Welcome NRW People's Initiative for safe Homes and Jobs People's Initiative for Safe Homes and Jobs in North-Rhine-WestphaliaThe "people's initiative for safe homes an jobs" is a country-wide campaign and a formal mass petition, aiming to stop the selling of public housing companies in North-Rhine-Westphalia and to keep the given standards for legal protection of tenants against evictions. The organizers hope to change the public opinion and force the government to rethink it's plans for privatization.
From the columns:
About us The "NRW people’s initiative for safe homes an jobs" since 2006 has been organizing social protests against the plans of the liberal-conservative government of North-Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) to sell the country-owned housing company called LEG (over 100.000 housing units) and against the parallel plan to cancel country regulations regarding the improved protection of tenants against evictions. The initiative even campaigns against the continuation of the selling of public and social housing to international financial investors. >> Read more >> zur Rubrik Our goals and targets Parallel to the decision of selling LEG, after the 2005 elections conservatives and liberals agreed to abolish the country regulation on legal protection of tenants after condo-conversion. According to national law a landlord can quit a rental contract if s/he has an interest to occupy the house by him/herself or her/his relatives. In connection with the mass-conversion of rental housing into owner-occupied condominiums, after privatisations the right to fire a tenant causes a specific mass problem for the security of tenure. >> Read more >> zur Rubrik According to German Tenants Federation data, over 1 million housing units in Germany have been sold to speculative financial funds during the past decade. About 3 million remaining public housing units in Germany are still on the focus of international investment trusts such as Terra Company, Fortress, Cerberus and Morgan Stanley. >> Read more >> zur Rubrik By privatization of the country owned social landlord Landesentwicklungsgesellschaf (LEG) the government of North-Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) intends to give up public control to over 100.000 flats, many of them in larger scale social housing schemes. >> Read more >> zur Rubrik News In communities, streets, trade unions and at manifestations the NRW people's initiative collected more than 70.000 signatures for the mass petition. Meanwhile, the signatures were handed over to the government. But the government did not change its plans. >> Read more >> zur Rubrik Although the government since months knows the results of the external examination on the measures on HOW to privatise LEG they did not publish it so far. The opposition strictly criticizes this clandestine behaviour. >> Read more >> zur Rubrik At October 13 about 800 persons joined a protest march in Dortmund, Germany, against the sale of the country-owned LEG. The march was organized by the shop stewards of the Ruhr-Lippe housing company. 50 % of the shares of this social landlord are owned by LEG. The employees fear a reduction of the personal staff after a sale of LEG and Ruhr-Lippe to financial investors. >> Read more >> zur Rubrik | 
