Connor Friesen interviews Kata Feher
The aim of the Social Housing Reconstruction project is to help disadvantaged families living in run-down tenements owned by local municipalities in Hungary. The project carries out renovations involving young volunteers and the mostly unemployed locals struggling with rent arrears, within the framework of a "construction camp". The increase in the value of the buildings brought about by the renovations is credited to the tenants thus reducing their arrears of rent.
This project was a recent winner of the SozialMarie award for social innovations in and around Austria. The awards committee recognized this project's ability to generate marked increases in social value and property value in Hungary.
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What inspired the project's founders to create the first Social Housing Reconstruction Camp?
We came up with the idea of Social Housing Reconstruction Camp in 2009, after visiting a family together with the members of a homeless advocacy volunteering network in Nagykanizsa, Western Hungary. The family was facing eviction.
Visiting the site of the future eviction, we found very poor living conditions. The city of Nagykanizsa has two social housing settlements, both are highly segregated and they are considered to be the most problematic areas of the city.
People living in these areas are mostly unemployed. Even if they have a job, these jobs are temporary or occasional, thus the lack of security continuously threatens these families. The high unemployment rate is the result of decreasing industry in the city, which leaves the unqualified former factory workers jobless.
Without a stable income it is easy to get in a debt spiral, and later to be forcibly evicted. The lack of security can lead to apathy and depression.
People living in social housing face quite high level of prejudice which is paired with the prejudice against Roma people who are over-represented among the disadvantaged who live in social housing units.
After seeing the combined effect of these factors we decided to organize a program where we give a chance to these people to show how they want to change their situation. In the program the participants' rent arrears turns into an increase in value of the houses they live in.
What does a typical construction camp look like? How long does it usually take? Who are the main stakeholders?
As a first step we try to get the tenants involved who could significantly reduce or entirely erase their rent arrears. From a family more people could join - every worker get the same rate of reduction in their rent arrears per day. In the first two camps in 2010 we could involve 65 locals, this year 31 locals worked with us - which means 19 families - and also 4 locals joined as volunteers.
Our call for volunteers is trying to reach people who do not have any contact with disadvantaged people in their ordinary life, thus they can have a real life-changing experience. The university students can later appear as political decision makers or architects just planning social housing units - in a more sensitive way. This year we worked with 40 volunteers.
We tried to reach double target groups: not only to show a different segment of life for the locals, but also for the volunteers. We also involve special groups. A very productive cooperation started with a participative homeless activist group, their homeless members come and help in the construction, or in the kitchen to cook for the volunteers.
During our camps we also live in the settlement, the local municipality provides us an empty house to stay in. The volunteers come for 3-4 day or more, so they can meet locals, can understand the situation there.
We work every day, also in the weekend, so those who have a job can also participate. The work starts at 8 and finishes at 5, with an hour long lunch break. Some of the locals join us for couple of days, some of them stay for the whole construction - which was 18 days this year.
What are the biggest challenges of the project?
The biggest challenge of the project was to win over the local municipality and their Municipal Asset Management Department to participate. Convincing them about the economic advantages of maintaining their property through Social Housing Reconstruction Camp was very difficult as they never had any previous experience with the civil society. We also had to ensure of meeting the expected quality of reconstruction with many unskilled locals and volunteers. To solve the problem we cooperated with an experienced construction supervisor.
3 years after the first meeting sessions now we have a good relationship with the Municipal Asset Management Department, and they were the ones who initiated a new project. They also share the financing of the construction, by organizing skilled work, public utilities, etc.
We also expected partnership with local NGOs and the Social Department of the municipality, but we could not find real allies, which would have meant a strong basis for the follow-up of the project.
Participants with different work experiences can be a challenge - unskilled, experienced, enthusiastic and less enthusiastic participants, people in good and bad physical conditions. That can be handled with the engagement of volunteers. People with different life experiences could understand each other very well, and the mutual interest could make the hard work - insulating a dark, dirty roof out of use - a quite fun event.
Are you aware of any other organizations working towards similar goals, or using similar methods to you?
There are organisations who are working on eliminating poverty housing, and also who use similar methods as our organisation: involving and empowering the target group, finding answers to the local conditions, double target group, expected effort from the beneficiary, etc.
We are not aware of any organisations who are working with the same method, we even arouse great interest in others. The project in Nagykanizsa was a pilot for involving tenants in maintenance of their own houses. We would also work with other municipalities - building new relationships with other municipalities is our main focus these days. We would be happy to see that other NGOs or institutions are using our pilot as a sample.
Do you think that Social Housing Reconstruction Camps could work outside of Nagykanizsa? Outside of Hungary?
We are sure, that Social Reconstruction Camp can work in many places. The main idea - turning a rent arrears into value through the work of renters - can be applied in many different circumstances. It is a typical problem in Hungary, but also in other countries in the CEE area.
Social Innovation Europe, like the SozialMarie award, is attempting to highlight and promote examples of good practice in Europe. What else can the Social Innovation Europe community do to support your work?
Last year we won the SozialMarie Prize, which meant we had the financial backing to forthcoming camps. We also got international recognition and respect which helped to strengthen our project's representation among Hungarian municipalities.
You recently attended the SOQUA Summer School in Vienna. What was the most important information/skill you learned or shared there? Why was it so important?
The summer school widened our perspective concerning social innovation, as we never considered ourselves as innovators before the prize. It was a well-organized, interesting and informative event, with lot of interactive sessions, which gave a chance to get familiar with the international trends. Tim Brodhead's lecture also gave us a great description of cycle of innovation, new financing models, and critical transition of organisations - where we could recognize our organization.
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