Sostre Cívic and La Bastida promote the city's first cooperative housing with 24 homes on the municipal lot on Carrer Nord 

The City Council has signed the agreement to transfer the plot of land in surface rights for 75 years and give priority access to people registered in Vilafranca

Yesterday at noon we presented the agreement we reached with the Vilafranca del Penedès City Council to move forward with the construction of 24 official protection homes on a municipal lot located on Carrer del Nord, no. 10, of the municipality. Gathered in the council house, it was attended by the mayor of Vilafranca, Francisco Romero, of the Councilor for Housing, Miquel Medialdea,Eva Ortigosa, member of Governing Council of Sostre Cívic, and from Marçin the Acute i End Urpí, representatives of the Association The Bastide, promoter of the project.

The agreement pursues the objective of increasing the municipality's protected housing stock and ensuring decent and adequate housing for its citizens. It is specified with the assignment to Sostre Cívic of a municipal lot through a surface right of 75 years. The ownership of the plot, therefore, remains with the City Council, but it authorizes a third party (Sostre Cívic) to carry out the promotion, construction and management of an official protection housing building under a right of use regime for a specified period of 75 years.

The other side of the deal is theLa Bastida Association, reference entity for cooperative housing in Vilafranca del Penedès. From 2021, it develops actions by making political advocacy and publicizing this alternative tenure model. Last year, he reached an agreement with Sostre Cívic to promote this project that they presented yesterday with the city council. Currently, the group of partners who will live there does not yet have the number of people needed to fill all the homes. That is why they have started a process to be able to expand the group to fill the 14-16 coexistence units.

A pioneering project open to new additions 

The project, which is called The Bastide – Pati del Gall, it already has a basic project that foresees the construction of a building with a ground floor, three floors and a roof, with homes of one, two, three or four rooms. It also includes several common spaces designed for the community life: from a roof with a large outdoor space, a collective laundry and a multipurpose room with a communal kitchen, via satellite or guest rooms, to a car and bicycle parking lot with shared spaces on the ground floor. 

The details and total cost of the project are still pending to be defined with the final project, which will be drawn up in a participatory manner with all the partners of the project. Affordability is ensured thanks to Next Generation EU grants, up to a maximum of 50.000 euros per home. In other similar new construction projects that we have taken forward, the initial capital contributions have ranged from 20 to 40 thousand euros (depending on the individual characteristics of each home) and some monthly installments between €500 and €800. 

To access the homes of The Bastide – Pati del Gall, it will be required to be registered in register of applicants for official protection housing (fulfilling all the requirements set by the regional regulations) i becoming partners of Sostre Cívic.

As a result of the collaboration with the City Council, they will have priority access people registered for 3 years in Vilafranca del Penedès (or who can prove a history of at least 10 years), although applications from people from other municipalities will also be accepted, giving preference in the second option to those registered at the Vegueria Penedès. In addition, they will be reserved 6 of the 27 homes for young people up to 35 years old and 2 more homes for people in a particularly vulnerable situation determined by the municipality's Social Services.

The registration period for the project opens from today November 27 to January 7, and during the campaign there will be three information sessions open to all interested people, in order to explain how the project works and resolve any doubts that may arise. Sessions are open, but prior registration is required:

• Monday 11/12 | 19 p.m. Informative talk at L'Escorxador.
• Thursday 14/12 | 15 p.m. Online briefing 
• Thursday 21/12 | 19 p.m. Informative talk at L'Enològica.

All the details of the project and the registration form to access it can be found on the web patidelgall.sostrecivic.cat