On 6 Septmber 2024, the AGF organized an expert discussion on discrimination against families on the housing market. Charlotte Weber and Remzi Uyguner from the Berlin office against discrimination on the housing market “Fair mieten – Fair wohnen” were invited as experts. The discussion is part of a series of AGF events on the topic of family-friendly housing and access to housing for families.
In 2023, the AGF held its event on “Family and housing” and subsequently published a working paper on family-specific perspectives on housing policy (Download). In 2024, the AGF held an expert discussion with Jan Kuhnert and Reinhard Aehnelt on the “New non-profit housing policy” (See report on the meeting).
The expert discussion on 6 September 2024 dealt specifically with the discrimination of families or certain types of families (especially families with a history of migration, single parents, large families, patchwork families) on the housing market and what potential could lie in a targeted further development of the German Anti-discrimination law.
Charlotte Weber and Remzi Uyguner opened the discussion with an input outlining the topic (presentation by “Fair mieten – Fair wohnen”). They explained the concept of discrimination and the approach they follow in their counceling work. They described how discrimination on the housing market affects different groups of people. First, they highlighted discriminatory practices in accessing and allocating housing. They then used examples to show how discrimination manifests itself in neighborhood conflicts.
For both problem areas – housing allocation and neighborhood conflicts – their service center offers individual support by giving advise to the people in need. They also are active in a preventative and political capacity by providing materials and public work about discrimination and how to prevent it. They additionally contribute expertise to discussions and training sessions with housing companies and housing policy stakeholders. In addition, they participate in the discussion on the further development of the General Anti-discrimination law (AGG) and contribute to sharpen the law.
The discussion with the family organizations focused on the topics of discrimination against certain types of families and the possibilities of further developing the AGG as an instrument against this. Family-specific discrimination is currently not covered by the AGG. It was discussed to what extent the AGG could be expanded to include the discrimination criterion of “marital status” or “family structure”. The “marital status” should be defined in such a way that the focus is less on the current status (e.g. married, single, divorced) but on whether children live in the household and in what constellation these families live (e.g. single parent, large families etc.).
In addition, it was discussed how to ensure that particularly vulnerable social groups remain at the heart of the AGG even after a possible extension of the discrimination provisions. There was consensus that the AGG is not an instrument for solving the serious problems on the housing market. A combination of targeted promotion of family-friendly housing, raising political awareness of the needs of families on the housing market and quotas for families’ access to affordable housing, alongside legal adjustments to the AGG, can be a strategy to relieve the pressure on families in tight housing markets.