When speaking about social inclusion and housing, one European country can be seen as a total myth buster. Yes, it is Finland. Once travel is safe and possible again, we dare you to have a stroll in its capital, Helsinki and try to tell the difference between the tenures just by looking at the buildings. It is also the right time to say that the next edition of the International Social Housing Festival in June 2022 will give you this opportunity.
A European champion in tackling homelessness, Finland has been implementing sensible land policies and for half a century already, applying the social mix principle where regardless of where you live, your neighbour can be someone who rents social or private housing, or someone who owns a home.
This is the ‘Making a house a home’ show, aired straight from Brussels in what we call today a home office. I am Diana Yordanova and you are listening to the 9th podcast of the Housing 2030 initiative, led by housing experts from over 56 governments through UNECE, UN-Habitat and more than 43,000 social, affordable housing providers represented by Housing Europe.
This episode puts good governance and Finland’s housing solutions at the centre. The Director of the Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland (ARA), Jarmo Lindén says that to achieve a good urban social mix, ‘you have to do this from the beginning’ and smiles by saying that Finnish are pragmatic.
On 24th February, Jarmo Linden will join the Q&A panel of the next Housing 2030 digital conference - “Good governance and regulation to support affordability in housing”. Registrations will remain open in the next few days at www.housingeurope.eu or www.housing2030.org. Jarmo will be joined by our two previous podcast guests – Dr Julie Lawson, the Housing 2030 lead writer and Dr Ken Gibb – the director of UK’s Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence. A great discussion is in sight, so, keep an eye on the #Housing2030 hashtag and share your thoughts on housing affordability.
Tune in for our conversation with Jarmo, just a few hours before he goes skiing for the weekend.