2023-04-27 12:52:49
- The Senate could still ensure that the law further guarantees the right to housing for millions of people, prohibiting evictions of people without alternative housing and establishing an effective regime of sanctions and inspections to ensure compliance with the law.
Amnesty International values positively that today the Congress of Deputies approved the Law for the Right to Housingknown as Housing Law. For years, social movements and different organizations have denounced the crisis situation of the right to housing and have worked to make this Law, the first state law in democracy, a reality.
The new law has positive aspects such as the rental price containmentthe increase in Deadline for Stay of Evictionsor the protection and increase of public housing park, among others; but it still does not provide an answer to some essential questions for the fulfillment of this right in Spain.
“The State has the competence to regulate the basic conditions for access to this right and on this basis, the law can and should include: a sanctioning regime so that obligations regarding price control are respected, the prohibition of evictions for people who, due to their situation of vulnerability, do not have an alternative to access another home, or the adoption of minimum annual percentages so that the autonomous communities increase the number of social housing and financing is linked to compliance with them.” Marta Mendiola, Amnesty International researcher.
“We are still in time for the right to housing to be recognized as a subjective right, that is, that the guarantees of protection of people are shielded, and a sanctioning and accountability regime is established when the law is not complied with”
“We are still in time for the Senate to incorporate these improvements into the law, also recognizing the right to housing as a subjective right, that is, that the guarantees of protection of people are shielded, and a sanctioning and surrender regime is established of accounts when the law is not complied with”.
Price containment, effectiveness at risk due to lack of sanctions
For the first time, a price containment framework is established at the state level, to be implemented by the autonomous communities. To this end, some legislative measures have been improved during the parliamentary process:
- They have relaxed Criteria for declaring stressed market areasin which either the amount of the mortgage/rental plus basic expenses and supplies exceeds 30 percent of the median household income, or the purchase/rental price of the home has experienced in the last five years an accumulated growth rate of at least three percentage points higher than the CPI.
- has been improved price containment for all homes in stressed areas. In the new contracts, the price of the last rental rent in force in the last five years must be maintained, once the annual update clause of the rent of the previous contract has been applied and new conditions may not be set that affect new fees or new Expenses that were not included in the previous contract. There is also the possibility of increasing the rent by 10 percent if improvement works are carried out, among other aspects. The price control linked to the reference price index is applied to homes whose owner is a large holder, regardless of whether it is a legal entity or an individual, and to all new homes that enter the market.
- It is subjected and limited by 2023 the annual rent update al Competitiveness Guarantee Index instead of the CPI, and by 2024 it is limited to a maximum of 3 percent.
However, Amnesty International regrets the lack of a sanctioning regime for non-compliance with the obligations established by law and an inspection system that ensures compliance with said obligations. In addition, this regime is left to the voluntary nature of the autonomous communities that “can” develop by regulation the methodological bases of said system and the protocols for collaboration and data exchange with the state and regional information systems of application, which can cause defenselessness in people residing in the autonomous communities that postpone or do not regulate this price containment.
Evictions, still far from international human rights standards
The legislative text establishes improvements in the procedure to carry out evictions, providing greater guarantees to people who are at risk of suffering it:
- In all resolutions eviction date and time must be set thereof.
- It increases the term by which judges can suspend an eviction (one to two months if the claimant is a natural person and three to four months if it is a legal person) in the case of people who are in a situation of vulnerability.
- Large homeowners must undergo processes of conciliation or intermediation, established by public administrations, before filing claims for recovery of possession of habitual homes of people in vulnerable situations.
However, the housing law continues to fail to comply with the recommendations of United Nations and omits the condemnations to Spain of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for not guaranteeing alternative housing for people without resources. Although the law includes that the competent local and regional administrations in housing and social assistance, among others, will present a proposal for an alternative for decent housing and possible financial aid that people facing eviction may benefit from, the law it still does not require that there be alternative housing prior to an eviction of people without resources.
Amnesty International underlines that it is an international obligation of the State to ensure that no person is left homeless as a result of an eviction if they do not have resources. Amnesty International also recalls that companies have the responsibility to respect human rights and to ensure that eviction is always the last resort and that the State has the obligation to protect people, so the law should include measures that protect people to a greater extent, guaranteeing, for example, the requirement that companies offer social rent to people in vulnerable situations prior to eviction.
Social housing stock, insufficient to cover the urgent social need
Amnesty International recalls that the bill itself recognizes that the social housing stock “barely offers coverage to 1.6 percent of the 18.6 million households that inhabit Spain, which contrasts with the percentages significantly higher than 15 percent registered in some of the main neighboring countries, such as France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria or Denmark, considering the total number of social housing”. The law establishes positive measures to guarantee and increase the social housing stock.
- That the houses that are promoted on land whose destination is that of houses subject to some public protection regime are subject to a permanent public protection regimealthough it establishes that, for the rest of the cases, the Autonomous Communities may approve regulations derogating from this requirement for justified reasons, provided that a minimum term of protection of thirty years is respected.
- That a horizon of increase in the social housing stock by 20 percent in 20 years in those municipalities in which stressed market areas have been declared and for administrations that, one year after the entry into force of this law, have not established time frames and specific goals.
However, in order to respond to the urgent need for access to this right, it is necessary for the law to establish a minimum percentage of annual increase in the public housing stock that the autonomous communities should respect, and establish that financing be conditional on compliance with these goals.
The law should also provide for a permanent regime for all public protection housing and the impossibility of disqualifying them, with the aim of guaranteeing access to housing for people in vulnerable situations. These improvements would make it possible to have a sufficient and maintained social housing stock over time.
Other aspects to improve in the new law: discrimination and gender approach
- Despite the fact that the law provides for the elimination of any type of discrimination in access to housing, the ownership of this right is still restricted to the condition of citizenship. It is essential that the project includes the ownership of the right to people residing in the country.
- Even though the women have a higher rate of risk of poverty, greater job insecurity and worse socioeconomic indicators, the law does not protect them adequately and specifically.
Additional information
The first State Housing Law in Democracyannounced in October 2020, comes after 14 months of parliamentary processing since its approval by the Council of Ministers in February 2022. During this time, the difficulties of access to housing derived from the 2008 crisis have been aggravated by the context of economic uncertainty, the increase in the cost of living and the galloping increase in housing prices and the consequent loss of purchasing power of the population.
In addition to the demands of civil society and the Ombudsmanthe law has been demanded of Spain by international organizations, such as the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the United Nations Rapporteurs on Extreme Poverty and Housingas well as from the Council of Europe after the visit of the Commissioner for Social Rights made to Spain last autumn.
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