[Editorial] Ja! Damit Berlin unser Zuhause bleibt! That Berlin will remain our home! حتى تظل برلين بيتنا Berlin evimiz kalsın diye! чтобы берлин оставался нашим домом Aby Berlin pozostał naszym domem!

Richter, Anna and Humphry, Debbie (2021). [Editorial] Ja! Damit Berlin unser Zuhause bleibt! That Berlin will remain our home! حتى تظل برلين بيتنا Berlin evimiz kalsın diye! чтобы берлин оставался нашим домом Aby Berlin pozostał naszym domem! City, 25(5-6) pp. 561–569.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2021.2012074

Abstract

In this editorial, Anna Richter and Debbie Humphry reflect on the implications of the majority Yes vote for the campaign-initiated referendum on 26 September 2021, when Berliners were asked whether they supported the drafting of a bill to expropriate and socialise housing stock owned by corporate landlords with more than 3000 properties. This vote represented a major victory and precedent for housing justice. This was directed at corporate landlords such as Deutsche Wohnen and Akelius. In 2020, Arkelius was accused by Leilani Farha, the UN’s Special Rapporteur for the Right to Housing, of creating a hostile environment for its tenants through severely deteriorated housing conditions, higher rents and increasing threats of eviction. Akelius also support the deliberate displacement of lower-income households from the city. The demand for expropriation rests on the German constitution’s article 15 and refers to 240,000 flats, the size of a large city in its own right, so the demanded bill presents a meaningful alternative vision for a more equitable and inclusive kind of housing provision in Berlin.

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