The current financial and economic crisis of Europe will give a further impetus to the social dimension of the urban development. Since deprived neighbourhoods could create a significant obstacle to the sustainable development of cities, traditional city development strategies and approaches should be reviewed.

RE-Block is commited to find new, innovative and smart solutions to face the challenges which are related to this issue:

• The co-habitation of different cultures and ethnic groups resulting in social segregation and territorial detachment;
• Disintegrated and fragmented population, low level of initiatives for creating cooperating neighbourhoods and communities;
• Low/destroyed infrastructure facilities, poor public spaces;
• High community bills due to the lack of energy efficient solutions;
• Few and not appealing community buildings / space for community events to facilitate human contact and social integration;
• Local authorities do not possess neither policies / tools nor experienced workforce to handle effectively these engraving problems.

The rehabilitation of deprived neighbourhoods became a top priority topic in many cities all over Europe, especially, in light of the current crisis, which is particularly touching those living in high-rise blocks, typically, in difficult conditions, at the periphery of the society.

Indeed, more and more people living in these buildings are facing serious financial problems being unable to pay their rent and utility bills. As such they are getting “stuck” in this living environment.

The main issue addressed by RE-Block is therefore how to foster efficient regeneration of these neighbourhoods, making them more attractive and improving their environmental quality, whilst creating an integrated tailor-made approach to combat poverty.

“The affected areas look identical only from the outside. Their communities are diverse, disintegrated and consist of several ethnic groups. If we want people to act as a self-conscious community, we have to find a common language applicable and suitable for everyone.”
Attila Ughy, Mayor

The Lead Partner started to built up the RE-Block network based on the need to find new tools and and solutions to give a boost to rehabilitate the “Havanna” high-rise block building estate, a deprived urban area situated at the outskirts of 18th district of Budapest. The population of the district is around 100,000 and the “Havanna” housing estate, having a population of more than 17,000 people with low income and social status. The integrated social city rehabilitation of the Havanna high rise block buildings was launched already in 2007 (Central Hungarian Regional Development OP), however, there are still substantial challenges to be solved. The public authority owns only a low percentage of the dwelling, thus public-private cooperation needs to be established with (public and private) investors to make rehabilitation financially feasible. On the other hand, the involvement of citizens is a key to carry out a sustainable rehabilitation process. Also, parties need to define sustainable and viable level of physical refurbishment using economically and technically up-to-date methods. The Lead Partner wishes to carry on with the rehabilitation taking into account leading and tendency-building examples in Europe, where the city combined the use of an integrated approach, financial support, participation of inhabitants) and in cooperation with other European cities sharing this objective that can contribute to and benefit from the RE-Block thematic network.