Community led affordable housing in Brussels

a) Basic characteristics and ambitions of the intervention

1. What is the name and the urban context (e.g. city/district) of the intervention? Please also indicate the geographical scale of the intervention (e.g. neighborhood, district, small/medium/ capital city, metropolitan area ...). [Example: “Brixton Energy in Brixton, London (neighborhood in capital city)”]

Community Land Trust Brussels operates within municipalities of the Brussels Capital Region, Belgium’s capital city (at the neighbourhood scale, especially the Anderlecht, Molenbeek and Schaarbeek municipalities, with completed/planned housing projects all over the Brussels Capital area).

CLTB is social real estate developer that builds up affordable housing projects in Brussels for people with limited means, on collectively-owned lands. It purchases land and engages with future residents and community partners to co-create affordable housing (CLTB website_ what do we do).

2. What sector(s) (alias domain/ policy field) is the intervention primarily implemented in ? [e.g. housing, mobility, energy, water, health, local economy, biodiversity, CC adaptation, etc.]

Housing

3. What is the intervention (i.e. situated experiment) aiming to achieve in terms of sustainability and justice? [If possible, please copy from a project website and give a reference]

Provide decent housing (good quality, sustainable, secure, affordable) to Brussels residents; increase community cohesion; empower residents via more control over shaping their communities (CLTB website_vision and mission).

4. What is the interventions’ timeframe?

In 2008, associations for affordable and sustainable public housing in Brussels learned about the Community Land Trust model at a convention. They visited an example in the US in 2009. In 2010, a group of 15 associations created and signed a charter for the establishment of a CLT in Brussels. After a feasibility study supported by the Brussels regional government between 2011-2012, it was formally supported by the Housing Minister and given a grant to begin operations, which happened that fall. The CLT’s first and only building so far (Quai de Mariemont in Molenbeek) was completed in September 2015. Currently, three developments are in construction and five more are planned. (CLTB website_our history).

5. By what governance mode is the intervention characterized primarily? (see distinction of three governance modes in Appendix 2)

Hybrid governance mode - the idea and motivation came from non-government actors, but it was made a reality via municipal governmental support and institutionalization (inclusion of the CLT model in the housing bill of the Brussels Capital Region and making the CLT an operator of the Housing Alliance investment program for new affordable housing) (CLTB website_our history). The CLT and its associated foundation have both residents, civil society, and public officials on their boards (CLTB website_ our governance).

6. Why do you consider it worthwhile to study and share experiences made in the context of this governance intervention for sustainable and just cities?

It fills all of the criteria for desirable WP5 interventions. It is an interesting example of hybrid governance, where non-government actors sought to serve a need for communities and local governments empowered/adopted their initiative. It is also one of the first CLT models implemented in Europe. One reservation about this intervention is that it is explicitly focused on justice, but environmental sustainability is not as important (although still present).

7. In which project deliverable(s) or other documents can information be found on this situated (i.e. place specific) governance intervention?

CLTB website and project materials from the Interreg program’s Sustainable Housing for Inclusive and Cohesive Cities project. Most information is from the CLTB website (CLTB website) and several SHICC case study documents (Interreg_01; Interreg_02) and CLTB annual reports ( Interreg_04 and Interreg_05). Additional information was provided by CLTB co-founder and current coordinator, Geert De Pauw, during a personal interview.

b) Additional basic characteristics, links to earlier UrbanA work

8. EU Project-context of the intervention:

• a. Has the intervention been developed or studied in the context of an (EU-funded?) project? (please name the project, its duration and include a link to the project website here).

CLTB was studied in the EU’s Interreg project, Sustainable Housing for Inclusive and Cohesive Cities (Sept 2017-Sept 2020), which supports and studies four CLT’s in Europe (Brussels, Ghent, Lille and London). SHICC aims to “‘prove the concept’, create a supportive local, regional and national policy, funding and regulatory environment for CLTs and build a movement across the region” (SHICC Project_home).

• b. According to WP3’s database of approaches, which approach(es) does the intervention best fit under? Where applicable, please indicate if the intervention is found in a project that has been explicitly mentioned in the database.

“Governance and participation processes”, “Policies and practices for inclusion of disadvantaged groups”, “Right to housing”.

• c. Have some project deliverables been coded in the context of UrbanA’s WP4?

Drivers of injustice	Based on WP4 coding		Based on own assessment
	Yes	No	Yes	No
1. Uneven and excluding development of existing urban space		x	x
2. Material and livelihood inequalities		x	x
3. Unaddressed consequences of urban intensification		x
4. Racialized or Ethnically Exclusionary Urbanization		x
5. Lack of effective knowledge brokerage and stewardship opportunities		x
6. Unquestioned neoclassical economics and neoliberal growth/austerity		x	x
7. Exclusive Access to the Benefits of Urban Sustainability Infrastructure		x
8. Uneven env. health and pollution patterns		x
9. No or tokenistic participation in/engagement with urban governance		x	x
10. Institutional dysfunction (scale, discipline and sectoral)		x
11. Weak(ened) civil society		x

No.

9. Problematization and priority:

• a. How exactly has inequality and exclusion been problematized (by whom) in the context of this intervention?

Intervention proponents have been vocal about the lack of affordable decent housing for low-income people in Brussels, particularly due to a small number of public social housing units and rapidly increasing housing prices between 2000 and 2010 (CLTB website_our history). This problematization comes from the low-income groups themselves, since they are engaged with the various associations and CLTB to express their needs (De Pauw).

• b. Has the achievement of justice explicitly been named as a major motivation behind the intervention?

Yes. Justice is central to their vision and mission in that the intervention provides decent housing and empowerment to marginalised, low-income groups to co-create their communities (see Q3).

• c. Which drivers of injustice does the intervention address? (see descriptions of Drivers in Appendix 1)

add the table