Sign Now! Right to Housing! Now and Forever

Right to Housing! Now and Forever is a European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) demanding access to housing that is affordable, sustainable and fair. The European Citizens' Initiative allows citizens to call on the European Commission to propose new EU laws. Once an initiative reaches one million valid signatures, the Commission is obliged to respond.

IABR 2026 SYSTEMS OF SUPPORT will feature the premiere screening of a documentary exposing why Europe's buildings are expensive, empty and broken. Workers can no longer afford to live in the cities they build. Young people cannot leave their parents' homes. Tenants are pushed out of their neighbourhoods after costly renovations. The existing building stock is there, and so are the approaches needed to make it affordable. What is missing are the rules.

The Right to Housing! Now and Forever initiative calls on the EU to make use of the existing building stock and protect residents from displacement and speculation. If one million EU citizens from at least seven countries sign, the call becomes a signal that the European Commission cannot ignore. The ECI has launched and can be signed until 13 September 2027.

The Right to Housing! Now and Forever initiative works by connecting three things that are usually kept apart: the skills of practitioners who understand how buildings actually work, the legitimacy of a democratic instrument that gives citizens a direct voice in EU lawmaking, and the reach of public communication that shifts what people consider possible.

We can move forward by challenging the systems that make demolition financially viable, breaking down the tax barriers that make renovation less attractive, and modernising building laws designed for new construction after the Second World War. The question is not how to build more sustainably, because the knowledge and technology already exist. What is missing are contemporary rules that incentivise change everywhere.

The Right to Housing! Now and Forever initiative proposes concrete actions: recognising housing as a human right and responding to the housing crisis by using the existing building stock, as well as structurally regulating markets and reforming funding, fiscal rules and climate safeguards.

Sign here: righttohousing.eu