Budapest Tenants Win New Public Housing Administration

With support from a Lutheran church and community center, public housing tenants in Budapest’s 8th District built a tenant association to improve the condition of their apartments and buildings. The 8th District – known as Józsefváros – has 130 publicly-owned apartment buildings, home to more than 3,000 families, many of whom are Roma.  For decades, the municipal government has failed to maintain these buildings, letting them rot and sometimes selling them off to private developers.

The tenant association has demanded that their Mayor change how public housing is managed and replace the leadership of the Management Company responsible for maintaining public property. Tenant leaders have built teams in more than a dozen buildings and met many times with city officials. In May 2024, they organized a forum for the candidates for mayor focused on public housing.

Once re-elected, with a majority on City Council, the mayor followed through on his commitment to appoint new leadership to the Management Company. He replaced a fundamentally anti-tenant director with a new leader, Gabriella Borbás, who has years of experience working to protect and renovate public housing.

The Tenant Association is continuing to fight for changes that would speed up repairs, create greater accountability for tracking repair requests, and allow tenants to make repairs to their own apartments. The association is also organizing tenants in ten buildings targeted for demolition.

Learn more on their Facebook page.