City of Vienna - Viennese living

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City of Vienna - Viennese living

logo
legal form Company (as part of the Vienna City Administration)
founding 2000
Seat Vienna , Austria
management Karin Ramser
Number of employees 4,500 employees
Branch Public service
Website www.wienerwohnen.at

City of Vienna - Wiener Wohnen , as an office of the City of Vienna's City Administration, is the largest municipal property management company in Europe with its headquarters in Vienna . It administers, renovates and operates around 220,000 community apartments (including around 1,200 caretaker service apartments and 7,500 apartments in third-party management), 6,000 business premises and over 47,000 garages and parking spaces in Vienna - a total of 13,444,841 square meters (that's around 1,829 soccer fields ). 31% of the Viennese live in municipal housing (around 500,000 people), which makes the city of Vienna the largest property owner in Europe.

Enterprises of the City of Vienna according to § 71 of the Vienna City Constitution are not commercial enterprises under company law, but operationally managed agencies; they employ employees of the city of Vienna, their budget appears in the Vienna city budget. Wiener Wohnen operates a service center, among other things.

purpose

According to § 2 of the statute, the purpose of the company is to provide and create rental apartments that meet a modern standard for low-income people and families in need of housing . Accordingly, the purpose also includes the construction, renovation and management of urban residential buildings (consisting of apartments, business premises, garages), as well as the purchase and sale of properties for the purposes of the company.

history

The hard-to-describe housing misery of the working-class families in the apartment buildings (or apartment buildings, as they were called in Vienna) at the beginning of the 20th century led to municipal housing in Vienna . After the victory of the Social Democratic Workers' Party in the municipal council elections in Vienna in 1919 , the foundation stones were laid for the first municipal buildings in Vienna (housing estate on the Schmelz , Metzleinstalerhof ). In 1923, city councilor Hugo Breitner introduced the Vienna housing tax and started the first municipal housing program (25,000 apartments), followed by the second (30,000 apartments) the following year. By 1933, around 64,000 municipal apartments had been built in Vienna, including the Karl-Marx-Hof, which is still the longest contiguous residential building in the world.

During the Austro-Fascism and National Socialist era , municipal housing in Vienna almost came to a standstill and was only continued again after the Second World War . In 1969, the 100,000th community apartment was completed after the Second World War.

The first municipal housing advice center was opened in 1976 in Doblhoffgasse in the 1st district. The agendas for the municipal property management, which are divided between several municipal departments (MA 27, MA 50, MA 52), were brought together in 1997 in the newly established Municipal Department 17 - Wiener Wohnen .

With the resolution of the Vienna City Council of April 29, 1999, the Municipal Department 17 - Wiener Wohnen was transferred to a company of the City of Vienna from January 1, 2000 (separate accounting group, but not outsourced and still under the political responsibility of an office-leading city council ). In 2000 the "Wiener Wohnen - Customer Service GmbH" was founded as a subsidiary, and in 2002 the "Wiener Wohnen - Haus- & Außenbetreuung GmbH".

In 2004 the last municipal housing in Vienna was built - in Rößlergasse in Liesing. Since then, the municipality of Vienna no longer builds itself, but financially supports social housing from private developers. These apartments, which are subsidized by the city, are not awarded by the City of Vienna - Wiener Wohnen, but by "Wohnservice Wien GmbH" (45 percent share of the city of Vienna, 55 percent of the Vienna housing fund). In the run-up to Vienna's municipal council elections, Mayor Michael Häupl announced in spring 2015 that the city administration would again build apartments itself.

Housing allocation

In order to be able to rent a community apartment, apartment hunters must meet certain requirements:

  • The person needs at least a two-year main residence in Vienna (this also applies to people moving with them),
  • be at least 17 years old when submitting,
  • must be citizens of Austria, EU, EEA, Switzerland and equals (recognized refugees as well as "long-term residents" according to the Settlement and Residence Act - NAG) and
  • may not exceed a certain income limit.
  • Anyone interested can get information at the “Wohnberatung Wien” in Guglgasse in the 3rd district.

In addition, one of the following reasons must be present, which indicate an urgent need for housing:

  • Overcrowding (too many people, in too small a space),
  • Harmfulness of the apartment,
  • Illness, age-related housing needs,
  • for couples and individuals under 30 years of age who do not have their own apartment ("Young Vienna reservation"),
  • with separate households,
  • abandonment of a company residence through no fault of one's own,
  • Housing for people with disabilities.

