The Confederation of Tenants' Unions (CSI) has released this Monday "Homes to Live In", a plan for a deep reform of the housing system that proposes, among other changes, amending the Constitution so that the right to housing takes priority over freedom of business when both clash.
The confederation has made public its initiatives just two days before the general strike of November 11, called under the slogan "General strike for housing and the cost of living", and urges to support it "massively". The text, according to what the Tenants' Union states, seeks to structurally transform the current model in order to place housing at the service of collective needs and not of private profitability.
Among the proposals is that vacant homes, starting from the third property and regardless of ownership, be temporarily incorporated into the public stock of social-rent housing through an obligatory grant of use. It also proposes banning tourist housing in municipalities where rental prices have soared and enabling fiscal figures to curb the hoarding of real estate.
With the aim of reaching a public stock of one million rental homes, the CSI suggests obtaining around 20 billion euros per year through a reform of the Wealth Tax, strengthening the tax on large fortunes, and integrating capital income into the general base of the personal income tax (IRPF). The leases for this stock could not exceed 20% of household income.
In terms of regulating leases, the organization calls for contracts that are automatically renewable for periods of between five and seven years and a maximum price index linked to the population's income, so that rent does not exceed 25% of the median rent in each neighborhood.
The program also includes a specific statute for tenant people that recognizes the right to unionize, to collective bargaining with property owners, and to rent strikes without the risk of eviction. The CSI also proposes, in addition, banning evictions without offering an adequate housing alternative, repealing the Law of Gagging (Ley Mordaza), and declaring evictions companies illegal.
The spokesperson for the confederation, Aldo Reverte, has emphasized that the document is a commitment "govern whoever governs" and has stressed that its aim is "to change this country's housing model from the bottom up, so that housing is a right and not an asset that is speculated on." "On November 11 we say it by stopping," he concluded.