Urban mobilizations and municipal policies to un-make housing precarity

In Spain, the Global Financial Crisis soon became a housing crisis. The Spanish national governments, despite the recognition of the right to an adequate housing by Article 47 of the Spanish Constitution, prioritized the rescue of the financial system and the application of austerity measures contributing to a sharp increase in housing precarity. In Barcelona, the social consequences of the housing crisis overlapped with the long-term effects of urban transformations and the growth of tourism promoted by the so-called ‘Barcelona Model,’ implemented since the end of the seventies. However, Barcelona can be also considered the epicentre of a grassroots response to urban and housing precarity. This response has been promoted by social movements and later, municipal institutions. In this article, starting from the experience of Plataforma Afectados por la Hipoteca - PAH (‘Platform of People Affected by Mortgages’) I consider the strategies used by this social movement since 2009 to respond to housing precarity. Then I look at how between 2015 and 2019 the municipal government led by Barcelona en Comú - BeC faced housing and gentrification-related problems, considering the main strategies adopted in these fields, their impact and limits. Using this twofold analysis, I will argue that, thanks to the strategies, counternarratives, mobilizations and policies developed by social movements, and later the municipal government, Barcelona is becoming a laboratory of possible responses to the housing crisis. Through a rights-based approach, the focus is moving from the needs of markets, profit and economic growth to the needs of those affected by housing precarity.