The Barcelona City Council, through the Municipal Institute of Housing and Renovation (IMHAB) held on Thursday, March 30, the handover of the keys to 21 families and cohabitation units of new social housing for social rent in a new building located at Avda. Escolapi Càncer, 10-12. With the twenty keys delivered, there are 26 more to be given, and thus reach the 47 that make up this promotion, and contribute to expanding the public housing stock in this neighborhood of Torre Baró.
The successful bidders present at the ceremony, held in the lobby of the building, received the keys from the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, and the Councilor for Housing and Renovation of the City Council, Lucía Martín, who congratulated them and welcomed them to their new home.
“We come from activism and we know very well the problems we suffer in this city with housing. And I know these neighborhoods well. Precisely, Nou Barris is one of the areas where we have made more investment to enable new housing,” said Colau. “I am sure that, for all of you, it has been hard years of waiting, where the bureaucracy is always slower than it should be, but for us, days like today make sense that we decided to enter the City Council,” she added.
These are moments when emotions run high, as Leandro Lafflitto, one of the successful bidders who received the keys, remarked. “When they gave me the keys, I was shaking. I was calm, but with all the people who came, I got nervous. I am very happy about everything that is coming from now on, I had been on the Applicants Register for three years.” Lafflitto comes from the neighborhood of Poble-sec (Sants-Montjuïc), and arrives at Torre Baró eager to do his bit: “I like the fact that it is a growing neighborhood. I know it a bit from when I was little, but it has changed a lot since then. I want to help continue building the neighborhood,” he adds.
Alba Lamarca also became a new neighbor, in this case from Gràcia: “I have been registered in the Registry for many years, and this is the first time I have entered an allocation process, so I am very happy. Especially when I saw the apartments, which I really liked and which had a positive impact on me”.
Other successful bidders, however, already know the district in detail, such as Francisco José Salinas: “Although I was now living in Ciutat Meridiana, Torre Baró is my neighborhood, I know it very well. In fact, I entered the Institut Pablo Ruiz Picasso just when it was inaugurated”.
A district on the move
The building destined for these twenty beneficiaries consists of a basement, first floor, five upper floors, and a flat roof, in addition to having a large inner courtyard where all the homes are connected and which acts as a lobby.
As with many of the public developments launched in recent years by the City Council, the building is highly energy efficient, thanks to the photovoltaic panels on the roof, the aerothermal energy used, the two elevators adapted for low energy consumption, and the courtyard, which acts as a climatic atrium.
All the homes have been awarded through the corresponding open call in the Barcelona Social Housing Applicants Register, a fact that guarantees that future residents will enjoy affordable rent in the city.
In Nou Barris, only since 2015, the stock of public and affordable housing will increase by 1,300 homes, of which 401 have been purchased, with an investment by the consistory of 138 million euros.
Located in the far north of the city, between the Collserola mountain range and the district of Sant Andreu, Nou Barris has thirteen neighborhoods and more than 800 hectares, with some 168,000 people, making it one of the largest districts in the city. A neighborhood marked by the symbiosis with the nature of the Collserola Park, and which is situated above the city with winding streets and houses, some of them self-built, which adapt to the terrain, overcoming the difficulties posed by the orography of the mountain.