With housing insecurity on the rise in Budapest and affordable homes becoming increasingly scarce, the Affordable Housing for All (AHA) project has taken a vital step: launching the Municipal Housing Office. This innovative, human-centred initiative is embedded within the municipality and offers crucial housing-related support, particularly for vulnerable residents. Operating at the intersection of housing management and social care, the office provides both individualized assistance and strategic insights into the complex housing challenges facing Budapest today.
The Housing Office is not merely an administrative addition but functions as a hub for socially embedded services, the Office is staffed by social workers, the office brings a holistic approach to addressing the city’s housing crisis.
Our office brings in the perspective of social work, which has long been missing from housing governance, explains one of the project’s social workers, we’re not just managing property—we’re stabilizing lives.
From the outset, the Housing Office has embraced a dual responsibility:
- Primarily, to assist those already housed within the municipal social housing system, who continue to need support to maintain housing stability and improve their quality of life; and
- To support individuals facing housing difficulties—those at risk of losing their homes or in need of both social and technical assistance.
In addition to providing individualized support, the office generates systemic insights that contribute to the AHA project’s broader development goals. This is evident in the provision of crucial zero-day insights to, and the testing of an early warning system, also developed within the project, as well as their efforts to address non-take-up of services, which help identify gaps in access and shape more responsive housing interventions.
Since opening in February 2025, the Housing Office has provided services to over 150 individuals and families. Clients range from municipal tenants with rental issues and complaints to walk-in individuals seeking support after hearing about the Office through word of mouth or during visits to the municipality’s central customer service desk. The office provides three main services, counseling, referral and social work. The ultimate goal is to prevent the loss of housing, such as to avoid by preventative means, among other things, a situation where the Municipality has no other choice legally but to resort to the morally questionable institution of eviction.
Beyond these, the team assists with formal procedures, offers supportive conversations, and launches individual casework processes. Since May, the Office also offers energy efficiency consultations in collaboration with the Hungarian Energy Efficiency Institute. These sessions analyze a household’s energy use and offer customized recommendations—although uptake of this new service has been slow. Soon, legal counseling will be introduced to address tenant rights, rental disputes, and other legal aspects of housing insecurity. The aim of the gradual, step-by-step expansion of the services is two-fold. First, to shape the profile of the office in the light of the professional experience the social workers gain over time, and second, to prevent the office from developing a negative public image in the event of a sudden increase in demand due to limited availability of capacity or available resources.
In the framework of the Affordable Housing Action (AHA) project, understanding how municipalities address complex housing needs is essential. As part of our learning exchange, we spoke with Fruzsina, a social worker involved in the Housing Office of the Budapest Municipality. Fruzsina shared her team’s experience in establishing and running the office, the types of services offered, and the challenges they face.
Fruzsina began by explaining how the Housing Office was created and how it functions within the broader municipal structure:
At the moment, I work as a social worker at the Housing Office, which is part of the municipality’s Housing Services Division, she explained.
We’re part of the AHA project but also part of the municipality.
The Housing Office is located within the main customer service centre of the municipality—a physical office inside the main municipal building as Fruzsina described—alongside other services such as tax and benefit support. This central location ensures visibility and accessibility, attracting scheduled visitors and walk-ins who discover the office while using other municipal services. It also lays a strong foundation for the long-term sustainability of these new services.
The office is staffed by four social workers and one coordinator, along with a part-time energy efficiency counsellor who is available twice a week. From its inception, the team was actively involved in shaping its operations:
We had to figure out how to open the office from both practical and professional perspectives, said Fruzsina.
We also took part in feedback sessions with the project management team. We could give feedback about how the client database would be most user-friendly, for instance.
This collaborative approach allowed for a more tailored and effective service provision from the outset, however, there is still a lot to do.
What Does the Housing Office Do?
The Housing Office provides a range of services aimed at supporting residents with housing-related difficulties. Fruzsina categorized their work into three main areas: counselling, referral, and social work.
- Counselling
This includes one-time support for people seeking information about housing applications or allowances.
We give them the relevant information, and then they go and manage it themselves, said Fruzsina. The main challenge is the lack of easily accessible, transparent information, which often discourages clients from seeking an institutional solution to their problems, even though one exists.
- Referral
When necessary, clients are redirected to other institutions, including NGOs or district-level services, depending on the nature of their needs. Social workers working in the Municipal Housing Office have received extensive trainings from different actors in this field, and they maintain a good network of multiple relevant stakeholders who might step in, if needed. They also keep the map of services supply up-to-date, which is designed to track and overview the types of services available to clients across different levels and sectors, e.g. in the different districts. Given that a housing crisis is almost always a complex crisis, sometimes referring clients to a place where they can get adequate answers to their specific questions, is the first real, often-missing step on the long way towards the solution. - Social Work
This is a complementary service, as tenants can also apply for district-level assistance depending on where they live in the city's two-tier municipal system. However, the Housing Office of the Municipality of Budapest primarily targets tenants renting municipality-owned housing, with the specific aim of helping them remain housed despite difficult circumstances and challenges, if possible.
