Volkshilfe Hafen is a eco-housing project offering a safe and communal living environment for women, single mothers and their children. The project aims to promote a supportive and lively housing community profiting from a diverse mix of socioeconomical and cultural backgrounds. Especially women at risk of poverty and homelessness but also senior citizens and students can find a home. The community work program provides opportunities for social interaction.
Local
Austria
{Empty}
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Volkshilfe Wien gemeinnützige Betriebs-GmbH Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Marlene Last name of representative: Mutschmann-Sanchez Age: 29 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
By ticking this box, I certify that the information regarding my age is factually correct. : Yes Gender: Female Nationality: Austria Function: Project Leader/Social Worker Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Weinberggasse 77 Town: Vienna Postal code: 1190 Country: Austria Direct Tel:+43 676 87844792 E-mail:hafen@volkshilfe-wien.at Website:https://www.volkshilfe-wien.at/volkshilfe-hafen/
{Empty}
Yes
New European Bauhaus or European Commission websites
To offer women and children a safe habor. (HAFEN = harbor)
Volkshilfe HAFEN is a social housing project for women and their children. It aims to provide affordable, long-term housing to a group whose specific needs are often overlooked by services of homeless assistance and prevention. The project offers apartments for tenants of various age groups, cultural and socioeconomical backgrounds, some of them without entitlement to any support by the social system. Based on those characteristics, they often experience discrimination on the private housing market. The apartments at Volkshilfe HAFEN are allocated by the project team themselves, therefore this kind of mistreatment can be avoided.
Once most of the apartments are occupied, the community work concept developed by social workers comes into action. On one hand, the development of an active in-house community is promoted. The tenants will be invited to partake in regular house meetings as well as workshops to design the communal areas. At first, social workers will be present to start the process of forming a community but the goal is to encourage the women to self-organize in the long term. Establishing a community aims to reduce social isolation due to poverty or fear of discrimination.
On the other hand, the connection within the neighborhood is established. Social workers will act as a point of contact in case of misunderstandings and some of the workshops and other activities will be open for guests as well.
The building itself comes with several eco-friendly features, making a sustainable way of living more accessible to less privileged groups.
The tenants will move in starting February 2023.
Affordable Housing
Social Inclusion
Participation
Community Work
Sustainability
How the building was planned and designed is not part of this concept. Nevertheless, this project as it is would never have been developed without this eco-friendly building, so some facts will be included.
The building itself uses the world's first to use a scale-up of the ecological research project "Building component activation with predictive control". The Volkshilfe HAFEN is based on a novel building technology concept of energy efficiency and energy self-sufficiency. Thanks to a very good building envelope and a ventilation system with heat recovery, it is possible to get by with component-activated ceilings and a predictive control system as the only low-temperature heating system. This heating system is additionally supported by photovoltaic panels on the roof. The building's structure is also designed to shield from noise emissions of the immediate surroundings. In addition, the communal laundry room (instead of washing machines in every unit) helps conserve resources. Public transportation is easily accessible and a safe bike path leads along the Danube to the city center. In the house itself, sufficient space has been allocated to the bicycle room.
The ability to address sustainability issues is not only based on economic privilege, educational and cultural backgrounds play an important role.
In addition, an environmentally conscious lifestyle is usually not a priority when going through an existential crisis. Therefore, the project offers the basis to bring marginalized groups closer to the topic of sustainability: from proper waste separation in the garbage room, upcycling workshops, greening the terraces to a communal refrigerator in the common room, several aspects of eco-friendly living are implemented in their everyday lives.
The complex consists of 29 residential units with up to three rooms. All units are equipped with a fully furnished kitchen and bathroom. Tenants also have access to common areas, terraces, stroller storage, a spacious bike room and a laundry room.
The house has large windows that contribute to a bright and pleasant interior climate. In addition, the outer windowsills were placed at an angle. This allows the reflection of the sunlight into the apartments, thus naturally brightening the rooms.
