Housing, between morality and pragmatism

BarcelonaDiscussions about the housing crisis begin with economic arguments at vermouth time, move on to politics, social complexity, management in the historical sphere, and immigration. By dessert time, the conversation is still not over. Almost always during the conversation, morality, legitimacy, and values also come into play.

The second session of the debate and film series on housing promoted by the Col·legi de l'Arquitectura Tècnica (Cateb) at the Texas Cinemas, held this Wednesday, and moderated by journalists from ARA, in this case deputy director Carla Turró, did not clarify whether housing is a necessity or an investment, but it offered a space between ethics and pragmatism to reflect on it. There was a consensus that solutions are urgent and involve, in large part, building more.

"We must recover the idea of social housing," claimed economist Carme Trilla. The statement is surprising considering that access to housing marks the pace towards the general elections of November 29, but the president of the Fundació Hàbitat3 knows what she is talking about and is precise: "Obviously, public stock must be created, because we do not have any, but we will not be able to make enough for everyone."

Trilla warned that the public sector alone will not be able to respond to the magnitude of the challenge, and advocated for expanding the affordable housing stock regardless of who the owner is. "Recovering the idea of private production of social housing at a regulated price is the basic mechanism against speculative housing," she stressed.

In this line, the professor emeritus of economics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Josep Oliver, introduced the concept of "public-private collaboration" to defend the same thesis, taking into account the "budgetary restriction" suffered by the Spanish economy after years of accumulated deficit. The macroeconomic situation did not prevent Trilla from demanding once again that the public budget allocated to housing be increased, "at least" to 1%.

The successful formula

The population is growing and shacks are reappearing –in Trilla's words, with formulas like tents on the street–, while, at the same time, "there is no mass housing or block supply" like during the sixties, lamented anthropologist Manuel Delgado. However, the expansion of the stock cannot commit the same errors as during the 20th century.

"Now we would have the most important VPO stock in Europe", lamented Trilla, recalling that "the right-wing in Spain continues to consider that housing, if protected for 10 or 20 years, is enough". As usual, examples like those of Berlin and New York came up.

Controversies that do not make a difference

The debate also touched on the policies that raise the most passions. However, Trilla warned that speculation in rents is a "concrete problem," on the rise for about ten years, when this market concentrated housing demand in the face of difficulties in accessing credit and the halt in construction.

Regarding empty apartments, for the president of Hàbitat3, putting them on the market is "an indisputable policy, but on its own it solves nothing." On the other hand, the rent cap is a tool to cushion the blow in the short term. Delgado expressed "a certain perplexity over the fact that something that is not legitimate can be legal," such as disproportionate enrichment. Despite considering that individual behavior is "absolutely questionable," Trilla recalled that it is only "collectively enforceable through laws, and not by asking people to reflect."