"We have a long-term relationship with these clients," Fruzsina noted, emphasizing the more in-depth and continuous support provided.
The Housing Office does not provide maintenance services directly. That responsibility falls to a separate division within the municipality, whose responsibility is to maintain the property, the “bricks and mortar” legally owned by the Municipality. Instead,
We are a new participant in the system, providing different types of support—our role is not property management but helping people with social needs related to housing, explains Fruzsina.
Who Uses the Housing Office?
While many clients are tenants in municipally owned housing, a significant number come in from the street after hearing about the office through word-of-mouth or signage. The central location in Budapest’s municipal building makes it easily accessible, however, partially hidden from tenants living in the outer districts.
About half of the people currently come from the streets. They just heard that we are here, Fruzsina said.
We are really in the centre of the city, and people can just walk in.
At this stage, most of the clients, especially if they are not tenants of the Municipality of Budapest, should either initiate a call, write an e-mail or step in and cross the doorstep themselves to be able to receive these services. Fortunately, word of mouth is spreading, and the office gradually reaches more and more people in need beyond the city center as well.
This inclusive approach reflects the Housing Office’s commitment to addressing the broader housing crisis, not only the challenges faced by current tenants.
Navigating a Complex Governance Landscape
The Housing Office is one actor within a complex and fragmented governance structure. Budapest has 23 districts, each with its own local municipality and welfare systems. This creates confusion and often leaves vulnerable individuals falling through the cracks.
Every district has their own social workers... but it's clearly not enough, Fruzsina explained.
The system itself is very difficult to navigate, to get to the right place where your needs are solved.
This is where the Housing Office serves as a new and much-needed entry point.
Sometimes people come to us after their district municipality couldn't help. It gives people hope that we can offer something different.
Key Needs and Housing Demands
The most common support request is assistance in applying for municipality-owned flats, which are offered through an annual housing support programme. These flats are significantly cheaper than market alternatives, but demand vastly outstrips supply:
There are approximately 400 applicants for just 10 flats, Fruzsina said.
And many of these flats are in poor condition, making them difficult to allocate and renovate.
There are also housing programmes targeted at seniors over the age of 65, which are very popular. The Housing Office supports clients in applying for these opportunities as well, helping them navigate the bureaucratic process.
This is one of the most frequent needs. They don’t want to do it alone, and we can help them.
One of the most important shifts the Housing Office represents is the integration of a social work perspective into the municipality’s approach to housing.
It’s not just a question of property management, Fruzsina explained, referring to tenants who fall behind on rent.
We can build a different relationship with these tenants to understand the obstacles and help them.
This shift from enforcement to support—and from focusing on property to focusing on people, is one of the most significant contributions the AHA project has enabled in Budapest. The Housing Office is not only bridging institutional gaps, but also changing how housing is understood within municipal structures.
I think it's a very good thing that now the social aspect is being represented in the municipality. It’s important—and now it’s available.
The colleagues without whose hard daily efforts, the launch of the Housing Office would not have been possible: Tamás Virág, Fruzsina Bogdán , Judit Károlyi, Lilla Zámbó, Anikó Varga, Márkus Téglás
Despite the difficulties, the Housing Office team has already gathered valuable lessons:
- Complex housing issues require sustained, ongoing support—simple referrals or one-time interventions are not enough
- Mentoring and follow-up significantly increase the chances of long-term housing stability.
- Clients' housing situations are often intertwined with employment, mental health, and community dynamics, requiring a cross-sectoral approach.
- Municipalities may have more untapped resources than they realize, and efforts should be made to identify and activate them.
In the near future, the Housing Office will be able to receive clients from the Social Policy Department's existing housing customer service activities, in particular information/shelter for the elderly in their homes, applications for retirement housing, and complaints about homelessness, and thus gain valuable experience and insights into the housing and social circumstances and situation of new target groups.Moving forward, the Housing Office aims to:
- Launch legal advice services
- Strengthen partnerships with public utility providers
- Organize on-site service sessions with agencies like Budapest Waterworks and BKM
- Support the network of district debt counselors and enhance their capacity
About this resource
The European Urban Initiative is an essential tool of the urban dimension of Cohesion Policy for the 2021-2027 programming period. The initiative established by the European Union supports cities of all sizes, to build their capacity and knowledge, to support innovation and develop transferable and scalable innovative solutions to urban challenges of EU relevance.
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