Albania, like many post-socialist countries, has experienced the rapid privatization of state-owned housing, rising housing prices in high-growth urban markets and shortages of affordable housing for low-income families.
Environmental Design professor Sasha Tsenkova is leading a group of international and local consultants to establish a legal, financial and institutional framework for a new model of social housing in seven cities across Albania.
A senior advisor to the Council of Europe Development Bank in Paris and the Ministries of Finance and Construction in Tirana, she’s helped establish effective partnerships between central and local governments, and has provided hands-on expertise 
and training to build local capacity. Tsenkova’s social housing project has been nominated for a UN_HABITAT best practice award.
How did you get involved in building new social housing for Albania?
I have a long-standing international reputation as a scholar specializing in comparative housing policy research in Eastern Europe, so I was invited by the Council of Europe Development Bank in Paris to develop a feasibility study for social housing in Albania in 2006.
What is unique about the project’s approach to affordable housing?
The project was approved by the parliament in 2007. It has resulted in the construction of 1,200 rental apartments for 5,000 people. The Albanian governments are financing the construction by a state loan of 15 million euros from the Council of Europe Development Bank, representing half of the housing development costs. Participating local 
municipalities contributed with land, infrastructure and take on responsibilities to repay the loan.
What are some of the challenges the project has faced?
By far the biggest challenges have been to develop a new legal, financial and institutional framework that will allow such large scale investment to be managed effectively in the context of fiscal austerity and decentralized governance. It is difficult to implement change at this scale.
As the project lead, how have you managed these challenges?
At any given time, I was working with a team of 12 local experts and two to three international consultants to define the rules of investment, project management and implementation, to develop adequate institutional capacity within municipal project offices in the seven cities. Establishing policy consensus in terms of rent setting, the management of social housing and allocation to tenants was very important for the long-term sustainability of the project. It is a rare opportunity to oversee an international project through the whole cycle of policy design, to investment and implementation. I constantly emphasized the importance of fiscal responsibility and social integration to balance short- and long-term objectives.
What was your experience working in Albania?
Very positive. Albanians have shown rapid institutional learning and a great commitment to change, despite the difficulties of limited social policy support and the challenges of urban poverty. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect was the profound difference that housing makes in the lives of low-income families.
What aspects of this project do you think could be applied to addressing affordably housing issues here in Canada?
Effective institutional collaboration and partnership. Simply, “when there is a will, there is a way.”
Click here to view the full article by Jessica Wallace in UMagazine.