By Cleo Ding
Danish housing associations are nonprofit organisations, and two-thirds of the rent they collect go to a national building foundation where the mortgage is paid off.
Approximately 760 housing associations are in charge of more than 500,000 public housing units throughout Denmark.
In Aarhus, as everywhere in the nation, the nonprofit sector run by about a dozen public housing associations competes with private housing.
The rental income can be used to finance the construction of new social housing or the renovation of existing stock. This has made it possible for housing associations in Aarhus to modernise energy standards without having to raise rent accordingly.
Aarhus has recently experienced new pressures from this system due to population growth of 5,000 people annually and an increase in land prices. As a result, the city council has mandated that a quarter of all new housing constructed be set aside for public housing.
Such tenant-friendly restrictions have assisted in regulating investment funds looking for quick returns, together with measures that penalise fast resales of residential property.
Public housing in Aarhus involves not just managing the existing historical housing but also expanding it.
Like elsewhere in Denmark, the public housing system in Aarhus is list-based rather than means-based: neighbourhoods which fulfil certain criteria are put on the list, and have better housing options if the name rises up the list every year.
However, this system is facing backlashes in recent years due to the ongoing housing crisis. According to the latest homeless census, there are around 750 homeless citizens in Aarhus.
