The Basque housing citizen participation model inspiring New York City

York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), stressed that they have been inspired by the citizen participation process driven by the Basque Government over the last three years.

Rhea congratulated Minister Iñaki Arriola for having dared to embark on this project and for his skill at overcoming obstacles, having clear goals and for never having deviated from his task.

Rhea said that they found this initiative to be inspiring and encouraged them to continue with a similar process that they are organising.

He made these statements during a meeting held by the Basque delegation, led by Arriola, who is in New York to collect the UN award to citizen participation processes organised by the Basque Government's Department for Housing. Arriola stressed that "the risks were worthwhile". "When you meet with people with conflicting interests provided there is a meeting point," he explained.

During the meeting, both public housing officials shared and compared their experiences and expressed great interest in their respective work. NYCHA, set up in 1934, is the largest public housing authority in North America. It has 178,000 housing units and its public housing programme serves a total of 639,000 New Yorkers.

Columbia University

Iñaki Arriola had earlier explained the Basque Government policy and the UN prize-winning citizen participation project to students at Colombia University.
The event for post-graduate students had been organised by the head of the Department of the Latin American Urban Planning Laboratory, Clara Irazabal.