Housing: a roadmap
The lack of consensus surrounding the central government's decree-laws on housing has only confirmed the complexity of the housing problem. To resolve it, it would be necessary to count on the participation of all possible agents: representatives of social entities, unions, social services professionals, and local, regional, and state administrations, as well as officials directly linked to housing policies (a committee of experts). With a holistic vision, a strategic plan for housing (SPH) should be developed with a long-term perspective. Occasional or circumstantial measures are not enough. Sustained planning over decades is required. According to experts, 30 years are necessary.
Once the PEH has been developed, the conclusions should be elevated to the political sphere to reach a major state pact on housing, similar, in its conception of long-term policy, to the 1995 Toledo Pact regarding pensions.
The causes of the current crisis are multifactorial. The growing influx of investment capital, both national and foreign, including large investment funds attracted by the profitability of the real estate market, is one of the main ones. It is not necessarily about preventing investment, but about determining limits and correction mechanisms when these dynamics can hinder access to a good that also has a social and constitutional dimension.
Another factor, and a very worrying one, is the increase in precariousness. The divergence between rising prices – housing, food, and other goods – and household wages or income has caused a loss of purchasing power that makes it difficult to maintain decent living conditions, even when having a job. Measures must be taken to increase the purchasing power of households.
To this reality is added the normative proliferation and, in some areas, the contradiction between provisions, as well as an increasing complexity and lack of systematization of the rules. The frequent use of decree-laws and additional, transitional, and final provisions can hinder the understanding of the legal system and generate legal uncertainty. The electoral cycle favors measures oriented towards the short term to the detriment of stable normative planning. Recovering a rigorous, clear, and coherent legislative technique is a necessity linked to the functioning of the social and democratic state of law proclaimed by art. 1 of the Constitution.
Another issue is the loss of certain agents that had historically contributed to the promotion of housing for social purposes. Savings banks, unions, cooperatives promoted by neighborhood associations, public administrations through social housing, companies that promoted housing for their employees, boards of trustees, and foundations participated in the creation of a more affordable residential stock. The loss or transformation of these instruments has reduced the diversity of actors capable of intervening in housing policy.
In the case of Barcelona, one must take into account its peculiar real estate history. For decades, many families (from the 1800s onwards) built and preserved residential heritage despite economic and social difficulties. The intergenerational transmission of property, often originating from ancient regimes of undivided ownership that were later transformed into horizontal property, allowed for the maintenance of an important stock of family housing, with affordable rental prices. The peculiarities of each territory must be valued.
Finally, the experience of Nou Barris shows that with the available instruments, things can already be done. Faced with the first evictions due to non-payment of mortgages and, subsequently, of rents, we promoted a protocol between the City Council and the High Court of Justice of Catalonia, with the subsequent signature of the Generalitat, which allowed for the temporary halting of evictions when social services certified a situation of vulnerability until a residential alternative was guaranteed. Over 2 or 3 years, 248 evictions in situations of vulnerability were able to be stopped. In parallel, empty homes owned by banking entities were mobilized to be used for social rent, with rents adapted to the situation of each family.
This experience demonstrates that institutional coordination, political will, and the effective application of existing legal instruments can offer immediate responses while structural solutions are being built. The challenge is to move from ad-hoc actions to a stable, transversal, and long-term housing policy. In short, it is necessary to combine planning, institutional agreement, and the will to act.
