The approved resolution includes different proposals for cooperative public collaboration with economic, fiscal, land transfer and support measures for co-housing for the elderly, among others.

This morning the Social Rights Commission of the Parliament of Catalonia approved by a large majority a Proposal for a Resolution for the recognition and promotion of cooperative housing in right of use. The proposal has received votes in favor of ERC, CUP - A New Cycle to Win, En Comú Podemos and Socialists and United to Advance; and broad support from the Junts per Catalunya, Ciutadans and PP parliamentary groups, which have abstained on some of the points. VOX has voted against all the points presented. 

It is about the first time that Parliament debates housing in right of use, a model of access to housing that is opening its way in Catalonia as a cooperative alternative to renting and buying. 

Fourteen measures to recognize and promote cooperative housing in right of use

Until now, although housing cooperatives in right of use are cited in Law 12/2015 on cooperatives of Catalonia, this does not establish a specific regulation. The new resolution approved urges the Government to effect a modification of the law to include the fundamental characteristics of the Catalan housing model for right of use and to protect the general interest and non-speculation. 

The proposal, which was presented by the housing sector of the XES and the Federation of Housing Cooperatives of Catalonia, with the groups of ERC, CUP and Comuns, also includes the impulse of new public policy programs that favor affordability and inclusiveness of cooperative housing projects. Specifically, in the approved document, there are measures such as developing a regulation specific to the model that shields the general interest and collective property on a permanent basis, establishing tax credits, improving financing by the Catalan Institute of Finances (ICF), establish financial mechanisms to be able to set up guarantees or consolidate the first line of aid for the initial contributions of capital carried out by the General Directorate of Social Economy, the Third Sector and the Cooperatives. 

Catalan cooperative housing: a growing model with international benchmarks

With this package of measures, the sector takes as a reference experiences such as those of Quebec, Denmark or Uruguay. In these countries, with more than fifty years of history behind them, this cooperative model is already a consolidated reality of affordable housing for a considerable part of the population thanks precisely to clear regulation and the development of comprehensive public policy programs .

Currently, the initiative of the cooperative movement and the first experiences of public community collaboration in this field have made it possible by 2022 there will be more than 35 projects in the promotion or coexistence phase in Catalonia, which add up to more than 650 homes. The best-known experiences are in Barcelona, ​​the result of collaboration with the City Council, but other local administrations are also opting for this model as another tool in their housing plans. Municipalities such as Sant Cugat del Vallès, Palamos, Lleida, Manresa, Palafrugell or Calonge and Sant Antoni are ceding public land or collaborating to mobilize private land to cooperatives to develop their housing projects. 

The model promoted by the cooperative movement of the Social and Solidarity Economy, it has been defined based on five fundamental aspects that reinforce its public interest: the absence of profit and the preservation of the collective property of housing, the affordability and inclusiveness of the projects, the promotion of self-management and community building, , the commitment to mutual cooperation and the growth of model, and co-responsibility with the environment and the right to housing.

Specific recognition for senior cooperative housing projects

Three of the approved measures are related to cooperative housing in right of use for the elderly, also called co-housing for seniors or for the elderly, and recognize it as a alternative modality to the institutionalization of the residential model, with proposals to facilitate its affordability and the introduction of new mechanisms to support existing experiences in Catalonia.

THEsenior cooperative housing is a cooperative housing model for seniors that includes private spaces for each cohabitation unit and shared spaces, an alternative way of living old age based on self-management and participation of all the people involved. In Catalonia there are 5 senior projects in different phases of promotion: the most advanced are Walden XXI, in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, i Can 70, in the Sarrià neighborhood of Barcelona.