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The podcast discusses social housing, which provides affordable options for low-income individuals and families. It focuses on Vienna's strategy, implemented by the Social Democratic Party, to address housing shortages and poor quality housing. The party used public investment and tax revenues to build new apartment blocks, improving the housing stock and stabilizing unemployment. The housing projects also provided amenities and services, attracting young families and promoting welfare. The party aimed to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters, including middle classes and business elites, through policies addressing social issues. They prioritized support for young families and introduced rent control legislation. The success of the housing projects helped the party gain electoral victories across all districts of Vienna. Good morning everyone, my name is Sofia Piso and I'm Andrea Giacalone and today we're going to present this new podcast for the sociology class which regards social housing. Social housing is a segment of the housing market that provides affordable housing options for individuals and families with lower incomes or specific needs. In particular, it is part of the policies that aims at ensuring a level playground for everyone in the cities of Europe together with rent control and assistance with housing costs. In particular, today we're going to focus on the case of Vienna and its particular strategy which has been promoted by the Social Democratic Party. Yeah, to start to understand the conditions in which Austria introduced this innovation, this experiment, we have to start with the timeline, especially with the situation that Austria was living in 1914, so a little bit before the First World War. Vienna was Europe's fourth largest city and it had a particular housing shortage and poor quality housing, especially because of the increasing number of young families coming from rural landscapes. The impact of war was devastating for Austria. In fact, the rapid inflation after the death of the gold standard revealed to be a particular detriment and so there was a need for post-war reprise for Austria and this was possible in different ways. For example, there was the idea of introducing rent controls or of guaranteeing new social houses for the inhabitants and this is what the Social Democratic Party of Austria tried to do from the 1921-22 to the 1931-32 when Austria will start to face internal problems that will lead to the conquer of Germany. To really understand how the social housing project was important for Vienna, we can think about the fact that at the beginning of the last century there were three thousand Viennese homeless out of a population of two million people, while today in the current living period in Vienna, 20% of the population live in houses that have been provided during the social housing project from the government in the last century. Yes, exactly. What was the idea of the Social Democratic Party? It was to focus on social policy initiatives and housing was the easiest of the possible initiatives. So, public investment in housing is one of the biggest problems that Vienna was facing. Such case is an additional example of how the government is able to intervene and also on how a big city like Vienna was one of the few examples in which this was possible. In fact, in other parts of Austria this was not as easy and that's because of the lack of financial investment and financial stability of the government that was not able to sustain such important public intervention. Yes, in fact, that's why a major tax reform led by Vienna's chief financial officer supported housing programs. The idea was to use the tax revenues in this case, instead of debt, to showcase, we can say, the fiscal responsibility of the Social Democratic Party and in 1922 the city started to utilize public resources to build new apartment blocks and this was, we can say, a real shift towards new public solutions. The impact was kind of moderate at the beginning, slow growth and financial stability that was achieved finally in the mid of the 20s, despite a lot of economic challenges. The housing programs comprised a significant portion of the city's budget and this allowed also to stabilize unemployment. A lot of new employed workers to participate in this new program and investment in housing continued also through the Great Depression and it was usually, we can say, the instrument through which Austria could balance the budget and gain international recognition for the management of its finances. And the last thing I would like to say is that how the construction of new buildings improved the housing stock. The stock became like a standard in the market for Austria. Public housing offered amenities such as running water, natural and artificial lightning and also access to green spaces, as we can also see from the most important building, which is the Karl Marx Hof, that my advice is to give a look at it because it's a really interesting architecture. And this was created, we can say, trust and welfare among the electors. Yeah, and as Andrea was saying, this was really the key for the new housing project because the beauty and the characteristics of the housing allowed the party to gain support also from those who did not actually live in the apartment but still benefited from the positive externalities that they created. In fact, it has been shown that the presence of artworks or green areas allowed everyone to take advantage of the presence of those housing. At the same time, it is remarkable to remember and say that the most houses have been constructed in the areas which were habitated by the working classes while at the city centers there was basically no one. At the same time, it is also important to say that houses also provided various numbers of services, for example, the presence of caretakers that could take care of the safety but also the cleaning of the houses and in the same way also playgrounds and this is also one of the main reasons why those houses attracted many young families with children and other people that could take advantage of those. Also the presence of tumble dryers which were accumulated in some areas and not one in each apartment and it was a matter of efficiency but also of saving of electricity because it allowed to use less electricity and at the same time to reduce the environmental footprint of those houses. Houses usually had some lifts allowing also the elderly to take advantage of them and therefore not being prevented to reaching the highest floors and these are all externalities which promoted both those living and taking a direct advantage of those houses but also everyone that was living nearby. And to understand the politics, the idea that was behind this intervention by the Social Democratic Party, there is a framework. I want to quote the paper that we are using by Olsner and Huberman. This article uses a pristine framework developed by Tabellini to analyze the social policy by the Social Democratic Party. The idea is to analyze the two different electoral systems. So when we are in plurality, the spending plans are influenced by like a direct accountability leading so to focus on short-term issues, we can say, while in proportional representation parties are more keen on long-term