Community-based housing solutions
Our priority is to increase the availability of affordable and safe housing in Hungary. The members of the Periféria Policy and Research Center, one of ACRED's founding organizations, have been working for almost a decade to promote the rental-based housing cooperative model in Hungary.
A rental-based housing cooperative is based on collective ownership. The residents set up an association or cooperative that owns the whole property – both common areas and private residential units – and thus do not directly own a residential unit. Rather, they are each indirect owners of the whole building, and pay a monthly rent. The residents are also jointly responsible for house management (maintenance, financial affairs, and organization, etc.).
The aim of a rental housing cooperative is to provide affordable and secure housing for people who have little capital or no predictable regular income and are therefore disadvantaged on the housing market.
Community (work)spaces
Access to property for community purposes is as unequal as access to housing. Democratically organized and solidarity-based communities, workplaces and social/activist organizations often have insufficient capital to purchase a property.
ACRED is therefore also committed to providing affordable, secure spaces for social organizations, cooperatives and maintainers of community spaces. One way to achieve this is through the acquisition and redevelopment of underutilized properties originally built for other purposes. After redevelopment, these converted buildings can be collectively owned and managed by democratic organizations that bring together the end users.
ACRED is involved in managing non-residential properties similar to the Kazán Community House – mixed-use properties that provide community spaces with a wide range of public functions and accommodate workplaces and social organizations.