increasingly incapable of meeting the need for affordable homes, in particular in densely populated urban areas, and that rising housing and energy costs are aggravating the risks of disease, poverty and social exclusion; notes the increase in several Member States in the number of evictions and properties seized by banks; urges that measures be taken in response to these challenges; is concerned about both the direct and the indirect impact of some austerity measures in the context of the current social and economic crisis – such as cuts in ...[+++] housing benefit and social services, the taxation of social housing providers, the cancellation of new housing projects and the selling off of parts of national social housing stocks – which could exacerbate a vicious circle of long-term social exclusion and segregation;

54. Invites the Member States and the relevant authorities to simplify the process of applying for social housing and to make the allocation of homes more fair, transparent and impartial, according to the specific social, economic and cultural circumstances of each Member State, with a view to eliminating discrimination and to preventing any ‘avoidance effect’ for particularly vulnerable groups, a phenomenon which has the effect of aggravating residential spatial segregation and creating ghettos; draws attention, in this regard, to the pertinence of arrangements employed ...[+++]in some Member States, such as a list of legally defined, precise and transparent allocation criteria to encourage a social mix, anonymised applications for social housing, the advertising of vacant properties, the introduction of rating systems for housing applications, clear separation between the bodies which determine the criteria and those which allocate housing, and appropriate governance arrangements for the allocation of housing in order to promote broad based social mixing;

12. Calls on the Commission to warn the Member States, in its country-specific recommendations, when reforms are likely to threaten investment in social or affordable housing, and not to issue recommendations regarding the size of the social housing sector in individual Member States; criticises the fact that, as part of fiscal consolidation programmes and in line with specific recommendations made by the Commission on housing market action, some Member States are squeezing capacity in the sector by taxing social housing providers; is concerned, furthermore, about the restr ...[+++]ictive definition of social housing given by the Commission within the field of competition policy, which only targets disadvantaged groups;

Several Member States address access to housing, including social housing.

However, social housing has been set in the spotlight of this debate on the example of the Netherlands. This is not a one-off case – tenants’ associations and tenants’ representatives, in particular, have suspected for years that Europe’s focus on competitiveness at the very least restricts social housing in Europe, if not aims to make it completely impossible.

Consequently, a country that is not considered to be anti-liberal, namely the Netherlands, has been brought to book for having committed, and I quote, ‘a manifest public-service error, because the subsidised social housing cooperatives counted among their tenants households that were not socially disadvantaged’.