Four million euros in subsidies for social housing will be reallocated to a day care center

Supporting publicly subsidized housing, as was planned in Waiblingen in this case, probably does not meet the provisions of the tax code with regard to non-profit status. Therefore, the Eva Mayr-Stihl Foundation cannot support the social housing construction of the city of Waiblingen in Schorndorfer Straße with four million euros as planned. Robert Mayr, who together with Mayor Hesky was the “father” of the project, finds this annoying: “With the foundation, we wanted to make a contribution to ensuring that there is more affordable housing in Waiblingen again. However, if there is a risk that the foundation could lose its charitable status, we have to look for other projects.”

A good solution was found together: "I was happy to take up the suggestion of the foundation to use the funds for a municipal day-care center that will be built in the area directly next to the planned housing construction. It's a good thing that the day-care center was planned from the start in addition to the subsidized apartments, so that the subsidies stay in the same district," says Waiblingen Mayor Sebastian Wolf. "We are very happy about this and are extremely grateful for the great and sustained commitment of the Eva Mayr-Stihl Foundation in Waiblingen".

The original purpose of the donation was checked by an external tax consultant and confirmed as "feasible" by both the foundation and the city of Waiblingen. The procedure for accepting donations was then set in motion in 2021 and the planning for the project continued. "It is very unfortunate that the foundation's really good intentions, to devote itself to subsidized housing construction as one of the great challenges facing society as a whole, are now failing due to the provisions of the tax code," comments Andreas Hesky, the mayor responsible at the time the project was conceived and who is now chairman of the board of trustees the Eva Mayr-Stihl Foundation. “Fortunately, the foundation's funding can be used to build the day-care center on the same site. This means that the municipal funds are available for the social housing construction in Schorndorfer Straße, which are freed up by the day-care center.”