EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - “A Sky without Cardboards”: re-accommodation and integration of people living in shacks in Madrid

“A Sky without Cardboards”: re-accommodation and integration of people living in shacks in Madrid

Introduction

The main objective of the program is to re-accommodate families living in shanty towns or Special Districts in areas that make integration possible.

Problem

Between 1978 and 1987, Madrid developed the most ambitious plan for the eradication of substandard housings in Europe. However, 2,600 families, most of them of Gypsy Ethnicity, were left out of the process and re-accommodated in Special Districts, invented ghettos that caused severe problems of social exclusion

Description

In order to address the problem of shanty towns, Madrid Regional Government created in 1998 the Institute for Re-Accommodation and Social Integration.

The main objectives of this programme are:

Provide the 1,855 families living in shacks and the 972 families that were re-accommodated in Special Districts with an adequate housing.
Dismantle Special Districts and shanty towns.
Develop an integral social mentoring program.
Mediate in the destination neighbourhoods to promote intercultural coexistence.

Approach

The development of the program was heavily influenced by the fact that most of the families were of Gypsy Ethnicity, a social group that suffers social discrimination in Spain. Thus, some of the re-accommodations were confronted by associations of neighbours and local administrations. The solution was to assign a team of social workers to monitor the adaptation of the families and mediate in open conflicts. The lack of social housings was also a problem; the solution found was buying complementary housings in the second hand market.

Results

Between 1998 and 2003, the main results were:

1,256 families living in shanty towns were re-accommodated in diverse areas of the Region of Madrid.
4 Special Districts were dismantled.
20 shanty towns were dismantled and the families re-accomodated.
8 Community Promotion Centers and 2 Labour Intermediation Centers were opened.

Contact info

Institute for Re-Accommodation and Social Integration
C/ Antonio Calvo, 6
28027 Madrid
Spain
Phone: +34 91 405 96 30
Fax: +34 91 326 22 04
http://www.madrid.org/cobras_publicas/iris/iris.htm

Project start date

12/11/2006

Links

Library "Cities for a More Sustainable Future" (in Spanish)

Document type

case

Themes

Urban Policy > Housing > Housing policy

Keywords

Homelessness

Institutional characteristics
Regional government