Three decades of (un)planed territorial development. The evergreen question of social housing in Albania

Fall of the Berlin Wall triggered the begging of a long transition for the Western Balkan’s Countries implying significant social, economic and political transformations. Since the early 90’s, the boom of (every kind of) informality, has been silently accepted by every government in Albania. Furthermore, the prevailing of private initiatives, more precisely the laissez-afire, with the consequent “vanish” of public interest awareness, redefined informality as a hegemonic economic principle. Spatial planning in Albania has been perceived as a mere technical tool by technocrats to control the territory, but completely powerless to contrast informal settlements developed in outskirts of the urban centers. This phenomenon, resulting from the high internal migration developed regional disparities and inequalities, highlighting the lack of opportunities and living conditions in the rural centers. Actually, these settlements are undergoing into a gradual legalization process, representing a clear political intent to recognize and afterward start their urban integration which is threatened from the private market transformation once the legalization process is over. As long as the private (legally and illegally built) housing market has prevailed toward social housing, the recent global crisis recalled to the public opinion the importance of this common good. From this perspective, the recent changes regarding spatial planning as an integrated approach: the adoption of Social Housing Strategy 2016-2025; introduction of the law for the energy efficiency and the ongoing legalization process, represent a historical momentum to re-establish the focus on (sustainable) social housing.