The Department of Territory has signed this week with the eight mayors of the municipalities of Bellaguarda, Bovera, La Granadella, Granyena de les Garrigues, Juncosa, El Soleràs, Els Torms and el Cogul, in Les Garrigues Altes, the agreement that will serve to promote the rehabilitation of municipal buildings to offer public housing, within the framework of the Arrelamdent (Enraizando) program.
In total, around 400,800 euros will be invested in fitting out seven homes. In Juncosa, a town that hosted the signing attended by Councilor Ester Capella, the old town hall will be rehabilitated.
The objective is to stop depopulation and establish population with territorial equity and equal opportunities, investing in 121 municipalities in the country that have lost population in the last 20 years.
The program focuses on the 16 Catalan urban systems that have registered a sustained population loss between 2001 and 2022. They group together 121 municipalities and currently have 83,636 inhabitants. The vast majority are small municipalities, with less than 1,000 residents, located in the most rural areas.
With the agreement signed this Thursday with the municipalities of the Garrigues Altes, Incasòl will be able to contract the construction management and, subsequently, the execution of the rehabilitation of four public buildings to convert them into seven residential homes. This is a type of public housing with social rent that aims to cover temporary accommodation needs of groups with special difficulties in accessing them.
Councilor Capella has indicated that the objective is to guarantee access to housing and although it can be said that this has already been done before, the current program has to do with and has the “very clear will” to look at each of these territorial areas and municipalities ".
For her part, the president of the community of municipalities of Les Garrigues Altes and mayor of Granadella, Helena Llauradó, has said that it is important that the regulations that are implemented and the aid have a "positive discrimination" towards small municipalities since normally They are governed by regulations like those of large capitals and "that cannot be."
As for the works, in Bovera a floor of a municipal building at number 3 Nou Street will be converted into two residential homes.
In El Soleràs, the first floor of the municipal facility at Plaza de las Escuelas number 4 will be divided into two accommodations.
In La Granadella, the habitability of the ground floor home located in the municipal building at Plaza Joan Perucho number 1 will be improved. Finally, in Juncosa, one floor of the former City Hall headquarters will be rehabilitated to accommodate two homes.
The investment for the execution of these works is 315,789 euros, contributed through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. The town councils of Bovera, El Soleràs and La Granadella will complement this endowment with a total contribution of 86,011 euros.
In total 400,800 euros will be allocated to the rehabilitation of these buildings. Work is expected to begin and be completed throughout 2024. A feasibility study has also been carried out for a library, playroom and six public accommodations in Bellaguarda.
In 2021, Territori launched a pilot test in the urban system of Les Garrigues Altes to identify the areas of action that were priority when trying to reverse the trend of population loss and promote concrete actions, on a small scale, to give answer.
This pilot test has become the Rooting program, which has already been extended to Gandesa, Terra Alta, and recently, to Organyà, in the Alt Urgell.
