What is inclusive cohousing? The alternative way to live in community and diversity

Imagine an apartment building. As soon as you walk through the entrance, you find a multipurpose room. There are tables, chairs, a sofa area, and a kitchen. You head upstairs. On the first landing, next to the doors leading to the private homes, you see a children's playroom and a bookshelf with all kinds of books. On the second, there's a shared office for teleworking and a reading room. On the third, there's a communal laundry room. You reach the rooftop: there are plenty of lines for clotheslines, a vegetable garden, a rainwater harvesting system, and three or four fruit trees.

This description could perfectly fit a cooperative housing lease. This is a fairly widespread model in Europe, but it's just beginning to take hold in Spain and Catalonia. In total, he estimates that 1,190 homes already operate under this model.

Housing cooperatives offer an alternative, non-profit way to access housing. This is a collective model in which people organize to decide how they want to live and jointly manage the building, which is owned by the cooperative. Each member has a right to use the property, but cannot buy or sell the apartment individually. This prevents real estate speculation and ensures that the housing maintains a social, non-profit function.

The emergence of inclusive cohousing

It is within the framework of this housing cooperative model that inclusive cohousing is emerging. In the face of the housing crisis and the urgent need to rethink the way we live, this concept is presented as a transformative proposal. "This innovative model focuses on building open and accessible communities where people of diverse ages, abilities, and social realities coexist," describes La Germinadora, a national cooperative group made up of several expert teams in cohousing. "Inclusive cohousing promotes the connection between people and their surroundings, and incorporates environmental sustainability as a central axis of the project," it continues.

To promote the model, La Germinadora has published a guide for all individuals, groups, and entities wishing to promote inclusive cohousing projects. The document, published in Spanish and available online for free, includes practical tools, reflections, key questions, and advice for addressing key aspects such as participation, governance, architectural design, financing, and mutual support mechanisms. The guide is the result of a process of research, inter-cooperation, and fieldwork, and was funded by the European Next Generation Fund.

A real model

"We want to create inclusive cohousing, and that's why we support initiatives that facilitate access to collaborative housing projects for people in vulnerable situations," explains María José Lázaro Castro, team manager at Perviure, one of the cooperatives behind La Germinadora. Experiences demonstrating the viability of this approach have already begun to emerge throughout the country.

One of the most advanced projects is the one being jointly promoted by the Sostre Cívic cooperative and the TEB cooperative group in the Sant Andreu district of Barcelona. The goal: to offer people with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to live independently in an inclusive community environment. The initiative includes between eight and ten homes within a development of sixty or seventy units, with varying levels of support depending on the needs of the residents: from residential homes with daily assistance to more independent apartments. In total, the project will accommodate approximately 24 people. "What people with disabilities want is to live normally, within a cooperative community like any other," emphasizes Pepa Muñoz, TEB's communications director.

Also in Barcelona, ​​in the Sarrià neighborhood, the Torrent Viu housing cooperative has added an inclusive apartment for young people who have left care and are in the process of emancipation, thanks to a collaboration with the Nazareth Foundation. "Working together with Torrent Viu has allowed us to offer young people a residential alternative that focuses on care and mutual support," explains Juantxo Gil, an educator with the organization.

Another example is the La Renegà feminist cooperative cohousing project in Santa Maria de Palautordera. It is driven entirely by women, and the building's construction is almost complete. With the architectural design of the Celobert cooperative, the support of Perviure—part of La Germinadora—and the Surt Foundation, the La Renegà building will house two homes for women recovering from gender-based violence. The goal: to provide them with access to housing in a safe, welcoming, and feminist community during their re-empowerment process toward an independent life.

The publication of La Germinadora's inclusive cohousing guide also marked the culmination of La Gira, the series of meetings the cooperative group has promoted in recent months to forge alliances and promote the model in technical, political, and social forums. The sessions took place in Galicia, the Basque Country, Andalusia, the Canary Islands, and Catalonia, and were attended by more than 200 people from local governments, third-sector organizations, and housing cooperatives.