Building Tenant Power — with Barbara Steenbergen

Barbara Steenbergen from the International Union of Tenants, European Union office, joins Am Johal on this episode of Below the Radar. Together they discuss the role of the tenant unions in Europe as well as their advances in housing policies and protecting tenant rights. Barbara talks about the European housing context, and how tenant social movements in Europe led to the establishment of tenant unions. She discusses successful progressive housing policies in Berlin, Vienna, and the Scandinavian model for public housing, as well as some of the progress being made in countries that have an extremely high home ownership rate, like Spain and Portugal. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/115-barbara-steenbergen.html Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/115-barbara-steenbergen.html — International Union of Tenants: https://www.iut.nu/about-iut/ — Berlin’s Tenants Association (Berliner Mieterverein): https://www.berliner-mieterverein.de/sprachen/englisch.htm — UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing: http://unhousingrapp.org/ — International Social Housing Festival - Helsinki June 2022: https://socialhousingfestival.eu/#:~:text=The%202022%20edition%20of%20International,now%20and%20in%20the%20future. Bio: Barbara has been committed to tenant protection for more than 19 years, starting in 2001 as head of the presidential office of the German Tenants' Union in Berlin and as political coordinator for energy policy and international affairs. Since 2013 she has been a member of the Executive Board of the International Union of Tenants. She is responsible for the political relations and representation of the interests of the European tenant associations towards the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and the EU Council. She is a German citizen and holds a master's degree in political science from the University of Bonn, Germany and a bachelor in public administration. Cite this episode: Chicago Style Johal, Am. “Building Tenant Power — with Barbara Steenbergen.” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, April 14, 2021. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/115-barbara-steenbergen.html.