The URV researcher Sergio Nasarre has been a leading member of the project "50 Out-of-the-box Housing Solutions to Homelessness & Housing Exclusion", which has compiled examples of innovative solutions to provide housing for homeless people in Europe

The URV-UNESCO Chair for the Right to Housing has participated in the presentation of the report “50 out-of-the-box solutions to homelessness and housing exclusion” in Brussels. The event brought together the members of the Housing Solutions Platform in the European Parliament. Sergio Nasarre, member of the platform and director of the Chair, presented part of the report into legal innovations in the ambit of solutions to housing exclusion.

The Housing Solutions Platform has collected 50 of the most innovative and audacious examples of housing exclusions and homelessness in Europe after a massive response to the call they put out at the beginning of 2019.

The report was officially presented at the European Parliament on 11 December and aims to encourage the various stakeholders to be more innovative in providing accessible housing solutions and to fill gaps in existing systems.

Of the 50 projects chosen, 5 are Spanish. Three come from the  Department of Housing and Architecture of the Basque Government and consist of reclassifying undeveloped plots as so it can be used for temporary housing for up to five years; the second involves the conversion of unused industrial land into 1000 houses in Bolueta (Visesa); and the third is the Bizigune programme by Alokabide, a public agency which frees up public and private housing stock by renting it out in exchange for certain guarantees, with 5000 dwellings having already been leased this way.

A fourth is the AHINOR project in the Canary Islands where people affected by housing exclusion have got together to support others in the same situation. The group includes psychologists, lawyers and social workers. The fifth is the legal innovation that has been operating in Catalonia since 2015 with the introduction of shared ownership and temporary ownership as mechanisms providing access to housing ownership in more accessible manner while avoiding excessive debt.

Sergio Nasarre has been a member of the steering committee of the project “50 Out-of-the-box Housing Solutions to Homelessness & Housing Exclusion”. The book resulting from the project can be downloaded here.