Could Vienna’s approach to affordable housing work in California?
Housing costs and homelessness are on the rise in California. In the Austrian capital, people of all income levels live in subsidised housing – and more is being built
Imagine a beautiful city where a centrally located two-bedroom apartment can cost you as little as $600 a month. For many US policymakers, it’s a pipe dream. And yet in Vienna, it’s a reality.
In the past two years, at least four delegations of housing experts and political leaders from California have visited the Austrian capital, hoping to unlock the secrets of why Vienna regularly comes top in surveys of the world’s most livable cities.
They’re struck by the absence of homeless encampments, and marvel at the sheer scale of the subsidised housing developments which include shared amenities such swimming pools, gyms, workshops, communal gardens and spacious roof terraces.
And they wonder how they can bring some of it home to a region gripped by an unaffordability crisis that lands long-term residents out of state or on the streets.
