In the coming weeks, Barcelona will put a patch on the serious deficit of affordable housing that the city is suffering from. The public park is being expanded with the completion of the works and the delivery of keys to up to ten new developments totaling 746 flats promoted by the Barcelona Municipal Institute of Housing and Rehabilitation (Imhab). These are already completed developments that began to be delivered in November and will be completed in the first quarter of 2024. Eight out of ten of these flats, a total of 585, are for social and affordable rent, while the rest are awarded under the surface right regime. Of those intended for rent, there is also a package of more than 230 flats with specific services for the elderly. All homes will be awarded to families registered in the Official Protection Housing Applicants register.
This package of promotions has required a total investment of more than 111 million euros, which have been distributed among five districts of Barcelona, especially in areas that are experiencing a major urban transformation, as is the case of the Marina district of Prat Vermell, in Sants-Montjuïc, or the old Casas Barates del Bon Pastor and the old barracks of Sant Andreu. With these new promotions, Barcelona's public housing stock exceeds 12,300 units.
The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, yesterday visited the Cal Cisó development, located in the Marina del Prat Vermell neighborhood, which consists of 108 rental homes. It is the last promotion completed this year. Collboni, accompanied by the first deputy mayor, Laia Bonet, and the housing commissioner, Joan Ramon Riera, assured during the visit that "housing is the number one priority of this municipal government because it is the fundamental right which most highlights the inequalities in Barcelona, a situation that we face in every possible way". In this sense, the mayor pointed out that the City Council will promote two lines of action to alleviate the existing deficit of affordable housing in the city. On the one hand, "generate and mobilize all available land, the raw material to produce more affordable housing" and, at the same time, "seek agreements with all actors, public and private".
The new promotions are located in five Barcelona districts. In Sants-Montjuïc (180 homes), the three-block building on Carrer Cal Cisó and a building of singular architecture (triangular floor plan with an acute angle and red facade) on Carrer Ulldecona. In Horta-Guinardó, a development of 105 flats on Avinguda de l'Estatut de Catalunya, the construction and management of which has been delegated to the Fem Ciutat cooperative, is part of the public housing stock.
In Nou Barris, the public housing stock is being increased with two developments that add up to a hundred flats, specifically on Escolapi Càncer avenue, in the Torre Baró neighborhood, and on Palamós street.
Sant Andreu concentrates four promotions. The first is a building planned as part of the remodeling of the old neighborhood of Les Casas Barates del Bon Pastor, the first in this area that is not intended for rehousing those affected by urban planning but for applicants for public housing. There is also a double promotion in the area of Porta Trinitat, in La Trinitat Vella, and one that will be aimed entirely at elderly people in the old Sant Andreu barracks.
Finally, the tenth promotion is located in Sant Martí, at one of the intersections of the Poblenou superilla, between Ciutat de Granada and Almogàvers streets.
