On Friday, March 31, the Barcelona City Council, through the Municipal Institute of Housing and Renovation (IMHAB), handed over the keys to around thirty families and households, all over the age of 65, who become new residents of the Besòs i el Maresme neighborhood in the district of Sant Martí.
Before the key handover, which took place on the terrace of the new building, the Councilor for Housing and Renovation of the Barcelona City Council, Lucía Martín, wanted to convey to the new neighborhood residents the shared joy of opening a new vital stage in a brand new and adapted housing for older people who will live there.
Martín led a large representation of the City Council and the neighborhood community, including the Councilor for Health, Aging, and Care, Gemma Tarafa, as well as the associative vice-president of the Advisory Council for the Elderly, Juan Martínez; the director of the Puigcerdà housing with services, Verònica Garrido; and the president of the Besòs-Maresme neighborhood association, José Manuel López.
Developments like this should be the present and future model for aging seniors in Barcelona, as Gemma Tarafa points out: “If we asked older people how they want to age, most would tell us that they want to age in their own home with the necessary services to be well cared for and accompanied. And these homes meet all of these requirements.”
“The development has been a very exciting and enriching project for all parties involved. It is a group of people who need to be accompanied, and these homes will allow them to extend their autonomy for as long as possible,” says the director of this housing development on carrer Puigcerdà, Verònica Garrido, who also highlighted the quality of the building and attention to detail.
One by one, the beneficiaries received the keys to their apartments in an emotional and joyful moment that many of them wanted to express publicly, such as Maria Josefina: “I am very grateful for the treatment received by the City Council. I feel very loved in the city of Barcelona.” A testimony of a resident of the Besòs i el Maresme who has been assigned a “carefully and dedicatedly constructed” apartment where she will continue to enjoy with her friends and neighbors in the neighborhood.
One of the particularities of the publicly rented homes promoted by the City Council is the cost to be paid by the beneficiaries, below the average monthly price of apartments in Barcelona. In the case of this promotion, they range from €375.27 to €738.20. In addition, among other characteristics, the building’s energy efficiency has been taken into account, with photovoltaic panels for self-consumption and individual aerothermal climate control.
Promotions for older people are on the rise
Homes specifically designed for people over 65, such as in the case of the Puigcerdà-Maresme promotion, aim to improve the living conditions of older people who live in poor housing conditions, as well as delaying the need for residential care as long as possible by providing support in the home or to the individual concerned.
All homes have features that make them specific to this type of tenant, such as bathrooms with a shower at ground level to facilitate access and prevent falls, sockets located at a comfortable height, centralized alarms in the bathroom and bedroom, tele-assistance, concierge, personal and social support, cleaning services, among others.
The City Council is committed to improving the housing offer for older people in Barcelona. This commitment is reflected in the figures, as with the addition of the 48 homes in the Puigcerdà-Maresme promotion, there are around 1,500 homes with services for older people throughout the city, distributed across 25 promotions located in different districts, with Sant Martí (five promotions), Ciutat Vella (four), and Nou Barris (four) being the most notable.
In addition, there are also around 500 homes in the pipeline, distributed across six developments located in the districts of Eixample (one development), Sant Martí (two), Sant Andreu (two), and Gràcia (one).
All of this in a district that continues to expand its quantity and quality of affordable public rental housing, having increased by 1,500 homes since 2015 and, with the currently planned developments, will reach 2,000. Among these homes, there is also a diversity of typologies, from APROP accommodations to social rentals, rights of superficies, or cooperative housing. Sant Martí is the district with the most industrialized construction developments in this regard.