In Berlin, a group of politicians, tenants’ associations and the construction industry met for the first time to tackle the housing problem. A comment from Jan Schilde, a member of the BZ editor-in-chief.
Rents are of course the most pressing issue in this city for the next few years. Developments in recent years have been devastating. Housing must remain affordable, of course. The preliminary senate tried it with a law that was, as expected, thrown out by the Federal Constitutional Court.
New residential construction fell well short of the targets set. Stupidity all along the line and the problems were by no means solved, rather they were exacerbated by additional demands from some Berliners because of the tipped rent cap. Rents continue to rise. Finding housing at all is difficult, finding affordable housing is almost impossible.
Red-red-green put pressure on, which would only have affected existing rents and would not have created any living space. But the existing rents are not the problem in our city. The new senate is attempting a broad alliance of politicians, tenants’ associations, and the recently demonized construction industry is also there.
It went into action on Friday. In any case, this approach is more correct in order to really tackle the problems. There is already more activity than in the previous five years. Even if the views of many participants could not be more different.