Exploring collective housing solutions in a housing system geared towards individual housing: between disruption and integration

Belgium formally has a constitutional right to housing, in reality access to housing largely depends on someone’s labour market position. Citizens are hence individually held responsible for their housing need. In the absence of an adequate central government response to problematic access to quality and affordable housing for low income groups and ethnic cultural minorities, welfare organisations have recently explored collective housing solutions. In this paper, we analyse how these organisations strategically navigate to position collective housing projects in a political and legal context geared towards individual housing solutions. We do so on the basis of a case study of two projects for culturally diverse groups of residents in two Belgian cities: Leeggoed in Ixelles (Brussels) and Solidair Wonen in Sint-Niklaas. While the initiators seek recognition of collective initiatives in housing legislation, they are also forced to adapt to existing regulations to sustain their projects.status: accepte