The housing crisis is worsening poverty, Caritas Switzerland warned on Tuesday. High housing costs are no longer bearable for people on modest incomes, denounced the aid organization, which calls on political and economic circles to take action.
Poor households are particularly affected by the housing shortage and rising prices. On average, they have to spend “a good third” of their income on housing and energy. This is more than double what an average household spends proportionally, the aid organization warns.
And the situation is even worse in some cantons, such as Geneva, where, in 2022, 8,000 people were on waiting lists for affordable housing, notes Fabrice Boulé, spokesperson for Caritas. “The waiting time is about two years,” he explains in La Matinale de la RTS. “A lot can happen in two years when you don’t have a suitable apartment: you lose quality of life, people are destabilized, family life is greatly penalized.”
Health impacts
Rents are increasing in particular because housing is becoming increasingly scarce, particularly affordable housing. The vacant housing rate is well below 1% in many cantons. The increases in the mortgage benchmark interest rate in June and December 2023 or the explosion in energy costs since the start of 2022 also have an impact.
>> Read also: Faced with the housing shortage, rents will continue to increase
According to the NGO, the housing crisis goes beyond the simple financial aspect and can have negative impacts on physical and mental health. People on a tight budget have to make concessions in other areas, such as food, health, education or leisure.
In addition, more than 80% of households in poverty live in “inappropriate” conditions. They “more often live in noisy and poorly insulated housing, located in unfavorable locations, for example near a dangerous road,” denounces Caritas.
“The problem is that you can never find an apartment that you could afford when you are on social assistance,” laments a resident of Basel-Landschaft. The 60-year-old man, receiving social assistance, lives in a small apartment of 22 m2, without a kitchen. He has been looking for a new home for four years.
>> Listen to his testimony in La Matinale:
Investments required
Faced with this situation, Caritas demands political responses, in particular “real investments in the promotion of affordable housing”, at all levels of the State. It also requires contributions to rent based on income, as is already the case in the cantons of Basel-City, Basel-Landschaft and Geneva as well as certain municipalities in Vaud and Ticino.
>> Read also: What solutions to the housing shortage?
For the director of Caritas, Peter Lack, “housing policy is also a policy to combat poverty, and it is more necessary than ever.”
The organization further recalls that the Federal Constitution stipulates that the Confederation encourages the reduction of the cost of housing, taking into account in particular “the interests of families, the elderly, people in need and people with disabilities”.
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