Addressing the housing "liquefaction" process after three crises in Tarragona

Tarragona Lab aims to provide empirical evidence, raise awareness and propose solutions to address the complexity of the “Liquid Housing” phenomenon in the city of Tarragona. Indeed, the line between what real “housing” is (once clear in terms of title, stability, quality, and adequacy) and what is just “provisional shelter” is now becoming increasingly blurry. Failure of public housing policies has led public authorities to offer weaker and weaker land titles (homeowners → tenants → co-living → squatting) without security of tenure. 

This lab focuses on the concept of “liquid housing”, stemming from these crises and characterised by the idea that almost anything can be considered “adequate housing”. It addresses various forms of liquid housing (a) squatting (on public or private land/flats without any kind of legal rights); b) illegal subletting of housing, which leads to the existence of black-market tenancies, i.e.; c) short-term (excluding holiday rentals) rental accommodation, forced shared of rooms, overcrowded or substandard housing, and vacant dwellings) at the local level, a challenge seen across Europe, impacting the right to housing and human dignity. Indeed, although liquid housing may take different forms in each EU MS, it is undeniably a pan-European challenge. There is no country that can affirm that it has solved the housing problem and all of them must contend with one or more forms of liquid housing in their cities, that involve the unfulfillment of one or several fundamental rights subscribed by the EU. Some of them are cases of hidden homelessness according to the FEANTSA ETHOS Typology. What these cases have in common is the lack of legal protection as the occupiers remain in an extra-legal, unprotected sphere. 

The lab contributes to the achievement of the EU’s values, such as human dignity, equality, nondiscrimination or human rights, among others, and other EU urban relevant policies and initiatives. As a matter of fact, the “liquid housing” phenomenon threatens a number of human rights, such as security of tenure (right to housing), right to private ownership, right to private and family life, gender and diversity and health care. 

The lab focuses on several challenges: 

1. Lack of reliable data on the “liquid housing” phenomenon. The existing data on the types of liquid housing in the city of Tarragona are not very precise. This characteristic is typical of “hidden homelessness” phenomenon. 
2. Right balance between the human right to housing and the right to private property. The project addresses the types of liquid housing by adopting a plural approach concerning the right to housing, as housing is, in fact, the only good that is both an important financial asset and a human right. 
3. Another challenge is the specific features of the groups most affected by the liquid housing phenomenon, as housing exclusion disproportionately affects specific groups, including women, young people, children, indigenous people, people with disabilities, migrants and refugees, the working poor, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, each in different ways, maybe with common structural causes or factors the project aims to identify. 
4. Scope of action of public policies at the local level & Resources and competences. The challenge is how to address the types of liquid housing from a public policy of view. In this regard, it must be taken into account that Autonomous Communities in Spain hold the main competences on housing, which explains the low involvement of municipalities (which are at a lower tier in the governance framework of Spain) in the management of public aid for the promotion and acquisition of housing. 

Activities of the lab

The first months of the lab have been dedicated to collect quantitative empirical evidence and qualitative data. To this end, desk research, surveys and individual interviews with relevant stakeholders have been carried out. The first workshop of the "Liquid Housing" lab took place last Wednesday, June 19th, at the Conference Centre of Tarragona. Dr. Padraic Kenna, Director of the Centre for Housing Law, Rights and Policy of the University of Galway (also partner of the project), was the keynote speaker with the presentation entitled “The right to housing and the types of “Liquid Housing”, how to achieve resilience?”. Dr. Kenna highlighted the fact that resilience in this field means not only provide affordable housing and security of tenure to those affected by the types of “Liquid Housing”, but also empowering and educating them with relevant socio-economic skills and addressing their needs from a holistic point of view by public authorities. The workshop brought together 25 people from different institutions (e.g. foundations, public administration, professional associations, social-sector institutions, neighborhood associations, academia, etc.), who discussed in focus groups the underlying factors that may explain the phenomenon of "Liquid Housing" and evaluated future scenarios for each factor. The factors related to housing policies and public resources were considered the ones with the highest impact and uncertainty.

The second workshop took place on 10th October in Tarragona with the aim to draw future scenarios taking the identified factors together. Without prejudice to the discussion to be held in the second workshop, it would seem, at first sight, that future scenarios portend a grim future for the liquid housing phenomenon if things continue in the same way as at present, either from a social, economic or legal point of view. Are we then prepared to accept: a) a society of rich owners and poor people facing inadequate housing being considered hidden homeless?; b) neighbourhoods more susceptible to social unrest and less attractive to new businesses’, thus having a negative impact on the property market?; c) neighbourhoods outside the system of social protection; d) several negative implications on economic well-being of individuals, family formation and fertility?; e) an increase in housing inequalities, especially regarding young people?