Housing Crisis in Luxembourg Demands Immediate Action: Yours

As home prices continue to soar, more and more residents are being priced out of the market, and the gap between the haves and have-nots is growing wider by the day. But this is a crisis that affects us all, whether we own a home or not. And yet, when it comes to finding a solution, it seems we are happy to go as far as complaining, but not far enough to do something about it.

For far too long, foreign residents in Luxembourg have not participated in our collective decision-making. But times have changed and require action. The only way to make sure that our local administrations intervene and take a new role in building homes for people to live in, is to give them the mandate to do so.

And the only way to do that is for enough people to vote for those who can, and will, show they have something to offer, and something to do about it.

It is up to you to help Luxembourg fix its housing crisis. Unless we fix it, unless we do something about the availability of housing, and in doing so, protect the attractiveness of the country, in the end we will all lose, homeowners and not.

We must make it clear that we are not content to sit idly by as the housing crisis deepens, and demand that our leaders take bold and decisive steps to address this issue (there are plenty of options and models to adopt from other countries to help us).

It is not enough to simply hope for change to happen on its own. We must actively work to create the future we want to see. That starts with participating in the democratic process, and giving our next government a hint (ahead of the October polls) and our local administrations the mandates to take action and address the housing crisis in a meaningful and sustainable way.

But only 6.7% of eligible voters are currently registered to vote in Luxembourg City. This number (and similar statistics across the country) should outrage you. If it doesn’t, we can only blame ourselves for the eventual result that will change nothing. If this number tells me anything, it is that we seem to be perfectly content with how things are, and foreign-residents do not feel the need to exercise their democratic right to vote and support the addressing of the issue. But the issue is there, and needs addressing.

If you live in Luxembourg, it’s time to take responsibility. Register to vote.

We must not let this crisis continue to grow and affect future generations, it's time to take action, and it's time to vote.

Christos Floros covers News and Politics for RTL Today @christosfloros