Housing is a human right
The citizens' initiative Living is Human Rights (WiM) was created on the occasion of the planned sale of the municipal social housing in Freiburg im Breisgau in 2006 in the form of the Freiburg Housing Association Stadtbau (FSB). The planned sale was through a referendum tipped, which was initiated by the citizens' initiative WiM. This ban on sales attracted nationwide attention.
Goal setting
The association is committed to realizing the right to housing for everyone. Housing is a human right , especially with its name, refers to the human right to housing enshrined in the UN Charter :
“ Everyone has the right to a standard of living that guarantees his and his family's health and well-being, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social benefits, as well as the right to security in the event of unemployment, illness, invalidity or widowhood Age as well as in the event of any other loss of his means of subsistence due to circumstances beyond his control. "
The goals of the citizens' initiative are specified in their so-called rent policy program .
Referendum 2006
The Lord Mayor Dieter Salomon (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen) sought, together with a black-green-free majority of the council, a complete sale of the urban housing stock (FSB) to a private investor.
In the fourth and first successful referendum in Freiburg, the citizens decided on November 12, 2006 that the city of Freiburg should remain the owner of the municipal apartments.
The voting question was:
“ Are you in favor of the city of Freiburg remaining the owner of the Freiburger Stadtbau GmbH and the municipal apartments? , November 12, 2006 "
The result was clear.
| Eligible voters | Voters | Yes | No | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| people | 148.313 | 59.211 | 41,581 | 17,418 |
| percent | 39.9% | 70.5% | 29.5% |
The aim of the citizens' initiative was to preserve the urban housing stock and thus a socio-political control instrument of the city. By preserving it, they saw the possibility of securing affordable housing for broad sections of the population and of achieving socially sustainable urban development.
Supraregional importance
The referendum was the first in Germany on this subject and, beyond Freiburg, had a national German signal against the privatization of public goods, especially municipal housing. Further citizens' initiatives followed, following the successful referendum, following the example in Heidelberg, Velbert, but also against the planned sale of 100,000 LEG apartments in North Rhine-Westphalia.
“Anyone who wants to sell public housing is against the interests of the majority of citizens. That is the Freiburg signal to politicians all over Germany "
REIT law
During the public hearing on the “Draft Law for the Creation of German Real Estate Stock Companies with Listed Bonds” ( REIT Law ) in the German Bundestag in February 2007 , Günter Rausch took a position on behalf of the citizens' initiative Living is Human Rights .
literature
- Sebastian Klus: The European city under pressure to privatize, conflicts over the sale of municipal housing stocks in Freiburg. Springer VS 2013, ISBN 978-3-658-02448-2 .
- Sebastian Klus, Günter Rausch , Anne Reyers (eds.): “Housing is a human right - a successful referendum in Freiburg” AG SPAK books, Neu-Ulm, ISBN 978-3-930830-95-4 .
- WiM-Zeitung , its own newspaper, appears irregularly.
- Hermann K. Heussner, Otmar Jung (ed.): Dare to dare more direct democracy. Referendum and referendum: history - practice - proposals . 2nd completely revised edition, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-7892-8252-2 .
- Federal Agency for Civic Education (Ed.): Entrepreneurial City , 2007
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Freiburg is not allowed to sell apartments . ( Memento from October 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 13, 2006
- ↑ Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- ↑ State Statistical Office Baden-Württemberg: Citizens' decision on the sale of the urban housing stock, November 12, 2006 ( Memento of July 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ target of WiM to referendum in 2006
- ^ Karl-Otto Sattler: Not every bill works out, The controversial privatization of communal residential property , 2007.
- ↑ Deutscher Mieterbund (DMB): 70 percent against apartment sales, Freiburg signal to politicians throughout Germany ( memento of December 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), November 13, 2006
- ↑ opinion of WiM the public hearing on the bill of the Federal Government "draft law for the creation of German real estate companies with listed bonds" ( Memento of 16 March 2010 at the Internet Archive ), (printed matter 16/4026; 16/4036), 23 February 2007
Coordinates: 48 ° 0 '8.4 " N , 7 ° 51' 39.7" E