-
->Meeting at Barcelona City Hall´s Saló de Cent->Several people using a pedestrian crossing in Barcelona city centre->Outside of a housing office->->Part of a promotional poster on subsidies for housing renovations, in a municipal office
The body that promotes housing services in the city
The Housing Consortium is a public body, the purpose of which is to undertake functions and activities and provide services related to affordable housing in Barcelona. This body is comprised of Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat, the regional government of Catalonia.
The Consortium has its own legal status, separate from that of its members, granted through the Municipal Charter of Barcelona, and it has full capacity to act in order to achieve its aims. It also has a public participatory body called the Barcelona Social Housing Council.
This organisation is responsible for carrying out public housing-related actions in Barcelona, both directly and through agreements. It also plans restoration and renovation projects in the city's neighbourhoods.
In addition, it is responsible for promoting an affordable rental policy, particularly for young people and other groups with specific requirements.
Highlights
Related links
Barcelona Social Housing Council
About
The Barcelona Social Housing Council (CHSB) was set up within the framework of the Barcelona Housing Consortium, formed by Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat, the regional government of Catalonia. It is a consultative and participatory body that deals with housing policy in the city. The CHSB was set up on 26 February 2007 and is an opportunity to create an effective new space for citizen participation on housing matters, serving as an instrument for generating opinion, proposals and promoting their analysis.
The Council grew out of the experience of the Social Housing Working Group, set up by Barcelona City Council's Municipal Social Welfare Council. The specific and important nature of the issue led the Barcelona Housing Consortium to create the CHSB, increasing the representation of the various social players and giving it more specific functions, as well as greater involvement in and powers to monitor housing policy and the work of the Consortium.
What are its functions?
- To provide advice on all matters on which the Barcelona Housing Consortium, Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat, the regional government, request its opinion.
- To provide information on draft municipal ordinances and other general provisions that affect housing.
- To generate debate among the key players in municipal housing policy and to propose actions, producing reports which are submitted to the Housing Consortium and the administrations of which it is comprised.
- To monitor and evaluate fulfilment of the Barcelona Housing Plans.
- To monitor and evaluate fulfilment of the Barcelona Restoration Plans.
- To monitor and evaluate compliance with the future law on the Right to Housing in Catalonia and the plans for implementing the said right produced by the Generalitat of Catalonia, as applied to the city of Barcelona.
- To participate in the process of defining new indicators linked to the city's housing market.
- To promote activities and organise workshops and conferences on the social housing priorities defined by the Council.
- To use new information technologies to extend the debate on housing policy to the general public.
- To participate in the production of participatory reports relating to Barcelona's housing policies.
- To produce participative reports and develop its own participatory processes that will be transferred to the Citizen Council and/or the city's governing bodies and those of the Consortium.
Who are its members?
The Council has a Full Council and a Standing Committee. The former is comprised of more than sixty members representing the Generalitat and City Council, municipal political groups, public sector bodies and companies working in the housing planning and construction sectors, sectorial participatory councils in the city, non-profit social entities, social entities and associations supporting access to housing, cooperatives, representatives of neighbourhood movements, trade unions, social foundations, universities, professional colleges and associations, among others.
The Standing Committee has a Chair, a First, Second and up to twelve Vice Chairs who are members of the Full Council and are appointed by the Chair from among the different sectors represented in the Full Council, following consultation with the Full Council itself.