Last Wednesday, December 16, we celebrated, electronically, the first talk of our latest cycle "Construïm Habitatge Cooperatiu". In this first session we wanted to debate about care in the coexistence of elderly people. The fact that the topic is current, unfortunately, due to the covid-19 pandemic, is confirmed by the sixty people who attended (online) the debate. To bring the debate down to practical cases, we learned first hand how the two senior cooperative housing projects of Sostre Cívic, who are also the ones with the longest career in the country: Walden XXI i Can 70. The presentation and moderation was carried out by Rosalia Ribes, the Governing Council of Sostre Cívic.

Walden XXI

The project of Walden XXI is a project that was born in 2017 and that has already found the location to make its project a reality. After 4 years of work, they now have a property in the center of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, and the group's work has therefore focused on different aspects: the definition of the architectural project (and how it responds to all their needs), the internal regime regulation, and the democratic mechanisms of internal organization and management of coexistence. At the same time, a debate on the management of care has also begun.

In Walden XXI, he tells us the Maria Manzanera, they seek coexistence in community and the promotion of health. Therefore, it goes far beyond a passive intention of care, if not that they seek to encourage active aging and the happiness of the partners who will live there. In the architectural field, for example, they already have reserved spaces to accommodate people with dependents, which have the functions of a day center. At the same time, they have defined an age scale to ensure generational diversity in the project and not accumulate many dependent people at the same time. They require the new additions, of course, to have a complete degree of autonomy. They also explain that they will hire care staff as the relevant needs arise. In the economic field, they still have to finish deciding how they will distribute the expenditure derived from these services, but in any case it will always be under the criterion of mutual solidarity.

Can 70

The group of Can 70 is a group that emerged in 2015 with the intention of also launching a cooperative housing project for the elderly in the city of Barcelona. Faced with the lack of land on which to make their project possible, for the time being they have focused on consolidating the group and defining their care and care model for the elderly. In all these years they have worked hard, training, building discourse, disseminating it and making a political impact. Among others, they have participated in the preparation of the Guide no. 6 of "Care in the coexistence of elderly people" with a participatory process with the report of the CareNet research group of the UOC, and have carried out a process of consolidation of their group with the support of a facilitation team.

The presentation of the model of Can 70 is in charge of Mary Plan, and begins by talking about the personal journey that people take with old age. At first, it is difficult for us to imagine that we will grow up, and we have an idealized house. Little by little we realize that we inevitably get older, and that we need to find another place to live. And this is where the model of cooperative housing in right of use for elderly people appears, a fairly new alternative in our country, but which has a long history in other countries around the world. This model allows you to decide, self-organize, learn and take care of yourself... In short, it "allows our old age to be free, dignified, supportive and joyful", according to the words of the Plan itself.

From Can70 they delved deeper into care for the elderly from self-management (the collection of this work is the first part of the aforementioned guide). This idea allowed them to specify aspects such as mutual support, death, economic costs, levels of care, etc. Among all these reflections, the Mari Plan stands out "the well-being scale", a diagram to capture the organization of Can70 care and care for the elderly, with three steps depending on the care to be received, which is organized to allow it to be a finalist project, with the care of the dependencies of higher degree without having to go to another center.

The second part of the session focuses on the interventions of the attending public. Together, we reflect on the commitment to break the mold in the structure of care for the elderly that prevails in the country. Also about how to make the cooperative housing model in right of use for elderly people, with self-managed care, not only a bet to solve our old age but a small revolution that fundamentally changes the care model of the elderly

Let's talk about care for dependency level 3, and whether a cooperative home could take on all disabilities or illnesses. Because it may be very difficult to be able to comply with all the regulations, or the degree of disruption of the advanced dependency may negatively affect the rest of the group.

We also reflect on the taboo of death. It is considered necessary to be able to talk about how we want to deal with it, both individually and collectively. How do we deal with grief when a partner leaves us, or how do we prepare for this fact.

And we also debate about the costs, and what mechanisms we can have to assume the high amounts of care for the dependent. Amoina above all the costs due to the degree of dependence 3 in the finalist projects and the possibility of solidarity mechanisms to assume them.

With all these reflections, this first session of the cycle ended, with a good assessment and thanks for its organization, and at the same time with the desire to continue debating on these topics that have just been put on the table and that we want to continue working soon

You can retrieve the video chat here: