On October 9 and 10, the “More than four walls” project team took part in a conference organized by the newly founded Issue Network ‘Housing and Social Policy’ at the German Institute for Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research (DIFIS) in Bremen.
The conference, entitled “Housing as a social issue – Which answers does the welfare state offer?”, was attended by many representatives not only from academia, but also from politics, administration and civil society. In the course of two days, the research and policy field of housing was approached from various professional perspectives – topics included but were not limited to access to affordable housing, the right to housing, increasingly precarious living conditions, homelessness and its prevention, municipal housing policies, and the unequal distribution of property.
Our presentation focused on the leeway available to local authorities with regards to shaping the transition from public accommodation to regular housing for refugees in Germany. In addition to existing research, we also drew on initial findings from the work of our knowledge network’s working groups. This enabled us to illustrate the complexity of local accommodation and housing contexts and discuss municipal policy instruments that had already been tested in practice.
Speaker: Anna Werning, University of Hildesheim
Photo: Anna Werning
