Addressing Europe's Intertwined Housing and Energy Crises

• Europe faces a dual crisis where nearly 10% of citizens suffer from housing cost overburdens and a similar percentage struggle with energy poverty, including heating and summer cooling.
• Research initiatives like PREFIGURE and HouseInc argue that housing and energy must be addressed as integrated policy fields rather than separate challenges.
• Effective solutions require moving beyond individual household support to building and neighborhood-level infrastructure strategies.

PREFIGURE: Integrated Local Solutions

• Led by Prof. Michael Janoschka, the project examines how municipalities can provide affordable, energy-efficient housing to vulnerable groups.
• Karlsruhe (Germany) has successfully utilized cooperative housing and renovation subsidies to reduce homelessness.
• Thessaloniki (Greece) is adopting similar strategies by renovating vacant homes into energy-upgraded social rentals.
• Barcelona's "WikiHousing" project involves young people in designing and prefabricating low-carbon, affordable public housing.

HouseInc: Tackling Structural Inequality

• Dr. Anne Kantel’s research highlights that marginalized groups, such as Roma communities, migrants, and refugees, often face systemic barriers like lack of formal residency or short-term funding.
• Energy poverty frequently goes unaddressed because municipal departments work in silos, failing to coordinate across housing and energy sectors.
• The project emphasizes the need for long-term policy stability, better resource redistribution, and training for local authorities to assess specific community needs.

Implications for Policy

• Green transitions in housing must be designed alongside vulnerable populations to ensure equity.
• Effective policy requires collaboration between residents, public officials, and researchers to create "learning communities" capable of adapting successful local models to new regions.