Rostock is fighting for more social housing: DMB is demanding billions in subsidies!

Rostock is fighting for more social housing: DMB is demanding billions in subsidies!

The situation on the housing market in Germany is getting worse and worse. Today it became clear at a conference in Rostock that the German Tenants' Association (DMB) is calling for an urgent change of course in social housing. The reason for this are alarming figures: every year more social housing is lost than is being built. The stock of social housing has almost halved since 2006, meaning there are only around 1.1 million social housing units available. That is by far not enough, because over eleven million tenant households are entitled to a housing entitlement certificate, as NDR reports.

Those eligible are currently sinking into the educational quagmire of a housing shortage: Statistics show that there are ten times more eligible households than available social housing. Around 40,000 social housing units disappear every year, while only around 25,000 new subsidized apartments are created. This means that the stock of social housing is falling by an average of 40,000 per year. In order to combat this crisis and increase the number of social housing units to two million by 2030, according to the DMB, 100,000 newly built social housing units are required every year. These are ambitious goals that can only be achieved with an extensive investment program.

Demands for social housing

The DMB proposes that the federal and state governments provide 50 billion euros for social housing in order to achieve the targeted 100,000 social housing units per year. A very central point is that social housing construction must be constitutionally protected as a task for society as a whole. The DMB is also calling for an exception to the debt brake for the investment program in housing construction. Melanie Weber-Moritz, the new president of the DMB, is certain: “We have to create fair housing conditions for normal earners.” This insight is all the more urgent as state funding has been greatly neglected in recent years when it comes to the creation of social housing, as [Mieterbund](https://mieterbund.de/aktuelles/melden/akut- Mangel-910-000-socialwohnungen-missen-in-deutschland/) also notes.

Some federal states particularly stand out in terms of the negative balance: Baden-Württemberg is missing around 206,000 social housing units, followed by Bavaria with 195,000 and Berlin with 131,000. These number games reveal a worrying picture: it suggests that current policy has actually seriously neglected the issue of social housing. It has been officially documented that spending on social housing in recent years has been less than 2.5 billion euros per year. The disproportion between rental expenses for accommodation and the funding for the construction of new social housing is striking: social spending is around eight times as high as the funding.

Future outlook for new residential projects

At the conference in Rostock it was also announced that the city of Rostock plans to create a total of 26,000 new apartments by 2035. This initiative could be a step in the right direction to address the housing shortage. The new Federal Construction Minister Verena Hubertz, who is expected in Warnemünde on Friday, could also contribute to improving the living situation with creative ideas. Time is running out and the signs of the housing shortage are red. By the way, take a look at the figures from the Pestel Institute: According to this, there is a shortage of more than 910,000 social housing units across Germany! As long as the pressure on the housing market remains this high, any initiative to create social housing will be of great importance.