Ten families in vulnerable situations now have a new home. The payment process, the signing of the contract and release of the documentation has taken place this morning, and Barcelona City Council’s Councillor for Housing, Lucía Martín has welcomed the families and handed over the keys to the flats in which they will live. This is one of the allocations of emergency homes which takes place each month through the Emergency Board, a mechanism used by the Barcelona Housing Consortium to prevent the social exclusion of people undergoing economic hardship and to ensure that people who are at risk of losing their home have the right to housing.
To request rehousing from the Emergency Board, the first step involves going to the nearest Housing Office, so they can study each case and draft the corresponding report, essential to process the assessment request of the Emergency Board. In order to be eligible for rehousing, the applicant(s) must be in an economic and social emergency situation, such as being in the process of being evicted for rental payment arrears, the home being repossessed due to arrears with their mortgage payments, women in a situation of residential exclusion due to violence by men or where there are minors, elderly people or people in a situation of neglect in the home in question in precarious hygiene, health or safety conditions.
The Board is responsible for assessing the cases issued by the Barcelona Housing Offices and allocating the available homes in the Social Rental Housing Fund on the date on which the Board’s meeting is held. The Board meets on a monthly basis to allocate the available homes. You can check the allocations in this link.
In the event that the cases favourably assessed by the Board are greater than the number of homes available at that time, the applicants will be gradually allocated a home from the ‘Pisos Buits’ (Empty Flats) programme (as these flats are incorporated into the Social Rental Housing Fund) until the next Board meeting is held. The Board has to reach an agreement and publish it in a maximum period of three months from the date of receiving the request with the completed documentation.
You can find out more information as well as check the Emergency Board’s regulations on the Barcelona Housing Consortium website.