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The main housing cooperative in Catalonia is one of the four winners of the most important housing awards on an international scale
The Jury of the World Habitat Awards has highlighted the values of social transformation and the multilevel impact of the projects of Sostre Cívic
Sostre Cívic has received the most important recognition of his career! In the list of winners of the World Habitat Awards, organized by World Habitat in association with UN-Habitat (the United Nations agency for Human Settlements), we appear as one of the winners in the Silver category for the Global North.
Sostre Cívic was selected as one of the 4 finalist entities (two Gold and Silver awards in the global North and South), from among the 40 initiatives submitted from all over the world. The evaluation committee visited the different buildings of the cooperative and interviewed the resident partners, the collaborating entities and the networks of the social and solidarity economy with whom Sostre Cívic he works there every day to build his projects. The conclusions of the evaluation were sent to the jury of the awards, formed by Maimunah Mohd Sharif, executive director of UN-Habitat i Leilani Farha, who until 2020 was the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the right to decent housing.
The leading international housing awards
The World Habitat Awards have been held annually since 1985 as the leading housing awards on an international scale. Innovative, exceptional and revolutionary ideas, projects and programs from around the world related to social housing are recognized and highlighted. It is the second time that a Catalan or Spanish organization appears among the award winners. In 2019 the Habitat 3 Foundation it was one of the winners in the Gold category and, in the same year, the housing cooperative La Borda, in the Sants neighborhood of Barcelona, obtained a Bronze recognition.
In a statement, the organization of the Awards has recognized the work that is being carried out Sostre Cívic in a country where, historically, housing policy has favored ownership and ownership "the ambition to diversify the opcions of ownership of the Catalan housing market in the long term, so that in the next 20-30 years 10% of the housing stock will be cooperatives in right of use".
David Ireland, executive director of World Habitat, has indicated in the same statement that "Sostre Cívic has been a catalyst for the growth of non-profit social housing both in Catalonia and elsewhere in Spain". The organization of the Awards, through its director, has also pointed out the political work of transformation around the right to housing that it does Sostre Cívic "offering an affordable, sustainable and ethical alternative to traditional models of ownership and renting, and challenging what it means for people to have a roof". They have also highlighted the initiative in creation La Constructiva, the first non-profit housing construction and renovation cooperative in Catalonia, dedicated exclusively to building projects in right of use.
In its report, the evaluation committee highlighted the multilevel impact of the action of Sostre Cívic: at level political, playing a central role in the coordination between public-cooperative and community collaboration to promote the cooperative model in right of use throughout the territory; at level social, sharing with collaborating partners and social economy networks a commitment to social transformation that has an expansive effect on society in general; and level local, involving the community and the neighborhood as the main protagonists of the project.
Sostre Cívic, pioneering organization in cooperative housing in Catalonia
Sostre Cívic was born in 2004 as an association, being the pioneering entity in the country in the promotion of cooperative housing in right of use. Since 2010, six years after its creation, the cooperative has been established, being the first and only housing cooperative in right of use by projects created in Catalonia. This means that it is unique in promoting several cooperative housing projects including all of them under the same umbrella of Sostre Cívic. This model facilitates the creation of new projects, shields the model from speculation, ensures its long-term replicability and sustainability, while providing a network of mutual support between projects, facilitating the mobility of partners from one project to another other
Currently, it includes more than 1.100 members, and the cooperative manages a total of 26 projects, out of the nearly 40 that, among all cooperatives, are underway in Catalonia. Of the total, 9 projects are already in coexistence with more than 120 homes, and more than 500 homes are being developed in 17 more projects that will become reality in the coming years.
Sostre Cívic has a presence, promoting projects or with partner groups looking for opportunities, a 24 municipalities between the 4 Catalan provinces and the Balearic Islands. Collaborate with 7 town councils that provide land or financing, and it goes ahead 10 projects exclusively with own capital from partners and the financing of ethical and cooperative banking entities such as Fiare, Coop57 and Caixa d'Enginyers, in addition to public support from the Catalan Institute of Finance.
Sostre Cívic celebrates the Silver award of the World Habitat Awards as a recognition not only of his career, but shared with "the cooperative housing movement in Catalonia in particular, and the Social and Solidarity Economy of the country in general". The entity wants this Award to mean a change of stage and a leap of scale for cooperative housing, to transform into an alternative access to the right to housing for large sections of the population. It has also announced its intention to celebrate this recognition in the coming months, with a large public event with all its social base and collaborating entities where it will be communicated how this Award wants to impact a new phase of growth for the cooperative.