Access to housing is a transversal problem in Catalonia, but it especially affects certain groups. Young people are among the most affected, as they face great difficulties in accessing rental housing—especially in the main urban areas, due to high prices—and have limited resources to afford buying a property. The scarcity of public housing compared to other neighboring countries also doesn't help.
A very eloquent fact is the average age of emancipation in Spain, which rises to 30.3 years, a figure far from the EU average of 26.4 years. These are generalized difficulties for young people. However, the problem is exacerbated among the most vulnerable social strata. To try to alleviate this situation, third-sector entities play an active role. This is the case of Fundació Resilis, which launched the Social Housing Exchange service in December 2020 to assist people experiencing homelessness and to address the lack of housing for young people formerly under guardianship from the Assisted Living Program, managed by the foundation itself.
80 homes in Deltebre
The latest project executed by Resilis to facilitate access to housing has been the acquisition of 80 apartments in Deltebre from a real estate asset management fund in collaboration with two other entities: Fundació SociHabitat and Casa Alternativa SCCL. The action was made possible thanks to the collaboration between the Agència de l'Habitatge de Catalunya and the Institut Català de Finances (ICF), which financed the purchase.
"Young people in Deltebre, as in other towns, have great difficulty accessing affordable housing. With these apartments, we can facilitate the consolidation of emancipation pathways for young people without training or with basic vocational training, most of whom work in nurseries, warehouses, or as construction laborers," explains Jordi Rieradevall, director of the Social Housing Exchange at Fundació Resilis.
For Rieradevall, the fact that the ICF is a public development bank "is already a guarantee when compared to any other private financing line." Furthermore, the executive points out that "beyond being able to have a fixed interest rate or an initial grace period, at the ICF there is a very professional team with social awareness that supports entities so that procedures end up being resolved positively."
Jordi Rieradevall: "Beyond being able to have a fixed interest or an initial grace period, at the ICF there is a very professional team with social conscience that accompanies entities like Resilis"Having a job is not a guarantee of housing
It may be striking that many of the young people who come to Resilis' social housing pool are not unemployed, but rather have a certain job stability and training. However, they find it very difficult to access conventional housing, but they can support themselves economically in a shared flat provided by the foundation. On average, the stay in the entity's facilities is 18 months.
After this latest property purchase, the Fundació Resilis housing network is made up of 450 homes spread across the four provinces of Catalonia. Although the users helped by the foundation have a very heterogeneous profile, they are mainly people in "deinstitutionalization" processes, whether young or not, people experiencing homelessness, large families, and single-parent families.
A financial instrument for social entities and city councils
Fundació Resilis was able to acquire the 80 homes in Deltebre thanks to financing granted by the ICF through the line ICF Habitatge Social Adquisició. These are loans for social entities and city councils for the purchase of flats intended for social rent, whose acquisition derives from the exercise of the rights of first refusal and redemption recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya or for acquisitions through purchase agreements in the free market.
The amount of the loans, in general, is a minimum of 25,000 euros and a maximum of 10 million euros for the entity or city council (with a maximum of 90,000 euros per dwelling) for a maximum term of 30 years and may include a grace period of up to 2 years. The ICF finances 100% of the acquisition and rehabilitation works ---if necessary--- at a fixed interest rate of 3.65%. For its part, the Agència de l'Habitatge de Catalunya subsidizes interest by 2%.