The issue of rent has occupied a large part of the sleeplessness and conflicts between the two government partners, PSOE and United We Can. Two measures aspire to solve it throughout this year: the Housing Law on the one hand and the Housing Plan on the other. Although the first has not yet been approved and has a long way to go, the second, a decree-law, will be approved by the Council of Ministers next Tuesday.
Among its striking provisions, one is generating a lot of noise on social media: “cohousing.”
The letter. It is exclusively detailed by Cadena Ser: “Ministry sources point out that there is a growing demand (…) to offer buildings in which individual space is reduced but that of common services is expanded.” Thus presented, and it is how it is being interpreted in networks, it does not seem but an imitation of the “cohousing” once disseminated by some media as a trend … When in reality it was not (and is) but a resource forced by precariousness (low wages, high rents).
The left interprets it as an apology for the corralas of the past; the right, as the return of the “communes” of the Soviet bloc.
What is it about. It is something more complex. As detailed by Ser, the government’s idea is to allocate shared housing “to groups such as the elderly who prefer this formula to traditional geriatric residences.” Alternatives “of intergenerational coexistence”, not exclusive for the elderly, which would also extend to forms of “decent accommodation” for seasonal workers who annually cover key agricultural campaigns “and who do not always have adequate endowments.”
The bottom. Thus, “cohousing” would be less like thirty-something single people sharing a flat in the center of Madrid than communities of older people living together to “grow old together.” Or what is the same, to alleviate loneliness. In recent years, a multitude of projects like this have sprung up in Spain: in Tenerife, in Sanxenxo, in Seville. It is about “collaborative housing”, as recounted in this report by El País focused on the cohousing from Torremocha del Jarama.
Better together. The idea has been around for years and always has a social focus: private homes integrate their common areas and manage them autonomously. In this gallery, one of the members of the Cuslar Cooperative, in Seville, defends the model as a way to “improve their quality of life, avoid loneliness and isolation” and also as an accidentally effective tool to protect the elderly from the coronavirus (compared to medical residences).
How do they work. The “cohousing” of Sariego, in Asturias, offers a good example of its operation: “nineteen residential units of 48 square meters, two bedrooms, kitchen-living room, bathroom and private porch or terrace” as well as common areas integrated and managed by the partners where “spaces to rest, kitchen, dining room, laundry and rooms for multiple uses” are included. It also includes a garden area, an orchard and even a picnic area with a barbecue.
In 2019, a member of the Abante Jubilar Sevilla Association, another cohousing of the Andalusian capital, summed it up like this:
We refuse to be a burden to our children and we do not want to end up living alone or in a residence that we cannot afford; We want to be surrounded by people who understand us, with whom we share interests and that together we can serve each other.
#Society | Many seniors reject the option of living in residences and consider aging in communities with other retirees. It is the phenomenon known as #Cohousing pic.twitter.com/6CQaCd0vPX
– RTVC (@RTVCes) January 8, 2022
Plus. It is an upward trend especially among the elderly population, but increasingly among the young. This New York Times report explores the communities of cohousing that are sprouting up in the Netherlands and Belgium. DW recently raised it as an alternative for families who do not want to make such high investments in a home and reduce their environmental footprint. And even in Madrid there is a cooperative, Entrepatios, where the accent is on co-ownership, the participatory process and collaboration and mutual help between the families involved.
But this, it seems, is further from the purpose of the Housing Plan. His attention is directed towards the cooperatives of the elderly. To him cohousing vs. the residence.
Image: Mountain View Cohousing