Image source: https://www.barcelonahousingsystems.com/
| Country | Spain | |
| City | Barcelona | |
| Name | Barcelona’s housing right plan (2016 – 2025) | |
| Date | 2016 | |
| Description of the project | The policy aims at ensuring the housing’ social function and achieving a quality public service regarding housing in line with the European cities. Co-housing program: The co-housing is a model that allows a community to live in a building without being owners or to rent it, for long periods (between 50 and 100 years) and to a lower market’s price. Within a new concept – “right to use” –not ownership-, this more flexible tenure form is address to solve the Barcelona housing problems. At the beginning of 2017, the Municipality of Barcelona has launched a public contest to co-housing initiatives for seven urban spaces, where public land is going to be given to cooperatives to build houses and manage them in this framework. It is address to cooperatives that promote new ways of housing access and relationship.Grow the public housing stock and management: The public housing stock needs to be enlarge in order to ensure the access to social rents. At the moment, they count with 6.300 houses for rent in all the city which are assigned to persons in need of housing and elderly people. In order to go deeper in this policy, they have implemented some actions to incentives and penalized the obstacles to the well function of the system.
1) Mediation to rent market: The municipality acts as a mediator between the owners with empty houses and people that need lodge, offering certain benefits and subventions. On the owner side, they are offering: a) subventions to the inclusion in the “Rent Housing Stock” to houses (1.500 € if the house is empty, and until 6.000 € to cancel debts to cases in legal processes); b) Subventions to rehabilitee the house (100% of the expenses until to 15.000€ and in a exchange of a 5 years’ contract); c) Subventions to pay local taxes (IBI); d) Multi-risk insurance during the contract period, e) Follow up of contract obligations and free legal and technical advice f) Guarantee of support for rent unpaid (until 6 months since the contract starts). On the lodger side, they are offering: a) Ensure a reduce rent price (Social Rent) regarding the incomes (lower than market price); b) Elaboration and sign of the contract, c) legal and technical advice, c) The amount of the contract expenses and the first rent month. 2) Empty houses program: It is estimated that Barcelona has between 4% to 11% of empty houses in the whole city. A sanction for owners that have an empty house for more than 6 months are being implemented. The tax payment is from 600€ for the inspection and legal expenses but it will charge 200€ more with every new infringement. The budget for this plan is around 2.973,2 M€. The Municipality of Barcelona is the major contributor and it is included the support from other private and public actors. Also, the Generalitat of Cataluña contributes to the “Housing Consortium of Barcelona” (entity constituted by the regional government and the Municipality). Many of the initiatives of the plan were from the previous governmental period, such as the “Plan 100 x 1000” that address the housing access problems through the construction of new buildings with public protection. In May 2017, it was launched a Syndicate from the people who rent (Sindicat de llogaters de l’Estat) for the defence of them. |
|
| Urban Co-Governance | ||
| Enabling State | ||
| Pooling | ||
| Experimentalism | ||
| Tech Justice | ||
| Project Website | https://www.barcelonahousingsystems.com/ | |
| References, sources, contact person(s) | Political sources :
Approved by the Plenari del Ajuntament di Barcelona (Municipal Council of Barcelona, maximum authority body of the city). Cataluña Regional Law Nº 24/2015, July, 29th about Urgent measures to address the housing emergency and the energetic poverty. Many articles were cancelled by the Constitutional Court of Spain related with the eviction issue. The plan was also based in a regional previous law of Cataluña about the right to the house. (Nº 18/2007) and the government claims that without the Law Nº 24/2015, this is the legal framework to refer to.
Contact : Josep Maria Montaner Martorell,Concejal de Vivienda, Concejal del Distrito de Sant Martí ; jmontanerm@bcn.cat |
|