Highlights

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Today, that housing is created mostly by limited-profit associations, organizations that often receive public support in return for tight government restrictions on rent charged and a requirement that any profits be put back into more social housing construction. Many of these limited-profit associations are operated by labor unions.

✏️ What a fascinating model. Limited-profit, government support, tight rent control, profits going into more social housing construction, operated by labor unions. 👓 socialism empowerment 🔗 View Highlight

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Apartments can be passed down among generations under the original terms. The tying of rent charged to a percentage of household income means that renters in Vienna are protected from losing their home when illness or job loss occurs.

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half of the city’s residents live in social housing, which creates a price-dampening effect on for-profit housing that is forced to compete with high-quality subsidized housing. That competitive pressure combines with vigorous rent control on private housing to make Vienna one of the cheapest renting cities in all of Europe

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stark contrast to the United States’ practice of typically allowing landlords to terminate leases without cause, all while subsidizing wealthy landlords and homeowners and underfunding subsidized housing so dramatically that three of every four eligible households cannot obtain the federal subsidies they qualify for.

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At least two-thirds of any private land sold must be diverted to rent-limited housing. “Since the ground that can be built on is a limited resource, we don’t see housing as a fit for the private market,”

✏️ A shift in perspective. Land is limited, so that doesn’t mean make more profit, it means housing is not good for private market (where profit is king), it needs to be controlled to provide the best for people first. 🔗 View Highlight

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anyone with an urgent housing need gets immediate shelter and prompt placement in a municipal apartment. Vienna has virtually no visible homeless population and no slum areas of low-quality housing and concentrated poverty. And Vienna is not alone: several other nations, like Singapore and Finland and Sweden, have followed a similar blueprint in achieving remarkable social housing success

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