Would You Want The Government To Be Your Landlord? 5 As residents across the U.S. struggle with rising housing prices, policymakers are increasingly looking at models for “social housing” including in Vienna, Austria, as a way to improve the situation.
For years, Hawaii Sen. Stanley Chang has been promoting Singapore’s government housing program as a solution to Hawaii’s housing shortage. Now Chang, who is chair of the Senate Housing Committee and a leader on housing issues, is promoting another model: the city of Vienna’s “social housing” program.
Chang says he’s not abandoning Singapore; rather, he says, Vienna and Singapore both fall under the umbrella of “social housing.” The goal is to have affordable rentals available to everyone, like access to public school.
“The main difference between social housing and what we think of in America as public housing is that social housing is not income restricted,” Chang said in an interview. “Social housing is intended to be for all, not just lower income people.”
