The Debate Continues: Administration’s Plans to Invest in Social Housing Units in Drensteinfurt Sparks Controversy

The debate about the administration’s plans to join the yet-to-be-founded inter-municipal housing company “IstaG” in order to then invest up to 37 million euros in around 95 new social housing units in Drensteinfurt caused heated discussions in both the technical committee and the council. In the end, both the CDU and the Greens revised their previously expressed categorical “no”. The plans should be examined and only come back to the table after the 2024 budget has been passed. However, the Greens in particular do not want to hear anything about a “turnaround”.

“As a party that deals intensively with the issue of social affairs and housing, we would like to correct some of the facts described in your report. The municipal housing project was initially rejected by the city’s building committee – yes, also with our votes. “Thanks to the changes that have now been made in the meantime and to the benefit of the city of Drensteinfurt, we can now support the project,” said parliamentary group spokespersons Heidi Pechmann and Bernhard Meyer in a joint statement.

The district does not make decisions alone

Improvements include the fact that the city can now determine up to 50 percent of tenant occupancy. The district previously wanted to have 100 percent occupancy of the apartments. It is now clear that existing residential units can also be brought into society. “That means we don’t necessarily have to build 95 new units,” emphasize the Green Party speakers, who also point out once again that, from their point of view, the presentation presented to the council was “many times more concrete than that presented by Mr. Faller in the SBUA meeting”.

As far as the alleged accusation of a “U-turn after an outcry from the SPD” is concerned, the content is incorrect. “We have always been and are in favor of subsidized housing, including through a housing association if necessary. “We support housing associations in municipal hands,” said Pechmann and Meyer. “As a result of the approval of the SPD in the building committee, the city of Drensteinfurt would have run into budget security in the following years and would no longer have been able to fulfill its responsibilities.”

A vote would not be a decision to join

An accusation that is, however, not entirely correct. Because even if the project had already been approved at a broad level at the meeting of the urban development committee, it would ultimately have been nothing more than a signal and a declaration of intent. As it was already stated in the draft resolution there, the council should only instruct the administration, “subject to the same orders from other municipalities, in cooperation with the administrations of the other municipalities, to establish a regional joint venture in a manner permitted by the funding guidelines for new inter-municipal cooperation in North Rhine-Westphalia “Prepare the legal form and submit it to the Council for a decision.” As is now actually done in a slightly modified form, including the setting of a deadline, the route proposed by the administration would initially have only resulted in a pure audit order. An immediate decision to join would not have been a “yes” vote in both the technical committee and the Council.

Waiting for the household

Overall, the Greens concluded in their statement, the new information and “the trust placed in the department management” led to the conclusion within the party that the matter needed to be examined again. However, this only works if you have the actual figures for the 2024 budget and the following years. “The mayor failed to present this in a timely manner. If we had simply agreed, like the SPD, the eight million euros would put a huge burden on our budget in the future, when we are already expected to have a deficit of around five million in 2024. And who knows how everything would continue,” said Pechmann and Meyer.