Title: Liquid Housing: Addressing the housing «liquefaction» three crisis processes: a pilot case in the city of Tarragona
Funding entity: FutuResilience Project. European Union’s Horizon Europa Research and Innovation Program under grand agreement No 10109445 (https://futuresilience.eu)
Coordination: Dr. Héctor Simón Moreno (URV UNESCO Housing Chair)
Partners: UNESCO Housing Chair of the URV, Universidad NUI Galway
Duration: 1 year
The UNESCO Housing Chair of the Rovira i Virgili University has been chosen by the European Project FutuResilience to carry out a pilot project in the city of Tarragona.
The main objective of the project, which has the support and collaboration of the Municipal Housing Service of the Tarragona City Council, is to examine and understand the phenomenon of “Liquid Housing” in the city of Tarragona, which is characterized by the idea that almost anything can be considered today as an adequate home. This phenomenon is the consequence of the global financial crisis of 2007 and the crises derived from the COVID-19 (2020-2021) and the inflation of 2022. In effect, the processes of urbanization, rural depopulation and the shortage of social and affordable housing have contributed to the fact that housing is not affordable for families with less income in the main urban areas. The public authorities, instead of promoting affordable and as widely distributed home ownership as possible, have chosen during the last 15 years to offer increasingly weaker titles to households with fewer resources, evolving from home ownership, tenancy, cohousing to squatting. The distinction between what is a “housing” (with a clear title, stability, quality and adequacy) and a “temporary shelter” has become more and more blurred. Examples and manifestations of the “Liquid Housing” phenomenon are squatting situations, illegal subletting, forced shared renting, overoccupied or deficient housing and empty housing, many of which are internationally recognized as situations of hidden homelessness.
The pilot project aims to examine and understand these manifestations of the “Liquid Housing” phenomenon from an interdisciplinary and international approach, a challenge that affects the right to housing and human dignity, but also other rights such as the right to private property or the private and family life. Although at the local level there are strategies to address this problem, the difficulties in detecting this phenomenon and the lack of effective housing policies hinder the capacity and resilience of the municipality to address this problem, which goes beyond the right to housing itself since it can also have social, economic, political and environmental implications for society.
This involves the collection of statistical data, the realization of field work, the involvement of interested parties and the formulation of political recommendations based on the identified future scenarios. The objective is to provide empirical evidence, raise awareness and propose solutions to address the complexity of the “Liquid Housing” phenomenon.
More information at: https://futuresilience.eu/future-resilience-labs/liquidhousing
