Tenants need solutions now

On the 8th March, the voters of Cham will decide on the implementation of the municipal council's housing strategy. Zuger Zeitung Editor Kristina Gysi believes it's time for a bold step forward.
 

A quick glance at the usual real estate platforms is enough to make you realise: the housing market in Cham has little to offer. This is true in general, but especially for people with low to middle incomes. This is nothing new.

The Cham municipal council (Gemeinderat) aims to counteract this problem with a housing strategy (Wohnraumstrategie). The voters of Cham will now be able to decide on the four related referendum questions on the 8th March.

The measures are controversial, with three points in particular being criticised.
First: The framework credit of CHF 20 million requested by the municipal council, which is intended for loans to "non-profit housing organisations."
Second: An equal amount of credit for the municipality to purchase land in order to promote affordable housing.
And third: financial relief for tenants through rent subsidies paid by the municipality.

Opponents argue that these subsidies would do nothing to change the high rents. This is absolutely correct: the low-tax policy of the Canton of Zug is increasingly attracting affluent people who are able to afford high rents. And this is driving prices on the housing market even higher. This is increasingly a problem for residents with lower incomes, who now need a solution in order to be able to pay their bills. And, in our system, that solution is money. Because even if the rent subsidies don't solve the structural housing problem, they help to make the current situation manageable.

To counteract this problem, the municipality needs quick and efficient means of action. The two framework loans of CHF 20 million each are undeniably substantial, but are not immediate expenditure – the funds are project-specific. These loans enable the municipal council to promptly react to developments in the housing market.

The proposed measures for implementing Cham's housing strategy are controversial         Photo: Matthias Jurt
 

According to the voting brochure, properties purchased by the municipality must currently be listed as financial assets, which pre-supposes that they will thereby generate a "market-standard return." (!)  Especially in the current situation, however, the top priority for municipal land should not be profit, but rather the rapid provision of housing, and the implementation of this strategy could achieve that. The municipality would then have the option of listing properties as administrative assets. As a consequence, they would no longer need to generate profits. The municipality could thereby create affordable housing without being under pressure to generate profit.

The provision of such housing is urgently needed, according to the brochure. In the municipality of Cham, for example, 1,020 households are entitled to affordable housing under the Zug Housing Promotion Act (WFG: Wohnraumförderungsgesetz). But there are currently only 309 units available: that's about 30% of the actual need.

Furthermore, the framework credit for loans to non-profit housing organisations is not intended as a gift to these organisations. The municipality isn't thereby financing CHF 20 million of construction volume with it, but rather enabling projects that cost several times that amount. The resulting apartments remain permanently off the speculative market, as the non-profit housing associations involved don't operate on the basis of profit, and hold their properties over the long-term.

Cham is growing rapidly. So rapidly, in fact, that the municipal council reacted too late with regard to school space planning. But it is now taking a bold step, with its housing strategy aimed at addressing one of the most pressing concerns of Cham's residents.

Whether the desired effect can be achieved is, of course, uncertain. But the citizens of Cham should give their executive branch the chance to at least try.