Around a thousand people already marched for affordable housing last October. Jean-Michel Campanella, president of the Mieterschutz tenants' defense association, expected no less this Saturday, 27 March, on the European day of action for the right to housing. The Wunnrecht coalition, which brings together several associations, organised a "national demonstration for access to decent and affordable housing" for the occasion to address a problem directly impacting Luxembourg.
“There are specificities according to the coalition associations in the demands,” Campanella says. “The transversal one is that the state makes an effort to build social housing. We have calculated 3,000 to 4,000 social housing units to be built or renovated. The same applies to affordable housing, the needs of which are estimated at 3,000. And that they urgently, more clearly redefine the criteria of what constitutes affordable housing."
Work is in progress on this subject. For him, "it is necessary to calculate according to the income and the composition of the family." He envisages that a good limit could be around 30% of income allocated to rent.
23 demands
The association is also opposed to the resumption of evictions from 1 April, which had been put on hold since the start of the health crisis.
"If this were to resume, we would need accompanying measures," Campanella explains.
According to his experience, this concerns “people whose buildings have been bought to make them of high standing. Rents of €800 or €1,000 per month are increasing, and they have to leave the premises, but can no longer find rents in these prices."
Increasingly in demand, the association is also asking "for the support of our tenant support services. It's not very fair that we have to do this on a voluntary basis outside of our working hours."
In all, the coalition released a list of 23 demands, for which it marched on Saturday. Among them, the taxation of empty housing and building land to avoid real estate speculation, or the creation of new places in asylum seeker shelters, many of which are overflowing because applicants granted refugee status cannot afford to move out.
This article was originally published in French on Paperjam.lu and has been translated and edited for Delano.