Besides being a successful rapper, Fatih De Vos is also a sociologist and youth worker. He grew up in one of Ghent’s social housing in Belgium, the Rabot towers. "The Rabot towers were an important source of inspiration for my hip-hop music. It will always be the neighborhood where I feel most at home. From a purely ecological point of view and due to a lack of space, we have no choice but to build more high-rise buildings. And then the compact of high-rise buildings is a solution," Fatih says. Read the feature of our communication colleague and member from VVH, Els Matthysen.

“But if we are to shape our Union in their mould, young people must be able to shape Europe's future. Our Union needs a soul and a vision they can connect to. Or as Jacques Delors asked: How can we ever build Europe if young people do not see it as a collective project and a vision of their own future?” This is how European Commission’s President, Ursula von der Leyen officially announced that 2022 will be the European Year of Youth during her annual most important speech about the State of the EU. Already a quarter of the way into this special year, we see the EU’s ambition to make young peoples’ lives greener, more inclusive, and more connected. However, where is housing in this picture?

Housing Europe’s Policy Director, Julien Dijol took part in the Europe Housing Forum side event REELIH Regional Conference II organised by Habitat for Humanity International on the 17th of November during the event on ‘Community mobilization: practices in the social housing sector’. His presentation focused on two aspects: a new way of tackling energy poverty that could be scaled up in the Eastern European regions as well as the relevant example of the Horizon 2020 POWERPOOR project which aims at raising awareness on what energy poverty means and what can be done to alleviate it.