The challenge
Cities struggle to keep housing affordable for working and middle-class residents.
The case
Since the 1920s, Vienna has built and owned a large stock of municipal housing and funded limited-profit housing associations, paid for partly through a dedicated housing tax. Around half of the city's residents now live in social or subsidized housing, open to middle- as well as low-income households. Rents across the city have stayed well below those in comparable European capitals, and social housing is not stigmatized.
Why it worked
Owning land and housing for the long term, and keeping eligibility broad, created a stable, mixed-income system with wide political support. It took a century of steady investment; it can't be copied quickly.
Sources
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