The situation is almost the same in the Walgau municipality Thüringen, where two small residential buildings are scheduled in two steps, one with ten, the other with twelve flats. However realization of the project is presently delayed due to the massive protests by the neighbours. ‘It is but a formal objection, but there is of course a lot of anxiety,’ explains the Mayor Harald Witwer. ‘We hope that we will find an agreement with the neighbours, because there is a high need for social housing. On our list of applicants for flats, there are mainly young people from our municipality, families and single persons. If we will not be able to offer them a dwelling, they will sooner or later move away. This tendency is already noticeable right now. In the past, Thüringen had even more inhabitants than it has nowadays. When I went to school, 25 years ago, we had eight forms in primary school, today we have but four.’

The prejudices against social housing are probably one of the reasons why presently 46 of the 96 Vorarlberg municipalities do not yet have social housing projects. ‘In practice, people apply for a home where they have a chance. That means in muncipalities where social housing has already been established’, explains Heidi Lorenzi, director of the department of housing with the Institute for social services. ‘That is why cities such as Bregenz and Dornbirn have long lists of applicants, while other municipalities report that they have no or only few need for social housing. If these municipalities came actively up to their citizens and if they offered their inhabitants social housing, the situation would certainly be a different one.’

According to Heidi Lorenzi  the fear from ghettoes is not justified in Vorarlberg. ‘We are complaining about first-world problems. There are no ghettoes here in Vorarlberg, like we know them from large cities in America or in Germany. Of course, we have in Vorarlberg also some settlements jam-packed with people with many problems. But these are only some rare exceptions, carryovers from the past and we have learnt from this experience. Nowadays social housing consists in smaller buildings and the municipalities attach great care in the allotment of flats. Social housing is nowadays sought after mainly by people like you and me. But nevertheless, I believe that there must be a place also for difficult, burdened households. But we have to carefully select the settlements and the flats where we have such households establish.’

Hans-Peter Lorenz, director of VOGEWOSI sees in social housing even a big chance for the municipalities: ‘On the one hand, social housing is allotted by the municipalities and consequently they have a precious tool for the development of the settlements in their own responsibility. On the other hand, affordable living space may counteract outward migration: the basic rents of social property developers in Vorarlberg due to the high subsidies in construction are between 5.60 and 6 Euros per square metre inclusive of VAT. In private housing this price is at least 2 Euros higher.’

And problematic cases? Hans-Peter Lorenz relativizes: ‘In Vorarlberg we have 15,800 flats held by VOGEWOSI with more than 40,000 residents and 0.1 per cent of problematic cases only. There are many young people, young families who need affordable starter homes and who are not (yet) able to pay the prices of a home in the private market.’

And it is for these young people that social homes are being presently built in several smaller municipalities in the Vorarlberg side valleys – for instance in Bartholomäberg in the Montafon valley. On an area of 4,000 sqm, 16 social homes are planned with the possibility to enlarge the settlement later on. According to Mayor Martin Vallaster, ‘we are in urgent need for more affordable living space in rural areas, because building sites are running out and building a single-family house has grown out of reach for many people. And moreover, there are growing numbers of lone parents and single households. Social housing is a great issue in the Montafon valley. We want to prevent outward migration of young people, and already now we have dwindling population. We have a great demand for affordable homes in Bartholomäberg and on our list there are about 20 applicants, five of them from neighbouring municipalities.’ Start of construction works is scheduled in 2014.

And even in the small community St. Gerold in the Großes Walsertal with its 365 inhabitants, there will be social housing any time soon. VOGEWOSI has planned a small building on 2000 square metres with 6 flats  that can be enlarged to 10 units. ‘I hope that the homes will be ready for occupation by 2014. Then we will be able to offer young families a good alternative to single-family homes.’ The Mayor Bruno Summer particularly cares for such young families: ‘In 2005, 14 children attended our nursery school, this year there were only six children. This trend must be reversed. I would like to fill our municipality with life again.’

In the small municipality Lingenau in the Bregenzerwald, the issue is seen from a different point of view: ‘We need most urgently affordable sheltered accommodations for elderly people,’ reports Mayor Annette Sohler. ‘We try to satisfy this demand by offering a social residential building that offers – apart from sheltered accommodations - also living space for young families.’  A residential building with 12-16 flats is scheduled to be ready for occupation by 2015. Like in St. Gerold and in Bartholomäberg, there are no reservations by the inhabitants about such social housing projects. Annette Sohler is convinced that ‘though we still are in an early stage of the project, I think that due to the moderate size of the building, we may basically count upon the comprehension of the neighbours.’ And what more is: in smaller municipalities the residents of social housing projects are generally known personally in advance by their neighbours.

There are also larger municipalities, such as Lochau or Lustenau, where social housing is well accepted by the inhabitants. ‘This might be due to the fact that we have here one of the first social housing projects, a ‘South Tyrolean settlement’ since WWII. Social housing has a long tradition in Lustenau and in several other municipalities in Vorarlberg and therefore it is not seen as a threat’, presumes Hanno Fäßler, the responsible person for the allotment of social homes in the town hall of Lustenau. ‘I rather think that most people in Lustenau do not event know exactly which residential building is a social and which is a private one‘.

In Lustenau the list of applicants has about 300 names on it, and each year about 80 – 100 homes are being allotted. Consequently, only the most urgent needs can be covered. And who are those people applying for social homes? ‘People who are living or working in Lustenau. Young people, old people, families and singles, native people and migrants, people with and without disabilities – just but a reflection of our society’, summarizes Hanno Fäßler, ‘but due to the rising housing prices a new and continuously growing group can be found on the list of applicants: young couples, sometimes even double income households and families’.

According to Christian Reutlinger, social geographer from the University of Applied Sciences in St. Gall, the reason why the issue of social housing sometimes stirs up emotions is to be found deep below the surface. ‘Big social questions around social housing are being made an issue of discussion:  ageing population, family-friendliness, educational opportunities, fair income, relationship between native people and migrants, questions of power. Social housing might be an opportunity to discuss such important burning issues. And finally the point is to deal with the question: what kind of society do we wish to have in future? ‘ 

’I would like to see a society where – as a matter of course – also people in difficult living situations may have a place of accommodation. This remains a task for society as a whole. Housing is a basic condition for the development of each human being and the right to an accommodation place is an essential prerequisite for a well-functioning society and for social peace. And a well-functioning society and social peace are by no means a matter of course in the long run – not even here in Vorarlberg’, stressed Karl Ladenhauf from the state department of housing promotion in Vorarlberg.