Supporting the development of Social Housing as Ethical Banks or Social Finance Intermediaries: challenges and best practices in Central and Eastern European Region
Date: 6th of February 2024,
Time: 9:30 – 17:30 (CET)
Location: Vienna, Austria.
Address: WEST Alte WU, Augasse 2-6, 1090 Wien, Austria
The upcoming SIFTA workshop “Supporting the development of Social Housing as Ethical Banks or Social Finance Intermediaries: challenges and best practices in Central and Eastern European Region” will take place in Vienna on February 6th.
Beyond the significant differences across countries in the definition, size, scope, target population and type of provider of social housing, this workshop will focus on the financing of quality and affordable social housing, from very social aimed at particularly challenged communities, to social housing for low income households, highlighting challenges and best practices in the CEE region.
This event will feature 4 experienced and meaningful speakers. It will be moderated by Wolfgang Spiess-Knafl and Clémentine Blazy from the European Center for Social Finance and Marion Le Boulch from FEBEA with inputs throughout the sessions.
Agenda
9:30 – 9:45 – Arrival and registration
9:45 – 10:15 – Introduction to the workshop and agenda. Wolfgang Spiess-Knafl, Clémentine Blazy, European Center for Social Finance, Sheryl Loh, Frankfurt School of Management, and Daniel Sorrosal, FEBEA. Introduction of participants
10:15 – 11:15 – Banking for social housing. A social bank approach to supporting very social housing organisations. Raphael Lehmann, Erste Social Finance Holding
14:30 – 15:30 –
Ending homelessness through housing. Designing, funding and sustaining a housing 1st program. Christina Lenart, Neunerhaus/Neunerimmo
16:00 – 17:30 – A History of Social Housing in Vienna – Guided tour – Karl Marx Hof All participants
Speakers
Raphael Lehmann is an impact investment manager at FEBEA member, Erste Social Finance Holding. He specialises in real estate impact-investments in Austria and CEE with an aim to support the provision of safe and secure housing options to low-income and marginalised families and individuals, as well as community infrastructure such as schools, health centers, and public amenities. As a former Investment manager at Soravia, he moved on to develop and head the ESG and sustainable finance of this leading real estate group in Austria and Germany before joining Erste.
Christina Lenart is housing expert at neunerimmo / neunerhaus Department for Research & Policy. neunerhaus is a Vienna based organization that creates access to housing, healthcare, social participation, education and work, especially for people who are homeless, at risk of poverty or do not have health insurance. neunerimmo is a subsidiary of neunerhaus that acts as a bridge between the real estate and social sector. Christina taught at the TU Wien as part of the Research Unit of Housing and Design, alongside an extensive research work in the field. Before, she worked as an editor at ARCH+ magazine for architecture and urbanism, Berlin. She graduated in architecture from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and in advanced architectural studies from the University College London (UCL).
Mikulas Kresanek is co-founder of Socialni Inovatori Impact Capital, pioneer social impact fund in Slovakia dedicated to creating a functional infrastructure for impact entrepreneurs and all future solvers of societal challenges. Mikulas brings in over 20 years of experience in private equity, investment and commercial banking (Slovak American Enterprise Fund, CA-IB, Credit Lyonnais) with a specialisation in structural financing. Within Socialni Inovatori, Mikulas focuses on supporting the social ventures in their fundraising & strategic business development. Among other engagements, he is co-founder of the Center for project innovations at the Slovak university for public health.
Kurt Hofstetter has been involved in various leadership functions with the City of Vienna for the last 30 years, in areas including urban development and city planning, zoning and development planning and landscape planning. He headed for instance the International Building Exhibition “IBA_Vienna – New Social Housing”, which final presentation was disclosed end of 2022. From 2003 to 2015 he was significantly involved in the urban development of the Urban Lakeside “Seestadt Aspern” in Vienna, which acted as role model for new approaches in many areas of neighborhood development. Kurt is a graduate of the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna.
