Learning from Vienna:
Lessons on Social Housing
March 16, 2026 6:30PM to 8:30PM
St Bede’s Church 3950 Grandview Blvd,
Los Angeles 90066
Over the years, Vienna has become the gold standard for social housing. Today, 60% of residents reside in Vienna's social housing, which is kept off the speculative market and protected with long-term affordable rents. This did not happen by accident. It traces back to an extraordinary era known as Red Vienna, when socialists took control of municipal government at a moment of real crisis: the conditions of housing were deplorable, evictions were frequent and arbitrary, and rent gouging was common practice.
*** The Program ***
We will begin with an introduction by Chelsea Kirk, followed by a presentation by scholar Beatriz Stambuk-Torres on social housing in Vienna, and conclude with a moderated Q and A and audience questions at the end.
About Beatriz Stambuk-Torres
Beatriz Stambuk-Torres (she/her) is a scholar and practitioner dedicated to ensuring that land, housing, and urban spaces remain accessible to all. She has trained hundreds of elected officials, housing professionals, and public servants in Vienna’s housing, mobility, and urban planning models, and collaborates with cities worldwide to develop systems that keep housing permanently affordable. She created a school on the topic called The Urban Commons or El Bien Comun Urbano. Beatriz holds a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley. Originally from San Juan Capistrano, California, she comes from a multicultural family with roots in Spain, Mexico, and Argentina. She now lives in a housing cooperative in Vienna, Austria, where she is pursuing a PhD focused on social housing and the decommodification of land and property.
About Chelsea Kirk
Chelsea Kirk (she/her) is a tenant organizer, researcher, and policy advocate whose work is oriented toward building a better world without predatory landlords. Born and raised across Southeast Los Angeles, she has been a member of the Los Angeles Tenant Union since 2016 and is currently the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, where she leads campaigns to advance tenant-centered solutions to the climate crisis. After the January 2025 wildfires, she founded the Rent Brigade to confront illegal rent gouging through a crowdsourced spreadsheet, practices that have made it difficult for wildfire survivors to rehouse. Her work and research have received national attention in The Washington Post, NPR, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, and more. Her writing appears in New York Review of Architecture, Phenomenal World, n+1, Avery Review, Los Angeles Times, and other outlets. She holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA.