Housing providers, individuals, communities: evolving roles, attitudes and responsibilities

Affordable housing and energy efficiency are both key challenges in the current debate on sustainable cities, as the inclusion of such topics in the Habitat III Urban Agenda of United Nations clearly demonstrates. The public authorities, housing providers, companies and communities cannot mobilise the power or resources needed to face these challenges unilaterally. Direct public authorities’ intervention has moved to the background and the public sector is looking for private partners to implement actions, switching from actors to directors. Within the described framework, the human factor is increasingly emerging, not only in terms of relations among households and between tenants and housing providers, but also in terms of impact when it comes to lowering energy consumption in the housing sector. Understanding occupant behaviour and addressing households’ needs is a pre-requisite to develop effective renovation strategies of the housing stock.