The soaring cost of housing is like a “new pandemic” in Europe, said Jaume Collboni, mayor of Barcelona. He and 16 city leaders asked the European Union to release billions of euros to help the hardest-hit cities. Europe’s first housing plan is due this Tuesday after months of talks with experts and the public. “The new pandemic affecting European cities is called the cost of housing,” said Collboni. He launched the Mayors for Housing alliance, with leaders from Paris and Rome. This group, representing over 20 million people, calls the housing problem a “social emergency.” Prices and rents have jumped, hurting families, increasing inequality, and even feeding support for the far right. The alliance wants the EU to create a big affordable housing fund, like the Covid relief program NextGenerationEU. They hope to raise around €300 billion each year from both public and private sources. Mayors across cities like Athens, Amsterdam, Bologna, and Budapest want a say in EU decisions on housing, bringing local experience to the table. Eurostat data shows house prices in the EU rose 48% from 2010 to 2023, and rents went up 22%. Nearly 1 in 10 Europeans now spend 40% or more of their income on housing—29% in Greece, 15% in Denmark, and 13% in Germany. Collboni warns this crisis threatens democracy in Europe, just like the war in Ukraine and the threat from Russia. He said housing must get “the same priority.” The EU’s housing commissioner, Dan Jørgensen, plans to tackle problems like short-term rentals. In Barcelona, home prices have risen almost 70% in 10 years, pushing many out. Collboni insists the EU must defend people's “right to stay” in their cities. If the crisis isn’t handled well, populists will exploit anger without solutions. “If even with a stable job and salary people cannot live with a minimum level of normalcy, then the discourse falls apart,” he said.