The corona crisis has caused financial problems for many people due to job loss or short-time work, but the number of evictions and eviction suits was lower than in previous years thanks to the Corona rent deferrals in 2020. The rent deferrals expired at the end of March, and experts expect a catch-up effect and a wave of evictions. The Ministry of Social Affairs now wants to make more funds available for the prevention of eviction.
Specifically, Minister of Social Affairs Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) has announced 24 million euros with which projects of the Housing Security Initiative in Austria – an association of various non-profit organizations in this area – will be financed. The legal basis for this is to be decided on July 1 in the social committee, it said on Sunday from the ministry to the APA. Further details are not yet available.
Housing security is actually a matter for the federal states. But in view of the increase forecast due to the corona crisis “we now have to take countermeasures,” Mückstein emphasized in a statement. With the additional money, eviction prevention should be expanded or developed throughout Austria and an addition to existing offers should be created. The immediate financial aid will be expanded, such as the assumption of rent arrears in connection with the corona pandemic, as well as advice on securing living space.
“Homelessness is one of the worst forms of poverty in Austria. We know that those affected die 20 years earlier,” emphasized Mückstein. “In addition to the human fate that we can prevent in this way, the costs of prevention are also significantly lower for society as a whole than the costs of homelessness.”
Tomorrow, Monday, Mückstein will meet his counterparts in the European Union virtually on this very issue. As part of the first EU conference (online) on combating homelessness, a corresponding EU declaration is to be adopted and signed with the aim of ending homelessness by 2030. In order to deepen international cooperation in this area, a “European platform to combat homelessness” is to be launched at the conference.
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