These 12 months the cooperative housing movement has been able to materialize its trajectory of decades of struggle and demands in substantial results. The path began in 2004 with the birth of Sostre Cívic, the first entity created in the country to promote cooperative housing, and since then we continue to work every day to promote this model which basically defends that housing is a good for use and not for investment.

In 2022, with the signing of the so-called 'Barcelona Declaration' or the approval in the Parliament of Catalonia of the Resolution Proposal for the recognition and promotion of the model, public-cooperative alliances have been strengthened to be able to carry out more cooperative housing projects and make them more affordable and inclusive for all types of people. The year ended with the celebration in Barcelona of first Forum for cooperative housing in right of use, which had the participation of more than 600 people from all over Catalonia and from different parts of Spain, showing the growth of interest in this alternative model of access to housing.

Sostre Cívic it has also been a particularly intense year, with thestart of coexistence in the projects of Cirerers, La Sala i El Turrós (which are added to the 5 cooperative housing projects already in this phase) and the birth of 3 others. At the same time, we continued with the development of the 6 projects in the promotion phase and making progress in some of our lines of work, such as sustainability and social inclusion, or in the financial strengthening of the entity.

Therefore, it has been quite a challenge to summarize such a decisive year in just 10 topics, but it gives us perspective on everything we've experienced in 2022, and we want to share it with you below:

1. #WORKS

The month of març we begin the rehabilitation works a La Xicoira, the cooperative housing project in Olesa de Montserrat. In July we start the last stage of the works of Clau Mestra (La Floresta, Sant Cugat) a new phase of self-construction carried out by the group that starts after the reform and expansion tasks carried out by La Constructiva. 

2. #COEXISTENCE

We already have more than 100 partners living in cooperative housing! This year we celebrated the start of the project of Cirerers (Roquetes, Barcelona), of our first project for young people a La Sala (Calonge and Sant Antoni), and our first rural project El Turrós (Argelaguer, La Garrotxa).

3. #PROJECTS

On April 2022nd we promote 3 new cooperative housing projects a Palamós, Valls i Saint Hilary Sacalm; all three with very different characteristics: new construction, trial and retraction, and senior. The rest of the projects in promotion are also progressing according to the planned calendars, such as the senior project of Walden XXI (Sant Feliu de Guíxols), which enters the final stretch by opening participation to its financing with a campaign of participatory titles. 

4. #SUSTAINABILITY

We believe it is necessary to promote an energy transition towards a sustainable model. That's why this year we begin to monitor the installations of all the projects in order to reduce energy consumption and we are launching the first shared electric car in a cooperative housing project with Som Mobilitat.

5. #INCLUSION

Together with Palafrugell City Council, we deliver the first social housing with the Emergency Desk which was agreed with the Housing Agency of Catalonia through a cooperative housing project in right of use. Along these lines, we generate opportunities foremployment in construction cooperating with insertion companies to create employment for groups with special vulnerability.

6. #PARTICIPATION

On June 17 theOrdinary General Assembly, held for the second consecutive year in a hybrid format, consolidates the sustained growth of the cooperative. The Assembly approves the new project of La Xicoira, improves internal democracy and advances the strategic debate looking to 2025.

7. #FEMINISM

let's start theelaboration of the Protocol on gender-based violence, which will allow us to act in the detection and approach of sexist and LGBTIphobic violence in the cooperative. The process started in July with the creation of the engine group, and will last until February 2023, when it culminates with the elaborated protocol.

8. #AWARDS

At the end of June we will receive the prize at the best new construction for La Balma awarded by the state's public housing managers! There have been three recognitions that the Poblenou project has received in 2022, after arriving as a finalist in April for the FAD Architecture Awards and the Ibero-American Architecture Biennial. And we are also finalists of the European Social Innovation Competition (EUSIC) of the European Commission!

9. #INCIDENCE

On May 19, the Parliament of Catalonia debates for the first time about housing in right of use, i approves by a large majority a Resolution Proposal which includes different proposals for cooperative public collaboration with economic, fiscal, land transfer and support measures for co-housing for the elderly, among others.

10. #MOVEMENT

Barcelona hosts the first Forum for cooperative housing in right of use which is celebrated with the slogan "The cooperative way for the right to housing". The event includes a demonstration of nearly 400 people demanding public support for the model, more than 20 technical debate sessions, and the signing of the so-called 'Barcelona Declaration', a manifesto of support for public-cooperative collaboration signed by different administrations and entities from all over the state and led by the mayor of Barcelona, ​​Ada Colau, and Juli Fernàndez, Councilor for the Territory.