The Fuggerei

The Fuggerei was founded by Jakob Fugger the Rich, partially on behalf of his late brothers, as housing for needy Augsburg citizens. Annual rent for an apartment still averages the value of one Rheinish Gulden, about 88 Eurocents today, and three prayers a day for the soul of the founders. One unique aspect is that this oldest housing project in the world, founded nearly 500 years ago, is still financed with money from the Jakob Fugger foundation. The point of annual rent was so that the needy in the Fuggerei did not feel like they were charity recipients, because they actually paid rent and could afford something. So the concept for this social setup was centuries ahead of its time, that is, the idea of helping someone help themselves...