Learning from Vienna: Lessons on Social Housing
Presented by Mar Vista Voice, The Rent Brigade, and POWER.
Over the years, Vienna has become the gold standard for social housing. Today, 60% of residents reside in Vienna's social housing, which is kept off the speculative market and protected with long-term affordable rents. This did not happen by accident. It traces back to an extraordinary era known as Red Vienna, when socialists took control of municipal government at a moment of real crisis: the conditions of housing were deplorable, evictions were frequent and arbitrary, rent gouging was common practice.
As we confront the scale of Los Angeles’ housing crisis, we have a lot to learn from Vienna.
*** The Program *** J
oin us for evening of conversation on Vienna's social housing. We will begin with a presentation by social housing scholar Beatriz Stambuk-Torres on social housing in Vienna, and conclude with a moderated Q and A and audience questions at the end.
About Beatriz Stambuk-Torres Beatriz Stambuk-Torres (she/her) is a scholar and practitioner dedicated to ensuring that land, housing, and urban spaces remain accessible to all. She has trained hundreds of elected officials, housing professionals, and public servants in Vienna’s housing, mobility, and urban planning models, and collaborates with cities worldwide to develop systems that keep housing permanently affordable. She created a school on the topic called The Urban Commons or El Bien Comun Urbano. Beatriz holds a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley. Originally from San Juan Capistrano, California, she comes from a multicultural family with roots in Spain, Mexico, and Argentina. She now lives in a housing cooperative in Vienna, Austria, where she is pursuing a PhD focused on social housing and the decommodification of land and property.