A great opportunity for AER regions and the Intercultural Regions Network to join the transnational knowledge sharing event organised by the AER and the Pomeraskie Region (PL) “Addressing the housing crisis: An essential building block for intercultural regions“.

Since February 24 2022, 4 million Ukrainians had to leave their country and homes and looked for shelters among their European neighbours. One year later, regions and local administrations are faced with a growing concern as to how to accommodate so many people, ensuring that dignity and human rights are respected, and finding sustainable and long-term housing solutions. These concerns are part of a broader housing crisis currently taking place across Europe with several people at risk of homeless and a general mission to think and rethink about the “where people live” within our societies.

In view of supporting regions addressing the housing crisis and as a direct response to the challenges expressed by the Polish region Pomorskie, which, since the outbreak of the war, has witnessed the most significant population growth ever with a rise of  approx. 110 000 people in the overall region (regional data) and by 34% in its capital city, Gdańsk (Council of Europe, 2022), the event will provide an opportunity for regions and stakeholders to address and exchange about challenges and good practices in ensuring sustainable and long term housing solutions, countering  homelessness, poor housing, and gentrification, and how intercultural and cross-sectoral regional policies can support these practices. 

The event will take place on 14-15 June in Gdańsk, Pomerania. It will gather international experts and regional politicians and civil servants from both the social inclusion and spatial planning departments, with the aim of:

• understanding the challenges related to the war in Ukraine and the housing sector, learning from the experience, actions, and projects in Pomerania 
• exploring how the intercultural approach and cross-sectoral cooperations can promote social and territorial cohesion with particular regard to housing, e.g through innovative social housing solutions and models
• benefitting from existing regional innovations by sharing knowledge and practices among regions  
• reflecting on how housing related challenges and models can be integrated in current and future regions’ strategies and policies. 

Read the full concept and agenda of the event

The event is addressed to regional practitioners and local stakeholders active both in the spatial/territorial planning and inclusion sector.  

Places are limited. For more information and to register, contact Birgit Sandu ([email protected]) and Johanna Pacevicius ([email protected])

The event is the first EU-BELONG transnational knowledge sharing event aimed at supporting regions in addressing current societal challenges through intercultural and multi-stakeholder policies.  EU-Belong is a 3-year project run by the Assembly of European Regions (AER) and 13 partners, and co-funded by the AMIF Programme (AMIF-2020-AG-CALL) of the European Union.