The housing sector of the XES and the Federation of Housing Cooperatives of Catalonia presents a resolution proposal to Parliament with the ERC, CUP and Commons groups. The proposal calls for consolidating the right of use model in Catalonia and enhancing the cooperative public alliance.

On the morning of Wednesday, January 26, we accompanied the Parliament of Catalonia to the register Solidarity Economy Network (XES) I la Federation of Housing Cooperatives of Catalonia, who formally presented a Resolution Proposal for the recognition and promotion of cooperative housing in right of use. The document was signed by the parliamentary groups of Esquerra Republicana, CUP - Un Nou Cicle per Guanyar and En Comú Podemos. However, the movement for cooperative housing in right of use hopes to also receive the support of the Junts per Catalunya and the Socialists groups during the parliamentary debate.

It will be the first time that the Parliament addresses the impulse of housing in right of use, which in recent years has been making its way to Catalonia as a cooperative way to guarantee the right to housing. Currently, although cooperatives in right of use are cited in Law 12/2015 on cooperatives of Catalonia, this does not establish a specific regulation. The resolution therefore seeks to transfer to the Law the fundamental characteristics of the Catalan leased housing model, and promote new public policy programs that favor the affordability and inclusiveness of the projects.

Specifically, collected in the document, there are measures such as developing a regulation specific to the model that shields the general interest and collective property permanently. In fiscal matters, it is urged to establish tax credits for both local taxes such as IBI or ICIO, as well as tax burdens related to public deeds, property transfers, in addition to deductions in personal income tax. It is also requested to improve financing, both by the Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF) and by establishing financial mechanisms to be able to set up guarantees, in addition to expanding and consolidating the public aid provided by both the Catalan Agency of Housing to acquire privately owned land or heritage, such as those recently published by the General Directorate of Social Economy, the Third Sector and Cooperatives aimed at reducing initial capital contributions. 

The document also specifically mentions those cooperative housing projects in right of use with services associated with the elderly, known as senior cohabitation. Recognition by the Catalan administration of an alternative modality to public residences is requested, supporting the projects that are developed in Catalonia, facilitating their affordability with services equivalent to the residential income and introducing the new reality in the Social Services Portfolio of the Public Care Social Services Network.

Cooperative housing: a growing model in Catalonia

With this package of measures contained in the Resolution, which will be discussed in the Social Rights Commission of the Parliament of Catalonia in the coming months, the sector takes as a reference experiences such as those of Quebec, Denmark or Uruguay. With more than fifty years of history behind it, in these countries the right of use is already a consolidated reality of affordable housing for a considerable majority of the population thanks precisely to clear regulation and the development of comprehensive programs of public policy 

Currently, the initiative of the cooperative movement and the first experiences of public community collaboration in this field, have made it possible for there to be more than 2021 projects in the promotion or coexistence phase in Catalonia by 30, which add up to more than 550 homes. The best-known experiences are in Barcelona, result of the collaboration with the City Council that has provided public land to carry out promotions like The Board (Saints), La Balma (New town), Cirerers (Rockets), Princesa49 (El Born), The Network (Barceloneta) or La Chalmeta (La Marina del Prat Vermell). But other local administrations are also opting for this model as another tool in their housing plans. Municipalities like Palamós, Lleida, Manresa, Sallent, Palafrugell or Calonge are ceding public land or collaborating to mobilize private land to cooperatives to develop their housing projects. The sector's commitment to the public interest of the model is also evident in the fact that two thirds of the projects on private land have been qualified as Official Protection Housing (HPO), as are the rest that are based on public land, with projects like The Divers (Saints), La Morada (Rockets) or Cal Paler Nou (Cardedeu).

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.

Also, from the Sectoral, work is being done to deal with one of the main challenges of the sector, which is to make this model accessible to the popular classes. In this sense, the proposed resolution that has been presented to Parliament is the fruit of the political advocacy work of the campaign We make cooperative housing affordable, promoted last year in order to gather institutional support for a series of legal and financial measures. As part of the campaign, the movement's first vindictive rally took place, last May 15 in Plaça de Sant Jaume (Barcelona), where hundreds of people supported a manifesto that also gathered support from theCatalonia Social Economy Association (AESCAT) and the Union of Tenants. 

The first report has also been drawn up in this framework "Economic affordability of cooperative housing in right of use: diagnosis, challenges and proposals", which collects and shares mechanisms and proposals that are being carried out by the projects to contribute to the affordability of the projects. This report has also been an important part of the negotiation to achieve the call for grants called HabitatCoop (promoted by the General Directorate of Social and Solidarity Economy, the Third Sector and the Cooperatives), intended to contribute to the reduction of the initial contributions of housing projects in right of use.