Democracy and Housing in Esplugues de Llobregat, Catalonia
Oliver Peña Estevez is a councilor in the small city of Esplugues de Llobregat, outside Barcelona, where he works on social rights and housing. At the International Observatory of Participatory Democracy conference in Valongo, Portugal, he talked with Democracy Local about participatory democracy initiatives in the city.
Q: What are you doing right now in local democracy?
Housing is the issue in our community and in Catalonia. We are growing, and housing is too expensive for many people in Esplugues de Llobregat and throughout the province. So we developed a plan with the participation of the population itself, and with two entities that defend the right to housing. We wanted people who needed affordable housing to come up with the plans themselves. And they did. There are specific bullet points for the aid to people for housing. This active participation is fundamental to how we operate--it's a table of participation for people, for the housing entities, for politicians.
The building is happening right now. We are developing more than 2,000 units, all of them are affordable.
Q: Is the participation just in housing?
That's just one example. Another example is the mayoralty of neighborhoods initiative. Every month, we have a meeting with regular people from the city, from different neighborhoods, and the mayor sits and introduces himself, and the people, 20 or 25, talking with him. and it's an open and direct dialogue.
The people are picked a random to attend. They call you and they tell you--the mayor is going to have a meeting in your neighborhood and you're invited.