There are a total of three common rooms that serve as a place for social interaction. Poverty leads to loneliness through social isolation. This phenomenon is counteracted. Through participatory house community meetings, space for getting to know each other, reflection and negotiation of social processes is promoted. The furnishing of the common rooms, as well as the greening of the three terraces will become a joint project by the tenants. In addition, creative, exercise and educational workshops can be offered and the residents can be supported in planning and implementing further, self-organized activities. Two social workers and volunteers of Volkshilfe Wien will assist them if needed.
Volkshilfe HAFEN is a project that offers affordable housing to women* and their children.
Volkshilfe’s own Social Property Management manages the apartments therefore discrimination based on socioeconomical or cultural background is not an issue, as is often the case on the private housing market. The apartments will only be shown to one potential tenant at a time to make sure there is no competition and the apartment and tenant are a good match.
Based on knowledge of working with various target groups for years, several measures ensure accessibility of long-term housing at Volkshilfe HAFEN: Volkshilfe Wien facilitates everything starting from first contact to signing the lease agreement and the handover of the keys, so the bureaucratic burden is kept to a minimum. If further counselling is needed (concerning residence permits, housing assistance etc.), tenants can be referred to specialized services. Rent prices are not calculated for profit, only cost covering, deposits are affordable (500/300€) and pets are allowed in the apartments. The lease term is five years, extension is an option.
All of the above serves to make it as easy as possible for women and their children to find a safe home. Between students and senior citizens, every age group is welcome.
Furthermore, fourteen of the apartments will be “Housing First” apartments in the ambulant housing assistance program of the Viennese Assistance to the Homeless. This means women* threatened by homelessness can move into the apartment without first having to go to a homeless shelter and they are then supported by social workers while already living independently.
Housing is a human right and at the same time, many people struggle to find a place to live, suitable to their circumstances.
The tenants of Volkshilfe HAFEN will be a very diverse mix of women from various socioeconomical and cultural backgrounds and age groups. People often discriminated against on the private housing market get access to affordable, newly built apartments. Volkshilfe Wien specifically offers the apartments to women of marginalized and socially disadvantages communities.
Social workers support the formation process of the housing community and the emancipation and self-efficacy of the women living in this community. The women can actively partake in shaping their living environment by designing the communal spaces and holding their own little events there. They can participate in the community of Volkshilfe HAFEN, which promotes social inclusion. Either on their own or supported by social workers and volunteers, the tenants can organize get-togethers, excursions and workshops, for their community as well as other women and children in the area.
Community work helps the tenants' integration within the neighborhood. Even though neighbors in the immediate proximity are few, open communication and awareness within the district are key to promote a peaceful coexistence. The social workers primarily act as a point of contact to prevent tensions and to offer mediation if they still occur.
Furthermore, synergy effects between neighbors who want to volunteer and tenants in need of support are promoted. Thus, for example, the retired primary school teacher can offer tutoring for kids of single mothers who otherwise would not be able to afford it.
Construction of the building itself has been subsidised by the City of Vienna.
Concerning this concept, on a local level, the residents play the primary role: Without their participation, commitment and motivation, the concept would not work. The residents are also an important player in the further development of the concept. They are invited to contribute their own ideas and shape the HAFEN into their personal place of residence that it is. In addition, during this process the women can articulate their needs, to which little attention was paid in the past, and shape their living space accordingly. This is intended to promote independent and self-reliant living.
On the regional level, the institutions and actors of the Viennese Assistance for the Homeless provided a vast pool of knowledge: During the development of the concept, the project group gathered further knowledge by networking within the Viennese Assistance for the Homeless. Facilities were visited and ideas and requirements were exchanged. The facilities can now refer their counselling clients in need of an apartment to the Volkshilfe HAFEN. Thus, nice, sustainable housing is offered to those who desperately need it and in some cases, even homelessness can be prevented.
On the national level, a main stakeholder is the Austrian Student Union (ÖH). To promote social mixing, one part of the HAFEN will be a shared apartment for students. In cooperation with the Austrian Student Union, the suitability of the rooms for students was established and the offer will be promoted by the ÖH.
The concept was written by one person and contains influences from various social science disciplines. The author herself holds university degrees in Social Work and Gender Studies, two fields of study that are generally known for their multidisciplinary approach and knowledge.
The concept starts by outlining the current situation of homeless women in Vienna. A political science and spatial sociological perspective is adopted.
