Experiences to face the Housing Crisis at the International Conference on the Right to the City in Barcelona

HIC

 
 
 

The rise of renting, gentrification, expulsion of people from cities, the increase activity of vulture funds were some of the aspects covered at the Conference on the Right to the City. This international gathering organized by HIC together with the Observatorio DESC and the Global Platform for the Right to the City aimed to analyse the causes and solutions to the housing crisis.

The Conference examined that the housing crisis is not an isolated, local or marginal phenomenon but a global challenge that affects cities in both the North and the Global South. In this context, international meeting spaces are more necessary than ever and the meeting in Barcelona served to exchange experiences from Barcelona to Vancouver, Marseille, Paris, Berlin, London and New York. All of them were analysed during the two sessions of the conference that took place on 10 and 17 May.

While the first day aimed to highlight the problem of gentrification and the expulsion of neighbors, the second day focused on mechanisms for regulating rental prices. The first cycle of the International Conference was attended by different experts from New York, Vancouver, London, Marseille and Barcelona. The session served to learn different proposals such as the control of rent prices or the increase the affordable rental housing stock.