The time to decide about housing

BarcelonaPending the exact details of the decrees approved by the Spanish government this Tuesday, the first thing to say is that there is no issue more crucial and with as many edges right now in public debate as that of housing. But what the case of the Madrilenian Maricarmen Abascal has brought to the table is that no democratic society can accept that hundreds of people are evicted every week, nor that young people and those not so young find access to housing so difficult. The first is a matter of humanity, and the second affects the right to have a dignified life and has serious repercussions on the functioning of the economy.

Therefore, it is positive that the government has had to rush now to propose an ambitious package of measures, but at the same time it is frustrating that political parties have been unable over the last years of housing emergency to agree on minimums. And what should these minimums be? The basic consensus should pivot on two axes: the first is that housing cannot function as just another market good, because it fulfills a social function; and the second is that the owner must have the collection of rent guaranteed in any circumstance and also the right to recover the apartment when the requirements provided by law are met –for example, to inhabit it themselves or a family member–. It is about seeking a balance between the right to private property and the right to housing.

In this sense, it is certain that the content of the main decree, which includes the prohibition of evicting vulnerable people until 2030 and tax breaks for owners and tenants, does not please everyone and has room for improvement, but viewed as a whole it is positive enough, and the social situation is so desperate (we remember the case of Olga, the woman from L'Hospitalet who committed suicide five months after being evicted) that it is absolutely necessary for it to receive the endorsement of Congress. Regarding the second, which includes the automatic renewal of leases, it perhaps deserves a deeper discussion, because it represents a change of model, but ultimately it also attacks two of the great problems of the current crisis: excessive price increases and the instability and uncertainty involved in always living in fear of a contract expiring.

In any case, we are talking about emergency solutions to avoid more cases like that of Maricarmen Abascal or so many others, but it must be recognized that the housing problem goes much further and has a main problem, which is the lack of supply, especially of social housing. The much-heralded plans to multiply the construction of apartments for social rent, which would be a way to intervene in the market through supply, are not working, neither in Catalonia nor in Spain. And this is where efforts should be concentrated in the coming years if we do not want to experience a strangulation of economic activity and, in the worst-case scenario, a social explosion.