promises to diverse groups avoiding short-term cuts, cuts on spendings. And the idea of the Social Democratic Party was to maintain the electoral support, of course, but in a completely new framework composed by young families and middle classes without making enemies between the elderly and his elite. The Social Democratic Party was more famous between workers, between different types of classes, and the success in Vienna was seen as a means to regain control on the federal politics. The Social Democratic Party had a great leader who was Otto Bauer. He was an Austro-Marxist and he emphasized the constitutional democracy and the expansion of left-wings, including through social policies. In a pretty proportional system like the Austrian one, we have to consider the division that was in place in Vienna that was divided into multiple districts, each one with its demographic characteristics, socio-economic features, and these districts ranged from areas with concentrations of working-class residents, those dominated by middle classes and then business elites. The first one, the center, was the one full of business elites. And so to secure electoral victories, the Social Democratic Party needed to appeal a broad spectrum of voters across these different districts. So this required a policy that was adaptable to create a common ground for as many possible electors. The Social Democratic Party traditionally had strong support among working-class voters, but it recognized the importance of also gaining support from middle classes, elite business voters, and so winning over these segments of the population was crucial. And to appeal the middle classes and the business elites, the Social Democratic Party decided to emphasize policies that address the broadest possible social issues, such as housing and of course also other problems like education, public infrastructures. And so by aiming at housing problems, education problems, and showing the population how this party was able to handle these, we can say, these challenges, gave the Social Democratic Party a broad coalition of support and capable of securing electoral victories across all Vienna's districts. But particularly in the beginning of the 20s, trade unions that were kind of a big slice of the support to the Social Democratic Party significantly declined, and so new oppositions were born. Like one example, one famous example is the quota known as Black Vienna, that included Christian socials, anti-communists, German nationalists, and conservative intellectuals. And so to counter the mounting opposition and declining union membership, the Social Democratic Party prioritized the appealing to young families, who showed to be a larger size of the population. Initiatives like schools, daycare centers, clinics, aimed at supporting young families were central to the electoral campaign of the Social Democratic Party. It also allowed a new flat on a point system, prioritizing young families regardless of party or the particular union that they belong to. And the Social Democratic Party also recognized the importance of reaching middle class, like merchants, tradesmen, that were affected by the increasing inflation of the post-war years. And so a rent control legislation and social housing program could provide relief to middle class renters, also indirectly, thanks to the boost to the Austrian economy. And so the party actively promoted associations for small businesses, owners and craftsmen, signaling its commitment to these groups and shielding them from progressive tax policies. To really understand how housing was important for the city of Vienna and Austria in general, it is remarkable to remember and say that Vienna, after a pause due to the pandemic, is once again awarded the city with the highest quality of life for expats in 2023. But another important point is understanding how Vienna is able to keep this high position and how social housing can be represented today in the city of Vienna. There are some key points that can be summarized in the following way and that represent also the key passages of this podcast and of the case of Vienna. In first place, we can say that the city offers a large supply of affordable housing options through its social housing and cooperative housing programs. And it makes easier for residents to find reasonable price accommodation. And at the same time, it also allows long-term rental stability because the city does not closely monitor residents' income changes after they secure housing. So it allows people and families to not worry about the future or at least in the short term. Vienna allows and ensures diverse and inclusive housing and tries to maintain a mix of residents from different backgrounds and income levels in its social housing, which promotes social cohesion and avoids socioeconomic gaps. Key point is the creation of community-centric designs. In fact, all the characteristics that are peculiar of the houses which have been created by this state is the fact that the large presence of communal spaces and communal living areas foster a sense of belonging among residents and create a real living community of people living in those areas. Moreover, in order to ensure that every year there are enough possibilities for new people taking advantage of this housing situation, the city maintains a fund for land procurement and urban renewal, which ensures a consistent supply of land for affordable housing developments. And at the same time, Vienna requires that a portion of new developments to be dedicated to subsidized housing in order to ensure that everyone could take advantage of these benefits that the city can offer. Okay, now to conclude this episode of our new podcast, we have to remember and to focus on the fact that Vienna and Austria is just one of the many examples of social housing in Europe and worldwide. So it is remarkable to remember and to shed a light on some important features of social housing and how they can differ. Yeah, maybe also some doubts. For example, one question that could arise is this social sector of social housing doesn't necessarily need public ownership, so a public sector investing in it. Yeah, for sure government intervention is a key point in many areas, but for sure it is not the only possible option. In fact, the presence of a private sector or independent social landlords may also play a key role here and finance the presence of the social housing and ensure also this limit playing file for everyone. Yeah, and also about the group that this policy is aimed to, my question is do this allocation of social housing have to ensure that certain groups get an adequate accommodation or it should be instead, I don't know, like a consumer choice between the sectors? Most of the time social housing is particularly directed and targeted to families which belong to middle to low social class, but at the same time there may be social objectives and social housing projects that are directed towards the whole population and therefore we can talk about some tenure-neutral assistance and therefore allow for everyone to take advantage of those houses. Okay, thank you everyone for having listened to our podcast. Here we come to one end. Yes, thank you to everyone for joining us. It was a pleasure to talk to you about this very interesting experiment. Yeah, see you on the next episode.