Policy & Actions » Cohesion and urban policies » Residents empowerment
Residents empowerment
Involving inhabitants in decision-making and delivery of housing and urban policies helps ensuring long term sustainability by increasing residents’ satisfaction with services, increasing quality of the homes and surrounding environment, enhancing relationships among neighbours and creating a sense of pride and belonging to the local community.
CECODHAS’ Housing Europe long-term vision is that the delivery of housing policies processes should be transformed, so that the interest of people is at the centre of the decision making, and that people who will benefit from it are fully participating in their development.
The Social Protection Committee (SPC) adopted in October 2010 a Voluntary European Quality Framework for Social Services. The Framework includes quality principles for the relationships between service providers and users, such as respect for users’ rights, and participation and empowerment. It also refers to quality principles for the relationships between service providers, public authorities, social partners and other stakeholders, encouraging partnership and cooperation of all stakeholders as well as openness and transparency as the basis for good governance.
How can Europe help? Residents’ participation can lead to significant reduction of costs on the long term, but to be sustained it requires constant investment in a number of areas such as training, staff, and information campaigns just to mention a few. That's why we believe that Structural Funds should contribute to empowering residents and improving local governance. Participation of residents should not only be criteria or conditions for the use of Structural Funds, it should be a priority per se of cohesion policy.
> Find out more about how social housing providers are involving their tenants and residents in the special edition of CECODHAS Exchange 'The Place of inhabitants' HERE
