In September, Domus Social, the Housing and Maintenance Company of the Municipality of Porto, organised a session of ‘Lá Fora’, a series of exchanges for staff members, in which they invited SI-IU staff member Els Keunen to give a presentation about social housing in Germany.
Els was in Portugal for a longer secondment for the Deliver sAfe and Social Housing” (DASH) project. For ‘Lá Fora’, she prepared a presentation titled ‘Between neoliberal and welfare state ideologies: social housing in Germany’, in which she elaborated on the historical development of social housing in Germany, the social housing system, current challenges exacerbating the housing crisis and how Tübingen is making efforts to counteract current tendencies. Domus Social staff members Sara Neves and Olga Feio also contributed with their experiences of their secondment in Germany during the DASH Thematic Workshop in May. Altogether, it was a lively session in which the attendees asked a lot of questions as well as discussed similarities and differences with the Portuguese system and the situation in Porto.
Impressions of the session. Picture credits: Inês Dias, Domus Social, 2025
