A festive event with nearly 200 people served to celebrate the two recent international recognitions we have received from the European Commission and the United Nations

During the event, 'The Keys' was presented, a new series of podcasts made by Crític to resolve all doubts about cooperative housing

With more than 1100 members and 500 homes, we want to open a new stage preparing for a leap of scale and be a housing alternative for wide sections of the population

Nearly 200 people filled yesterday, Thursday, February 16 the Nau Bostic of Barcelona during the festive event called by Sostre Cívic under the title "A New Roof". The main Catalan housing cooperative in right of use is to be congratulated for several reasons. In recent weeks they have won the United Nations Housing Silver Award and the Social Innovation Award of the European Commission. 

In a room full to overflowing, the event - conducted by journalist Laura Aznar de CRITIC— began with the parliaments of Lucia Martin (Councillor for Housing and Rehabilitation of Barcelona City Council) i Josep Vidal (Director General of Social Economy, the Third Sector and Cooperatives of the Generalitat of Catalonia). Both remarked the "good work" de Sostre Cívic and they promised to continue supporting the cooperative for the promotion of cooperative housing in right of use. In the front row, the members of the Parliament also attended Gloria Freixa, from Together for Catalonia, Doloros Saber, from CUP-Guanyem Catalunya, Jose Rodriguez, of ERC, and representatives of En Comú Podemos.

Then he introduced himself the new Les Claus podcast, produced by the cooperative media Crític, supported by Sostre Cívic i Habicoop (the federation of housing cooperatives of Catalonia). It is a program made up of eight chapters that deal with various issues related to cooperative housing, such as what this model consists of, who promotes cooperative housing projects, for whom this model is intended o how much does it cost to promote a project, among others.

In this part of the event, a round table took place with women partners of different projects who already live in buildings promoted by Sostre Cívic or that they are about to do so. Specifically, we learned about the experiences of M. Jesús Ezquerra (of princess 49), Aurora Moreno (Walden XXI), Joana Casteleiro (Clau Mestra), Mireia Fonyou (El Turrós) i Alicia Conejero (La Balma).

All of them spoke on various topics: the right to housing at different life stages, the role of care in cooperative housing, funding to promote projects and democratic participation, among others. We also had the opportunity to learn about the characteristics of each of the invited projects and the experience it has meant for its partners. In the case of  princess 49, M. Jesús Ezquerra he emphasized the participation of the partners throughout the process: "They counted on us a lot at all times, we contributed to building the house we wanted to live in and we made decisions about its distribution and other issues". In the case of the senior housing project Walden XXI,Aurora Moreno pointed out that "We don't believe in the residences. We know that we may not be there for many years, in the house we are making, but the years we are there we will enjoy them and plant a seed because after us others will come who will already have their way". Alicia Conejero de La Balma he emphasized the role of care in his cooperative: "In our case, the issue of caring for children has been managed very well. We've been living together for a year and a half and we care a lot about each other". the representative ofEl Turrós, the first rural cooperative housing project of Sostre Cívic, located in la Garrotxa, explained that "it is an intergenerational and intentional project, with a common life model that goes far beyond coexistence and self-sufficiency".

After this debate, an emotional video was presented that will serve as new corporate presentation material for the cooperative, produced by the corporate audiovisual production company Bruna, where it is explained what it represents for Sostre Cívic having received international awards. A second video was sent by the Jury of the World Habitat Awards, where Claudia MurRay (university researcher in Urban Planning in the United Kingdom and member of the Awards Evaluation Council) explained the reasons why the United Nations had decided to award the Housing Silver award to the cooperative. Murray explains that Sostre Cívic was chosen from 114 nominations from 51 different countries for, among other reasons, "to focus on the dramatic housing situation in Spain with a cooperative look that will probably become a valuable reference for other organizations working in challenging environments in the south and east of Europe".

Finally, they went on stage Carlos Alcoba i Eva Ortigosa, both of the Governing Council de Sostre Cívic. The former talked about his personal experience with co-housing and celebrated that "A Sostre Cívic we know something very basic, that houses are for living in. In these years we have seen that we can break the property/rental dichotomy that seemed indestructible. We are not condemned to speculation: we are transforming the reality of our country". Eva, who is also a neighbor of Cirerers, he concluded the event by congratulating his colleagues and saying that "we have shown that this is a reality and now we need to consolidate, accompanied by institutions and financial measures that allow this housing model to be replicated everywhere". He also encouraged the attendees to make one contribution to the social capital de Sostre Cívic to continue strengthening the project together.

A final photo with the different entities and cooperatives that collaborate with the daily work of Sostre Cívic ended the event. But the party continued with refreshments provided by the Mescladís Foundation and the music of Gigi Morralla to celebrate the achievements of cooperative housing and of Sostre Cívic. And to gain muscle to reach new heights until guaranteeing the right to housing for everyone.