This week the Barcelona City Council has already assigned 12 lots and municipal buildings to be rehabilitated so that different entities promote the construction of more than 370 flats, as a result of agreement signed in the fall passed between Barcelona City Council and different social housing foundations and housing cooperatives, where Sostre Cívic we participate represented by the sector of housing in cession of use of the Solidarity Economy Network. 

Both cooperatives and foundations have promoted the web vivienda.social/barcelona to explain the process that led us to sign the agreement, and give the details of the control criteria and public guarantees that ensure the general interest in the awarding of projects. In addition to being able to download the same agreement from the website, you can also find information on how to access the rental and rental properties as an end user.

Despite the fact that the agreement provides for the construction of 1.000 housing on municipal land during the next few years, in this first lot of 144 floors of cooperative housing in cession of use there will be a couple of lots to develop what will be the first cooperative housing project for older people on public land in Catalonia and the Spanish state. This project will consist of two developments of 15 and 17 homes located at Vía Augusta 375-381 and 383-387, in the neighborhood of Sarriá (district of Sarriá – Sant Gervasi). And the great news is that the final users of the project they are from our Can70 project! 

The Can70 project

Ch70 is a group of elderly people with an aging project in co-operative co-living and in cession of use that is part of the Cooperative Sostre Cívic. Some 20 people, mostly women, between 55 and 70 years old, are part of it, and since 2015 they have been in dialogue with the local administration to be able to develop their project in Barcelona or nearby. Finally, thanks to the agreement with the City Council, your project will be a reality! Parallel, and together with the project Walden XXI in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, and others senior groups of Sostre Cívic, they work designing and promoting workshops, documents and training strategies for older people who are involved in the projects and to promote contacts with different organizations and institutions.

Once the land transfer is formalized and the project finalized, it is expected that the works on the assigned lot can begin at the end of 2022 and thus during 2023 "Can70", the first cooperative senior housing in Barcelona and the first on public land of Catalonia and the state.

Learn more about Can 70

• Reality magazine 6/5/2021: Interview to Can 70: "Growing old in the company of well-known people and without being a burden to anyone"
• Nexe magazine 17/2/2021: Against the commodification of old age: Walden XXI and Can 70
• The Sun Factory 06/07/2020: Can 70: "We want to age independently and healthily"
• Barcelona Society magazine 01/03/2020: Report from Can 70

La senior cooperative housing is a community housing alternative for the elderly. It faces involuntary loneliness and isolation, puts care at the center and combines mutual aid and independent living. Based on shared interests and with the objective of improving the lives of the people who live and their environment, private spaces are reserved for each individual, at the same time that they have a series of common spaces for meeting, mutual aid and shared activities