Affordable housing

Red frontal attack on Housing Councillor Tittler

Not much affordable housing has been built in the province in recent years.

(Bild: HARALD SCHNEIDER / APA / picturedesk.com)

Only a good half of the promised 4000 affordable apartments have been built, criticizes Reinhold Einwallner (SPÖ). He is calling for an urgent change of course and more determination in the area of affordable housing.

The Social Democrat has set his sights on ÖVP provincial councillor Marco Tittler and has nothing good to say about his housing policy. At the beginning of the legislative period, the state government had promised to build 4,000 affordable apartments. However, at the end of this period, everyone involved will be faced with the sobering fact that just over half of this has been achieved. "And to now claim that the construction of 1,000 apartments per year is unrealistic is like giving up on yourself," Einwallner fires back at Tittler.

Unrealistic demands
The black state councillor apparently incurred the wrath of the Social Democrats with a statement in the "Vorarlberger Nachrichten" newspaper. There he had recently said that the number of apartments demanded by the SPÖ was far too high. Building more than 400 to 500 per year is not realistic.

If your own government program ends up being unrealistic, you are either out of your depth or unserious. The whole thing resembles self-abandonment.

Reinhold Einwallner, SPÖ, Nationalrat

Bild: Mathis Fotografie

In view of the number promised in the government program, the Social Democrats are now asking themselves why the members of the state government set such unrealistic targets in the first place if they are not in a position to implement them. "There is only one conclusion: either the provincial councillor is overburdened with his portfolio or the government program is dubious," rails Einwallner.

Like SPÖ regional leader Mario Leiter recently, he compares the situation surrounding social housing with the situation in Tyrol. There, housing councillor Georg Dornauer - an SPÖ politician, of course - would even have built 2000 affordable apartments per year. "Hopefully no Vorarlberg resident will believe that we can't manage that in the Ländle," says Einwallner. After all, after years of stagnation, the ÖVP has implemented the SPÖ demand and wants to adjust the income limits for non-profit housing.