Concluded projects

of the Institute of Conflict Research

Evaluation of the area renewal offices responsible for communal housing in Vienna

Project Management:	Dr.in Birgitt Haller
Project Team:	Dr.in Birgitt Haller Dr.in Helga Amesberger Dr.in Evelyn Dawid
Financed by:	City of Vienna, MA 50
Concluded in	December 2008
	German

The aim of this study was to evaluate the situation of the area renewal offices responsible for communal housing (short: ARO/CH). At the beginning of 2007, the area renewal offices were restructured, and so the main point of interest was to identify - and counteract - problems that might have been caused by these changes.

During June and September 2008, we interviewed 23 agents and employees of the nine ARO/CH as well as two representatives of the City of Vienna. The topics of the guided interviews were the structure and the tasks of the ARO/CH, their experience with the contracting authorities and with different partners, their central fields of activity, as well as the working conditions of the ARO/CH employees.

The most important changes since 2007 had been the separation of the “classical” ARO, now called ARO/urban renewal, and the ARO/CH, as well as a considerable increase in the funds of the ARO/CH, a reduction of their numbers, so that their areas of activity match with those of “Wiener Wohnen”, and some other changes regarding content and organisation. Interviewees that had already worked in the ARO/CH before 2007 regarded the restructuring as a success, the ARO/CH now being both more independent and more appreciated.

The major tasks of the ARO/CH are general counselling, the settling of conflicts and work in the field of prevention, networking as well as public relations, and - within their respective institutions - administrative work and quality management. As in 2004, both the managers and the employees criticised that the settling of conflicts took too much time that should be used for prevention, as only prevention would lead to sustainable changes. Many interviewees argued that the long opening hours of the ARO/CH offices required excessive staff resources which could otherwise be used for preventive work.

The ARO/CH cooperate with “Wiener Wohnen”, with politicians at the regional level, as well as with various public and private institutions. Work relations especially with “Wiener Wohnen” have considerably improved since 2004, although some problems that existed already then were mentioned again. According to the Annual Report 2007, 45 percent of the general consultations conducted by the ARO/CH have to do with “Wiener Wohnen” - so it is evident that this institution still has problems as regards its information policy. Politicians at the regional level are regarded as important partners, but their individual commitment seems to vary a lot, and most interviewees mentioned the risk of being monopolised by politicians. There is hardly any cooperation among the ARO/CH: Due to lack of time, networking only takes place on “jours fixes” (which are regarded as important). Cooperation with the ARO/urban renewal only takes place if the same agent manages both AROs - and in these cases synergies are considered to be of great value.

The main focus in the interviews was on the activities of the ARO/CH. With regard to conflict solution it was mentioned that it was not easy to find out, whether a conflict was really caused by noise (the most important cause of conflicts) or whether the tenants had racist feelings against the persons they were complaining about. Irrespective of the underlying reasons, the ARO/CH could only deal with the noise problem. (By the way, also employees working in the ARO/CH sometimes were confronted with racism.) Although mediation competence was expressly mentioned in the tender, and although mediators are employed in most of the ARO/CH, classical mediation is only rarely used - mostly only mediative techniques are applied.

As already mentioned, many interviewees held that community work should be enhanced, as it was the only field of activity producing preventive and sustainable effects. On the other hand, most ARO/CH work on projects and organize events that can be classified as community work.

A new focus in the activities of the ARO/CH is on working with tenants’ councils. Cooperating with them is helpful for the ARO/CH, as the councils provide information, act as ombuds bodies for the tenants and in many respects as multipliers.

Finally, as regards the working conditions of the ARO/CH employees, it became evident that their job satisfaction is very high, although sometimes complaints were uttered about the high workload. Rather often the interviewees wanted more commitment and support from their employers and criticised low wages as well as the lack of monetary incentives.