The old Houses of the Masters of Sant Cugat are rehabilitated to become 11 homes at an affordable price.

The mayor of Sant Cugat, Mireia Ingla, visited today the works that will make a project a reality, the result of the fight for the right to housing in La Floresta that has been going on since 2014

Sostre Cívic and the Sant Cugat del Vallès City Council have publicly presented today, with an official visit to the works attended by the mayoress I looked at England, the rehabilitation project of the old Houses of the Masters in La Floresta. The aim is to transform these buildings, which have been disused and abandoned for years, into the first public housing development under the cooperative masovia regime in Catalonia.

The works are the last screen of an agreement between social agents and local administration that will make it possible 11 cooperative homes of between 60 and 38 m2, plus a collective space, under the sheltered housing regime (HPO) at an affordable price: the monthly fees will be between €208 and €350, and the partners who will move in have made a capital contribution (returnable if they decide to leave the project) between €6.000 and €9.000, depending on the area of ​​the home. 

A project resulting from the collective struggle

The Houses of the Masters have been protagonists of the neighborhood fight for the right to housing in La Floresta. After a series of occupations, in June 2014, given the property's general state of deterioration, they were occupied as a means of pressure to force the City Council to use social housing in the building, with the support of different social and political entities. A negotiation process, with Sostre Cívic as a mediating agent between the group and the City Council, it led to the termination of the occupation and the signing of an agreement between the parties to promote HPO housing under a right of use regime. The process to finalize the terms of the agreement drags on for years until, in 2020, the City Council overcomes all the bureaucratic hurdles and signs the right of use of the municipal property to the cooperative Sostre Cívic.

Mayor Mireia Ingla, in subsequent statements to the media, has assessed that the Sant Cugat City Council "has put access to housing as one of the most priority axes of the mandate". He has stated that they are very concerned about the problem of access to housing in his municipality, especially because "we want our sons and daughters to be able to live there too and no one is forced to leave". "We need a determined commitment to rental housing and those formulas that allow us to facilitate access to decent housing, such as cooperatives, and this project with Sostre Cívic it is a very good reference and a great starting point", added the mayoress.

Inter-cooperation and self-construction: keys in rehabilitation

The works are in charge of La Constructiva SCCL: the country's first non-profit cooperative construction manager, the que has already built cooperative buildings like La Balma i Cirerers in Barcelona. The works contemplate the comprehensive rehabilitation of the building and its extension to allow access to all the homes and increase the living area. Bio-building systems and materials, such as wood, as well as highly efficient passive and active installations are being used. The end result will make the building an example of more sustainable construction and consumption than conventional methods. 

In addition, since this month of July the group of partners who will go to live there have participated in some of the rehabilitation tasks in the form ofassisted self-construction. This innovative model in the construction of cooperative housing was defended today by Joana Casteleiro, representing the group of Clau Mestra: "this model is followed with the dual objective of reducing costs but also as a powerful tool to empower the group of future cohabitants".

Eva Ortigosa, member of the Governing Council of Sostre Cívic has celebrated the fact that work has finally begun on a project that has been in the works for many years, and which finally lands in Sant Cugat the cooperative housing in right of use "an alternative access to housing to buying and renting, which fights against real estate speculation, guaranteeing collective ownership and with democratic management". He also emphasized that if the housing quotas are well below the current market prices, it is also thanks, in part, to the public-cooperative collaboration with the Sant Cugat Town Council: "a way of collaboration that we hope does not stay in this project and that has a route to the municipality".

The project will finally become a reality during the fall of 2022, when the works are finished and the group of cooperative members move into their homes.