BarcelonaThe Government’s commitment to build 50,000 social rental flats has not caused indifference in the sector. On the one hand, it is viewed favorably because, they say, a change in discourse has taken place. But it is also quarantined: building massively requires external actors and financing – raising social rental flats is not profitable in the short term – and also speeding up bureaucratic procedures.
However, the Government’s proposal means almost doubling the current stock of social rental housing – at 54,000 units, 1.7% of the total – and, therefore, also means multiplying the pending duties on this scheme and the its management Here are some of them:
The revenue barrier that drives fraud
Half of the applications are for single-person cohabitation units
The register of applicants for official protection housing (HPO) of the Generalitat has 97,569 people as of June 30, 2024. Almost half of these applications (46%) are for cohabitation units a single person and 23% of two people. To access a home, a maximum income limit cannot be exceeded, which is calculated from the Income Sufficiency Indicator of Catalonia (IRSC) – set at 717 euros – and varies depending on the regulations that protect the housing, the qualification – general, special or negotiated price – and the area where it is located. The more people are part of the unit, the more the maximum threshold increases, but it usually does so by a difference of hundreds or a few thousand euros, a reality that, according to several sources consulted by this newspaper, encourages fraud.
“The format forces us to register in the name of only one person, even in cases where there are children or a long-term relationship, to prevent them from being counted as a cohabitation unit of two or more people,” explains Adrià (fictitious name) to the ARA, who until a few days ago was in a cooperative to gain access to a house in cession of use. “I know cases of couples in which one of the two is self-employed and in the year he has to enter he has fractionally reduced his salary and the following year he has returned to normal billing,” he explains. “My partner and I postponed becoming a common-law couple in order to be able to opt for sheltered housing,” another witness told ARA, who wishes to remain anonymous. “I lived for a while in a social rental with my partner, but the flat was in my sister’s name: he stayed in the flat because she had children and left,” explains another witness.
Management and maintenance of the park
The flood of new promotions will require more effort to avoid blog neglect
Building tens of thousands of new homes will make the social rental stock to be managed double the current one, which will require more resources – public or private – to maintain it, when this management is currently what can slow down the development of ‘housing “If there is a fear of the councils when it comes to public promotion, the agreement with third sector entities is key. The third sector entities must gradually become more solid so that they can be managers of this park,” explains the president of the Habitat 3 Foundation, Carme Trilla. “This would make it easier to make decisions to promote rental housing: you need equipment, there are councils that may not have equipment because they are small”, adds Trilla, and assures that in other countries this network of entities is very powerful.
This reality can also be extrapolated to the developments which, after ten or fifteen years, fall under the obligation to pay social rent. Some of them remain in limbo: tenants who have to leave and others who remain without a contract while the block is put on the market. The Generalitat has bought a few blocks in this situation to add them back to the public park, even with some flats already sold to individuals. “One of those who bought posted an ad for 700 euros for a single room. The condition, land and block are still under official protection. I know first-hand that he has bought and that he has re-rented. He has been reported to the Agency of l’Habitatge de Catalunya”, explains a resident of a block of flats in Girona to the ARA, who regrets that there is “very little vigilance” on how the house is used once it is sold, even though continue to be of official protection. “On our block, the solar panels have never worked and the roof of the common room was down for years,” adds this neighbor.
The chronology of employment
The Catalan Housing Agency has more than 935 illegally occupied homes
The housing stock of official protection administered by the Catalan Housing Agency (AHC) has 935 illegally occupied flats, which represents 4.09% of the total (22,837). A reality that also affects local administrations and managers of social rental housing such as Hàbitat 3. In fact, the director of the territory area of the Cerdà Institute, Lluís Inglada, co-author of the study Occupancy of homes in Spain. 2016 report updateassures that this is a situation that is also a problem for the councils, as well as for the social entities that manage these parks because it “impedes” the regulated processes to respond to vulnerable families. “In October we spent two weeks standing guard among the neighbors. We had to call the police ten times a day,” says the resident of the Girona block.
“The data says that they are going down, but there is a risk that employment will become chronic and that it has become a normalized way of accessing housing by certain segments of society, and that it becomes a business,” adds Inglada. Trilla explains that this phenomenon has been reduced, but not eradicated, and defends that legislatively it will be possible to be forceful against the occupation the day families stop losing their homes.