Home exchange

The tenants of a communal apartment can swap their apartments via the Wiener Wohnen - Tauschbörse if they want to move into the other apartment . The prerequisite is that there is an important reason for an apartment swap (e.g. apartment size that is better suited) and that the tenancy of both has been in existence for at least five years (according to Section 13 of the Tenancy Law Act). But it is also a home exchange of tenants of council housing and main tenants of cooperative or private apartments possible. In this case, the respective property management companies must agree to the submission. An exchange advertisement can be placed free of charge in the monthly housing advertisement from Stadt-Wien Wiener Wohnen. In addition, community apartments with private redemption, so-called "direct awards", are advertised in this publication.

activities

The City of Vienna - Wiener Wohnen has taken the following measures to improve the quality of living in municipal housing in recent years :

Tenant participation

Co-determination in municipal housing has been enshrined in the "Tenant Co-Determination Statute for the tenants of the residential complexes of the City of Vienna - Wiener Wohnen" since January 1, 2000. It regulates the cooperation between tenants and the City of Vienna - Wiener Wohnen with regard to information, control and participation rights within the framework of a tenant contribution. For example the right to participate

  • in the maintenance and improvement of the residential complex,
  • Operating costs ,
  • Construction and maintenance of elevators,
  • Community facilities and
  • Change of property management.

Fair play in community housing

The house rules for residential complexes of the City of Vienna are part of the rental contract and contain the rights and obligations of the tenants and are the basis for good cooperation in community housing. Regulatory advisors have been out and about in the city's residential complexes since autumn 2009, making tenants aware of the house rules. You are authorized to issue warnings and to issue penalties and notifications. As part of the "Fair Play in Community Housing" campaign in 2010, prominent footballers such as Herbert Prohaska , Peter Pacult, Veli Kavlak and Alexander Gorgon campaigned for fairness in community housing.

Video surveillance

In 2008, the pilot test of video surveillance started in eight selected municipal buildings with the aim of protecting poorly visible places in garages, garbage rooms, elevators and basements from contamination and damage. In December 2009, the data protection commission in the Federal Chancellery approved unlimited video surveillance in communal buildings, which suffered particularly high damage from property damage and theft. At the end of 2011, around 2,800 cameras were installed and in operation in 22 residential complexes.

Cooperation with living partner

Wohnpartner is a service offered by Wohnservice Wien Ges.mbH. As the successor to the Vienna Regional Office, it implements measures on behalf of the City of Vienna to strengthen the community and improve one's own living and living environment and works closely with Wiener Wohnen. Wohnpartner supports tenants in neighborhood conflicts and tries to solve the problems together with them. In 2011 , wohnpartner was awarded the Austrian Integration Prize in the “Company & Work” category for its work .

Tenant survey

The city of Vienna - Wiener Wohnen carried out the largest tenant survey in Austria in 2008. Around 45,000 tenants have returned the completed questionnaire. For attaching a barcode with a hidden customer number to the 220,000 questionnaires while at the same time guaranteeing anonymity, the company received heavy public criticism and received the Big Brother Award .

Modernizations

The ongoing modernization of council flats is an essential task of the company. In 2010, 19,960 community apartments in 87 residential complexes were refurbished for around 495 million euros; in 2011 there were 19,403 apartments in 101 residential complexes. The cost was around 562 million euros.

criticism

Bribery investigation

In February 2017, 32 Wiener Wohnen employees were suspended or transferred on suspicion of bribery in connection with alleged fraud involving millions in renovations. It is determined against a total of 93 people and twelve companies who are said to have charged services that were only partially provided or of poor quality.

Court of Auditors criticism

In 2018, the Court of Auditors criticized deficiencies in the award of contracts and in controlling as well as the above-average remuneration of the management in an audit report. The incomplete and only randomly perceived building supervision in the repair of empty apartments and in the repair of defects led to a high degree of incorrect billing and execution defects. According to the Court of Auditors, the damage for the period 2012 to 2014 alone ranged between around EUR 66.64 million and around EUR 121.1 million.

