Gallifa, Planoles, Ribes de Freser and Josa i Tuixent are the only municipalities that have completed the rehabilitation of homes in the rural world provided for in the pilot plan promoted by the Catalan Housing Agency (AHC) in 2020. Of the 20 selected localities, four waived the grant at first; two have not yet started work, so the AHC understands that they would also have refused aid; ten are still in the "partial or total" execution phase of the works, and the aforementioned four have finished, according to the data provided by the Department of Territory of the Generalitat.
The mayors of towns with less than 1,000 inhabitants who are fighting against depopulation insist that the lack of housing is one of the main obstacles to retaining young people who want to emancipate themselves and to attracting new residents. This deficit was what pushed the Generalitat to promote in 2020 the housing promotion program in the rural world (PPHMR), endowed with two million euros, to encourage the recovery of properties in poor condition and try stop population decline.
One of the reasons for the limited success of the PPHMR is that the municipalities to which it was directed have limited maneuverability, few personnel and insufficient resources to adapt to the requirements set out in the call. The local world is imploring that the planning regulations be made more flexible to enable the adaptation of different types of properties to first residence, a demand that they expect to be met in the future Statute of Rural Municipalities.
Riner, in Solsonès, one of the selected localities, had to resign right from the start. "We wanted to build a house in a sports facility, we understood that by redistributing the space it was possible, but we ran into very strict rules, we had to modify the POUM, which would involve at least a year, in addition, we only have municipal technician one day a week, it was impossible for us to carry out the process", laments the mayor, Joan Solà, who also chairs the Association of Small Towns of Catalonia.
The fact that only four towns have been able to finish the rehabilitation of houses shows that "in the end, the bureaucracy to which each project has to undergo means that everything takes forever and that we end up giving up", he comments.
Solà adds that they receive "constant requests both from young people here and from people from outside to rent a house in Riner".
Almatret, in Segrià, also had to abandon the pilot plan, since the help from the Generalitat was not enough to update the housing that the City Council had acquired, says councilor Jordi Tarragó, mayor during the previous mandate Almatret has indeed been able to refurbish two flats with the help of the Lleida Council. "Now we have requests from several families to settle in Almatret; in 2024 we expect to have finished three houses and we will lay the foundations to proceed with the rental. The procedures are slow, as we have few staff", says Tarragó.
Gallifa is one of the four councils that has finished its project, which has resulted in the arrival of two neighbors in the town of Vallès Oriental, a mother and her school-aged daughter, says the mayor, Mateu Comalrena . In this case, the owner of a property that he had inherited, and where no one had lived for a long time, accessed, through the City Council, the PPHMR subsidy to finance 60% of the cost of the rehabilitation. The tenants have been living in their new home for months.
"The AHC has misdiagnosed the problem of housing in the rural world, which has caused this program to be inefficient and ineffective. He has achieved a very urban vision; for example, the grant amounts are low, it must be taken into account that the houses in the villages are usually large, in addition, there were buildings in protected old towns that did not get authorization for renovations. It is unfortunate that, given the demand for housing, when the Generalitat, which is a very slow administration, issues a call for proposals, the entire planned budget is not implemented", Comalrena considers.
Gallifa has rehabilitated two more houses and is in the process of finishing a third with aid from the Diputació de Barcelona.
Planoles, in Ripollès, has also been able to finish two flats that will be rented very soon at an affordable price, 375 and 390 euros per month. Families with minor children and young people aged 22 to 35 who have been registered in the municipality for more than a year can apply. "It is a building in the center of town that was in a bad state, owned by some neighbors who have invested 170,000 euros, and the Generalitat, 80,000", explains the mayor, David Verge. It should be remembered that the subsidy was a maximum of 60% of the cost of the works, in the case that it belonged to a private person, and 90%, if it was municipal.
"The main problem of the villages of the Pyrenees is the lack of housing; in Planoles, 72% of the residential park is a second home, but since we have fiber optic, there are starting to be holidaymakers who telecommute and extend their weekends here, there are also people who retire and stay there" , add.
Verge believes that, if urban planning procedures were faster, there would be more opportunities to recover disused buildings and build flats. "Bureaucracy is a drama, it would be necessary for the housing powers to be transferred to the county councils to ease the process", he emphasizes
the mayor
The conditions for access to the PPHMR, aimed at municipalities with a maximum of 500 inhabitants or those with less than 3,000, in the case of those with more than ten population centers, were published in December 2020. The term of execution of the works from the presentation of the project is 18 months, but the municipalities can request an extension.
From the Department of Territory they indicate that they will not analyze the operation of the plan until the end of its period of validity, which is four years, as they point out. A year ago, the ACH put out a second call in which 25 councils were admitted, although the same sources reply that they only have evidence that work has started on three, in Arnes, les Lloses and Biosca.