Then the basic principles of social work, the definition of the target group as well as the social offers are discussed. Therefore, the main field of knowledge is of course the theory and methods of social work, but approaches from educational science and psychology are also considered.
The feminist principles such as empowerment, intersectionality and the gender aspects of social issues are part of each chapter.
In order to transfer the written concept into a lived practice, methods of project and social management have also been incorporated.
This concept was developed by a social worker with years of experience in working with people affected by (possible) homelessness. The goal is to fill holes within the system of the Viennese Assistance for the Homeless. One of the affected groups are women who have no access to financial aids or social housing due to their immigration status.
The apartments at HAFEN are rented to women who struggle to find affordable housing on the private market. The women always sign the lease agreements themselves, the only males allowed to live in the complex are underage children who live with their mothers. The Viennese Assistance for the Homeless provides some offers specifically for women, but independent, long-term housing for women is not part of their services.
The idea of a solidary housing community actively created by women from all walks of life is also a novelty, especially in social housing projects. Each tenant can decide whether they want to partake in the communal activities. Social workers support the formation of this community and offer help if needed. The building itself has a variety of spaces to encourage social interaction that once the women have moved in, will be designed by the tenants themselves with support from social workers. This large variety of options to participate in the community and create the living space can rarely be found anywhere else.
People with a history of migration or homelessness are often at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to housing opportunities. Widespread prejudice deprives them of opportunities. The concept of how the Volkshilfe HAFEN was built is not part of this project, but who will live there is. The beautiful, new apartments in the building with a rooftop terrace will house underprivileged women. Making nice apartments in an eco-friendly building available to women of different socioeconomical and cultural backgrounds is unfortunately not common practice.
Generally, the whole concept could be implemented in other places as well. Nevertheless, Austria is a wealthy country with a wide-ranging social infrastructure. This project could only be developed because there are already many facilities for homeless people in Vienna and the political strategy follows a housing-first approach. If this were not the case, the building would likely be used differently.
What makes this concept unique is that it is not an inpatient facility for homeless assistance that offers care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The attempt to bring social groups together in a participatory way without patronizing them with too many social work structures is an important step towards more social inclusion, away from so-called ghettoization.
To create a housing project like Volkshilfe HAFEN in an urban area (providing a certain anonymity) could possibly lessen the stigmatization compared to close knit communities in rural areas where everybody knows everybody.
In addition, the target group could be expanded to include other marginalized groups, such as homeless, at-risk-of-poverty, and/or older LGBTQIA+ individuals. A housing project like this can provide a safer space and opportunities to connect with peer groups/support groups, especially for groups that experience a lot of discrimination in society. In the best case, they experience a deep understanding from people share a similar situation and/or past.
This project mainly addresses three global issues: Combatting homelessness, the empowerment of women, especially single mothers, and climate change.
Combatting homelessness
The European Parliament has set a goal concerning this issue: end homelessness by 2030. This ambitious aim for the solution of a complex issue needs well thought-through strategies that are developed to fill the specific needs of the target groups. As stated already, female homelessness is often not visible at first glance, some of the issues differ from those of homeless men. Therefore services tailored specifically to women’s needs are indispensable.
Offering women affected by homelessness the chance to live in a community of women and their children provides them with a safer space where they can recover and thrive.
Empowerment of women
Empowering women, especially those who are part of marginalized communities, is contributing to a more equal society. Gender based violence and unequal treatment of women are still a widespread issues. Volkshilfe HAFEN aims to provide women with empowering opportunities to live an independent life and to experience their self-efficacy. Especially women are often affected by covert homelessness. They live in unhealthy, sometimes even violent relationships to stay off the streets and avoid the perceived shame associated with homelessness. The project aims to support and encourage women and provide them with a stepping-stone to live a dignified and self-determined life, without financial dependency on partners.
Climate Change
Women affected by (possible) homelessness are in a life crisis. Thus, eco-friendly living is rarely their top priority. Equipping buildings with sustainable technology is not common in social housing projects either. Therefore, by using an eco-friendly building and living concept specifically to provide housing for less privileged tenants means actively including this group in the movement towards a more sustainable future.