High vacancy rates for apartments

In April 2018, a municipal council inquiry made it known that at the end of 2017 almost 9,000 of the around 209,000 municipal apartments in Vienna or 4.25% of the apartments were vacant. This share has risen sharply since 2013 from 1.9% at the time, with the share of apartments that have not been rented for over a year in particular increased massively. The ÖVP assumes that these figures do not indicate the actual vacancy rates and assumes 20,000 vacant municipal apartments or 10% of the capacity.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Constitution of the Federal Capital Vienna (Vienna City Constitution - WStV) ,. Retrieved July 2, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Meeting of the Vienna City Council on April 29, 1999, Pr.Z.58 / 99_GIF. Retrieved July 2, 2012 .
  3. ↑ StR. Ludwig: Reform of Wiener Wohnen will be continued under new leadership. In: City Hall correspondence of the City of Vienna from 11.11.2011. Retrieved June 6, 2012 .
  4. ^ Homepage of Wiener Wohnen. Retrieved February 18, 2016 .
  5. ^ Matthias Benz, Vienna: Housing market: Vienna is not a role model . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . May 9, 2019 ( nzz.ch [accessed on May 13, 2019]).
  6. ^ Wiener Wohnen Service Center. In: Homepage of the City of Vienna - Wiener Wohnen. Retrieved February 18, 2016 .
  7. ^ Statute of the Wiener Wohnen company (PDF; 68 kB)
  8. ↑ Lilli Bauer, Werner T. Bauer: From bed-walkers and subtenants. In: Quermagazin.at. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 28, 2014 ; Retrieved June 6, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.quer-magazin.at
  9. ^ City of Vienna - Wiener Wohnen (2010): The Chronicle of Wiener Wohnen . In: 10th Annual Report. Vienna: self-published, pp. 9 to 14.
  10. ↑ In 5 steps to your community apartment at http://www.wohnberatung-wien.at. Retrieved February 18, 2016 .
  11. ^ Federal law on settlement and residence in Austria (Settlement and Residence Act - NAG). Retrieved February 18, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Income limits for community housing . Retrieved February 18, 2016 .
  13. ^ Housing advice Vienna. Retrieved February 18, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Community apartment exchange - exchange partner search. Retrieved February 18, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Home exchange - application to www.wienerwohnen.at. Retrieved February 18, 2016 .
  16. ↑ Federal Act of November 12, 1981 on Tenancy Law (Tenancy Law - MRG). Retrieved July 16, 2012 .
  17. ↑ Apartment advertisements - municipal housing advertisements . Retrieved July 16, 2012 .
  18. ↑ Tenant participation at www.wienerwohnen.at. Retrieved February 18, 2016 .
  19. ↑ House rules for residential complexes of the City of Vienna. Retrieved February 18, 2016 .
  20. ^ Vienna: Ordnungsberater patrol in community housing, In: diepresse.com, October 8, 2009. Retrieved June 7, 2012 .
  21. ↑ For “Fair Play in Community Housing”. In: Horizont, June 16, 2010. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved June 7, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.horizont.at  
  22. ^ Wiener Gemeindebau: Video surveillance a "success". In: diepresse.com, October 15, 2009. Retrieved June 7, 2012 .
  23. ↑ StR Ludwig: Expansion of video surveillance in community buildings completed. In: City Hall correspondence of the City of Vienna from September 7, 2011. Retrieved June 7, 2012 .
  24. ↑ Homepage of the living partner. Retrieved February 18, 2016 .
  25. ^ Residential partner for community buildings in action, In: ORF.at, report from 11.11.2010. Retrieved June 6, 2012 .
  26. ↑ Austrian Integration Prize in the "Company & Work" category. In: Homepage of the Austrian Integration Prize. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved June 7, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / integrationspreis.orf.at
  27. ↑ Results of the Wiener Wohnen tenant survey 2008. In: Homepage of the City of Vienna - Wiener Wohnen. Retrieved June 7, 2012 .
  28. ↑ Data protection: Trouble with community housing survey, In: diepresse, 30.9.2008. Retrieved June 7, 2012 .
  29. ^ City of Vienna - Wiener Wohnen (2010): Renovation offensive . In: 10th Annual Report. Vienna: self-published, p. 24.
  30. ↑ Corruption at Wiener Wohnen? Officials suspended diepresse.com, accessed on February 24, 2017
  31. ↑ Vienna Court of Auditors 2018 report - Wiener Wohnen and Wiener Wohnen rechnungshof.gv.at, accessed on March 14, 2018
  32. ↑ Michael Ludwig: Inquiry from the local councils Dr. Wolfgang Ulm and Sabine Schwarz regarding vacant apartments at Wiener Wohnen at the end of 2017 . April 25, 2018 ( wien.gv.at [PDF]).
  33. ^ Josef Gebhard: Almost 9000 vacant community apartments . May 11, 2018 ( kurier.at [accessed May 14, 2018]).
  34. ↑ Wölbitsch / Ulm: Thousands of vacant public housing in Vienna . In: OTS.at . May 12, 2018 ( ots.at [accessed May 14, 2018]).

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