Symposium "Community Living Plus in the municipality

A nationwide symposium entitled "Gemeinschaftlich Wohnen Plus in der Kommune" took place in Aachen on May 23, 2025. The event was organized by the Forum für Gemeinschaftsliches Wohnen e.V. Bundesvereinigung in cooperation with the Coordination Office for Building and Living in Communities of the City of Aachen. Around 120 participants from all over Germany came together to discuss the possibilities of so-called "plus modules" in housing.

Plus building blocks can be, for example, outpatient care or other care infrastructures relevant to the neighborhood, which can significantly expand the range of housing projects and thus contribute to the challenges of demographic development and the needs of services of general interest. The focus is on the question of how people with support needs and in old age can live well and independently and what support the municipality can provide. The specialist presentations and discussions focused on innovative approaches, sustainable concepts and the promotion of social cohesion within communities.

A particular focus was on presenting successful practical examples from various municipalities that have already had positive experiences with communal living plus or neighborhood concepts. Experts also presented new funding opportunities and legal frameworks designed to facilitate communal living plus.

The most important findings of the conference at a glance:

• The great importance of communal living for social stability and quality of life in communities.
• The need to further improve the legal and financial framework in order to enable more projects, especially in the area of "living plus".
• The effectiveness of cooperative approaches and collaborative planning in the development of sustainable housing projects.
• The steering and coordination function of the municipalities in order to create suitable framework conditions for cooperation between local stakeholders and the implementation of projects. Everyone agreed that local authorities should set up coordination and advice centers.
• The role of local authorities as important partners in promoting and supporting shared housing.
• The relevance of "intermediary organizations" that use their technical expertise to advise and develop projects and work in cooperation with local authorities.
• The importance of greater exchange and networking between different stakeholders in order to spread innovative ideas. It became clear that there is a need for strong advisory structures that are promoted as well as nationwide networking advice centers or the introduction of advice centers at state level.
• Concept procedures are valuable tools for awarding and developing innovative residential projects.
• Social services of general interest have been assigned to the municipalities as a task, but they are not obliged to implement them accordingly. Clearer assignments are needed here as mandatory tasks that are backed up with sufficient resources.
• In addition to the municipal level, a relevant amount of funding is needed at federal and state level for innovative, experimental projects and interdepartmental cooperation in order to establish integral, sustainable projects and structures.

The event ended with an outlook on future developments and an emphasis on the importance of cooperation between municipalities, housing projects and residents in order to create liveable and inclusive communities.

Overall, the symposium was a valuable building block in the further development of the topic of communal living plus and for raising awareness of this field of action in local authorities. The positive response shows that the topic continues to gain in importance and that project developments in this area should be further expanded.