Housing shortage Zurich voters will decide on housing counter-proposal
Voters in the city of Zurich will be able to decide on the counter-proposal to the SP housing initiative. Parliament approved the counter-proposal on Wednesday. As the municipal bylaws are to be amended, the matter will be put to the people.
The SP announced a few weeks ago that it would withdraw its popular initiative if parliament supported the city council's counter-proposal. The municipal council has now done so on Wednesday, meaning that only this one proposal will be put to the people.
A new provision is to be included in the municipal ordinance that the City of Zurich will in future assume guarantees and grant loans - similar to a bank. Foundations and cooperatives should therefore be able to buy more houses in order to create affordable housing. Although this is already possible today, it should be enshrined in the municipal constitution.
No fixed growth targets
The counter-proposal also includes a capital increase of CHF 300 million for several housing foundations. What is missing from the counter-proposal - and was still demanded by the SP initiative - are fixed growth targets for these foundations. The SP also wanted to write these into the municipal regulations, but the city council deemed this "inappropriate".
The counter-proposal also does not include an unlimited license for the city council to spend money, as would have been included in the SP initiative. However, this would hardly have been legally valid. The counter-proposal that has now been adopted therefore provides for a limit of CHF 20 million. Anything above this must be put to a popular vote.
Head of Finance Daniel Leupi (Greens) dampened hopes somewhat in the first debate a few weeks ago. "Even the counter-proposal will not be a miracle cure to satisfy the high demand for living space." But it would "make a contribution".
The conservatives: "Expensive symptom control"
The conservatives reject the counter-proposal. It would be an expensive fight against symptoms. The center and FDP are instead calling for more liberal rules and faster processing of building applications. The SVP sees immigration as the main reason for the housing shortage. As long as this is not stopped, none of this will help.
