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Vienna’s social housing includes more than 220,000 city-owned flats and a fleet of subsidized, owner-occupied homes. The subsidies are financed in part through taxes and other revenues that amount to about $650 million per year. The city tops that up with its own funds as needed and based on housing demand.

A big part of new social housing in Vienna is delivered by the city’s non-profit housing associations, which number around 200. They collectively own and manage more than 135,000 apartments (growing by roughly 15,000 each year) and manage another 650,000. The associations receive tax breaks and re-invest their profit into housing.

Kathleen Llewellyn-Thomas, Vancouver’s general manager of community services, said that based on what she’s observed, non-profits “can play a huge role” in delivering housing — not just for people with very low incomes, but moderate earners as well. The city is in the middle of a rethink of its housing and homelessness strategy and looking at a range of ways to boost its supply of affordable homes that include non-profit partnerships.

“I’m in a very open-minded, and almost discovery mindset to see what others are doing and what is the best use of the city’s resources in terms of creating the community that we want to have here,” Llewellyn-Thomas told Postmedia News, adding that “we want it to be a diverse community. We don’t want it to just be the very rich.”

Janice Abbott, CEO of Atira Property Management, a non-profit housing provider in Vancouver, said she believes organizations like hers could bring even more to the housing sector in the coming years. While the city has been piloting its own affordable housing ideas in recent months, she contended that non-profits are better suited than government to innovate and partner with the private sector.