After a 2020 full of challenges for our organization, marked by the Covid19 pandemic that forced us to modify habits and practices, 2021 has been key for the impetus of the model and for the consolidation of many of our projects

The construction and rehabilitation of buildings, which used to be the main axis of work of our organization, has given way to the management of the coexistence of projects that have already been realized and are beginning to gain weight, three years after the neighbors of Princesa49 they came to live there. With the completion of the works of La Balma and the incorporation of the Sant Joan de Vilatorrada project, in 2021 we have doubled the number of cohabitation homes, going from 25 to 50 coexistence units that already have a cooperative home and that are incorporated into those of Princesa49, Mur and Palafrugell.  

So, we have a lot to celebrate! To close the year, we want to review the most outstanding news that we have experienced in 2021 to stop for a second and look back so that we do not forget, from time to time, where we came from and where we are going :

1. We create community in the project Mur

The neighbors of the cooperative housing project in Martorell moved in during the pandemic, and this made the process of getting to know and consolidating the group very difficult. A path where they have been accompanied by the organization's technical team, who have dynamized the meetings and trained members from different areas. 

Network: The challenge of new additions to co-housing: "To accommodate, we have to stop"

2. For non-speculative and affordable housing for everyone

In May, the Housing Sector of the Solidarity Economy Network, of which we are a part, and the Federation of Housing Cooperatives of Catalonia launched a campaign aimed at public administrations to demand measures that favor the affordability of the 'cooperative housing... and that he has already had positive results! On May 15, the cooperative housing sector in Catalonia carried out the first major unitary mobilization that brought together hundreds of people in Plaça Sant Jaume.

Beteve: The cooperative housing movement calls for measures to make it affordable

Crític: Non-speculative and affordable housing for the popular classes

3. The senior project of Can 70 already has solar

Can70 will be the first cooperative housing project for the elderly on public land of Catalonia and the Spanish state after the Barcelona City Council has allocated a couple of plots to develop the project, the result of the agreement signed last autumn between the Administration and different social housing foundations and housing cooperatives. We are already drafting the architectural project thanks to the first supplier competition that we have carried out in the cooperative and with the collaboration of the COAC!

Catalunya Press: Barcelona gives municipal land for the construction of social housing flats

COAC: The COAC collaborates in the contest of ideas for the senior cooperative housing project of Sostre Cívic

Reality: Interview to Can 70: "Growing old in the company of well-known people and without being a burden to anyone"

4. The neighbors join the new cooperative project in Sant Joan de Vilatorrada

At the beginning of June, the 5 coexistence units of this project in Bages moved in! The property was owned by a bank and was rescued from the speculative market with the purchase via the right of first refusal. It is the same procedure that we also followed in the Palafrugell project.

The Point Today: The cooperative that takes flats from the bottom 

TV3: Housing project of Sostre Cívic in Palafrugell

5. Wooden structure of Cirerers: completed!

The completion of the structure of the building of Cirerers it drew a lot of attention from the residents of the Roquetes neighborhood, but also from the media and organizations in the sector. 31 family units of between 40 and 70 square meters that occupy seven floors, and which together with the basements make up the tallest wooden building in the State, so far. It is expected that the first quarter of 2022 will be when the members of the cooperative will begin to fill the building with life!

Beteve: How will you live in the tallest wooden building in Spain?

College of Surveyors: The wood of Cirerers

TV3: The construction of large buildings made entirely of wood and other sustainable materials is spreading

6. The works of La Balma

The afternoon of Thursday July 15, we handed over the keys to the homes to the neighbors of this project in Poblenou and the first of our organization's new works, in an event in front of the building where the mayoress of Barcelona Ada Colau participated. This is also the first project to finish the works on a municipal lot among all those awarded by the City Council in 2016, in the first public competition called by the council intended to promote cooperative housing.

Beteve: Neither buy nor rent: live in cooperative housing

Crític: La Balma: the endorsement of a job well done by La Constructiva

7. Cooperative housing reaches new municipalities and counties: the projects of Palamós, Lleida, Olesa, Valls and Calonge are moving forward!

In 2021, these five cooperative housing projects have received support from local administrations through different ways of collaboration: land transfer, agreement, aid... guaranteeing their viability and making it easier for them to move forward and become a reality soon. We celebrate that, more and more, the mechanisms to be implemented to guarantee the affordability of the cooperative housing model in right of use have the support of public administrations.

Lleida City Council: Sostre Cívic presents to the EMU the previous feasibility study to create a building of 25 homes in a cooperative regime in Lleida

Baix Empordà magazine: Palamós presents the preliminary executive project of the first development of social housing in a cooperative regime that will be built in the Girona regions

Sostre Cívic: The cooperative housing project in Olesa is progressing by improving its economic conditions

Tarragona Digital: Valls City Council is increasing the municipal public housing stock by 26 floors

TV Costa Brava: New cooperative housing project for young people in Calonge and Sant Antoni

8. We overcome the hurdles of the pandemic and hold our first general assembly in a hybrid format 

After a long time, due to the alert situation caused by the COVID-19, we were able to meet in person at the Casal de Ca L'Isidret, limiting the capacity and maintaining all health safety measures, and with the option to participate online. However, the Extraordinary Assembly of October, where the constitution of the cooperative group was approved Sostre Cívic with the aim of strengthening the model of our entity, it was only virtual.

Sostre Cívic: "(...) The first hybrid Assembly in the history of our cooperative"

Sostre Cívic: The cooperative group of Sostre Cívic

9. We have new neighbors a La Balma: Abdel and Nama!

A report from Tot Barcelona talks about Abdel and Nama, two neighbors of La Balma who entered the project thanks to the support of the association Punt de Referència and the financing of Free Projects. This initiative is another step to ensure that the cooperative housing model in right of use also responds to access and the right to housing for people who live in a more vulnerable situation.

Social.cat: “This is not just any flat”

All of Barcelona: La Balma, the first co-operative housing with young people in foster care

10. We begin the works of Clau Mestra

Seven years after the vindictive occupation to demand the recovery of the old Houses of the Floresta Masters, this project is closer than ever to being a reality! The rehabilitation works are the last screen of an agreement between social agents and local administration that will make possible 11 cooperative homes under the sheltered housing regime (HPO) at an affordable price

The Cugatenc: Clau Mestra stages the unlocking of the cooperative housing development with a visit to the works