Legal Concept Presentation
November 17, 5:00 pm, Online: https://www.facebook.com/events/415935850138889
“Mechanisms for Creating a Social Housing Stock” is a study offering the Concept of regulating the legislation on providing the social housing – housing stock for the homeless, produced with the financial support of the Open Society Foundations. According to the author of the study, TSU Professor Koba Kalichava, “in order for the housing stock to existing, it is crucial to regulate the legal framework, which can serve as a foundation for the model of legislative regulation for creating and managing the housing stock. Within the framework of the concept both a brief concept of a special legislative act, as well as proposals for changes in the adjacent laws will be created.”
Recently, the issue of providing housing for the homeless has become especially relevant. This is due to the factors creating homelessness, such as an emergency state of the housing resources, the provision of single housing in exchange for bank loans, the massive loss of housing due to the lack of support systems for people addicted to drugs and substances, and so on.
The most effective way to solve these problems is to create a housing policy that would also include provisions for creating accessible social housing stock. However, a state policy and a relevant effective legal framework that would be in line with the constitutional requirement of the country – the principle of the welfare state, are yet to be created. International best practices show that solving the problem and fulfilling the positive obligations of the state without providing, among others, sustainable housing stock, is impossible.
In the study, the author proposes the concept of legal regulation for creating the social housing stock. The study addresses the following questions: why is it necessary to adopt a special regulatory law and which legislative changes will be necessary; Who is the target group for social housing; What are the benefits of social housing stock and what will be the anticipated results; Also, what tools should be used to protect the beneficiaries.
In the study, the author proposes the most commonly used ways and mechanisms for creating housing resources. The document also discusses the principle of hierarchy of these mechanisms, stipulating that the system can not depend on predominantly only one type of service (e.g. rent service), as such an approach is not characterized by stability and does not create a sense of security for the resident. In the end, it fails to meet the standards of decent living conditions.
At present, there is no strategy or vision for providing housing to the homeless in Georgia. The exact statistical data on homelessness is also unavailable. With the exception of IDPs, the state, for various reasons, has so far failed to see and count the citizens left without housing, the issue that the state itself recognized in the Open Government Partnership (OGP) 2018-2019 Action Plan.
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Contact person for the press: Ana Toklikishvili, Open Society Foundation, 595 221 999, Anuka@csf.ge,
www. osgf. ge
