The Palau de Congressos in Barcelona has become, for the second consecutive day, the venue for the International Social Housing Festival, taking place from June 7th to 9th. On the second day, one of the most relevant topics of the conference, the right to housing, took center stage in the first plenary session of the day. Under the title ‘Emerging housing systems in Southern Europe’, experts and elected officials took the stage of the auditorium, offering different perspectives on the matter.
The founding director of the UCL Institute for innovation and public purpose, Mariana Mazzucato, and the global director of The Shift, Leilani Farha, presented data and figures that perfectly illustrate the violation of a fundamental human right such as housing. “The right to housing faces the world’s largest real estate business, valued at three times the global GDP”, stated Farha. In addition to advocating for this right, the session provided an overview of the state of social housing in different Southern European countries.
The mayor of Villeurbanne and former president of Housing Europe, Cédric Van Styvendael; the postdoctoral researcher at the University of Crete (Greece), Dimitra Siatitsa; the deputy mayor of Bologna, Emily Clancy; the councilor for housing and public works of Lisbon, Filipa Roseta; the director of EMVISESA, Felipe Castro; the architect and professor at ETSAB-UPC, Josep Maria Montaner; and the director of Placemaking Europe, Ramon Marrades, have participated.
A defense of the right to housing that must inevitably involve the commitment of private entities, as discussed in the second of the presentations held in the auditorium, titled ‘Barcelona-Catalonia Housing Model: Public-private and public-community partnerships for the provision of affordable housing’. Barcelona and Catalonia have been pioneers in implementing collaborations between the public and private sectors to increase the supply of affordable housing, through the ESAL agreement and the creation of the first mixed public-private housing provider (HMB).
Those responsible for addressing this topic were the president of the Metropolitan Housing Observatory of Barcelona, Carme Trilla; the project coordinator of the La Dinamo cooperative, Glòria Rubio; the CEO of CEVASA, Donato Muñoz; the deputy housing minister of the Basque Government, Pedro Javier Jauregui; the chief of staff in the housing department of the Barcelona City Council, Vanesa Valiño; and the manager of AMB, Ramon Torra.
To conclude the day in the auditorium, the third and final presentation has focused on housing renovation and urban regeneration as topics of analysis, with the European Next Generation funds as a key ally for the development of the energy transition.
To assess the progress made in Barcelona and Catalonia, the stage was occupied by the project director of the Barcelona Innova Foundation, Isabella Longo; the director of the Habitat Futura Group, Celia Galera; the manager of the Municipal Institute of Urbanism, David Martínez; the Director-General of Housing and Land of the Spanish government, Francisco Javier Martín; and the Director-General of the Metropolitan Housing Consortium, Jose Antonio Artimez. And to complement this debate with a more international perspective, they were joined by the Member of the European Parliament, Kim Van Sparrentak.
A wide range of diverse topics
Beyond the three plenary sessions, ISHF is characterized by offering a wide range of simultaneous presentations, covering a variety of topics related to social housing, with renowned international experts and professionals eager to share their knowledge and experiences. Among other points of discussion, the second day of the conference addressed housing adaptation to climate change, access to housing for people with special needs, rental payment assistance, cooperative housing, and the fight against homelessness.
This Friday, the Palau de Congressos will host the third and final day of ISHF, with prominent experts still set to share their ideas in a top-notch program.