Calpe Town Council plans to tackle one of the most pressing problems in the municipality: the lack of housing. To this end, it will hire an external specialist firm to draw up the Municipal Housing Plan, a document that will study the housing situation in the town and propose a programme of measures to address the problems identified in the assessment.
The aim of this initiative is to facilitate access to decent housing for citizens. The lack of housing in Calpe has become a structural problem in the municipality, aggravated by the increase in tourist accommodation and prices, compounded by the fact that the municipality has a limited and highly urbanised territory. The situation has led to sectors such as tourism being unable to find workers due to a lack of affordable housing.
This strategic plan will be a roadmap with short-, medium- and long-term measures and is intended to have a cross-cutting approach, i.e. urban, social and economic, and to be adapted to the characteristics of the municipality.
In this regard, the study of the housing situation provided for in the plan should include an analysis of the population and the housing needs of families residing in Calpe, especially those used as primary residences, with a specific section on people and groups at risk of social and residential exclusion, as well as on the situation regarding evictions. Likewise, an analysis of the housing stock in Calpe will be carried out, reflecting its state of repair, tenure (rental, ownership, transfer of use, etc.), as well as empty or disused dwellings and second homes. Inadequate housing and substandard housing will also be included, and an analysis of the housing market and its supply (volume, regimes, prices, type and location, among other parameters) will be carried out. Special consideration will be given to the situation of social housing.
The assessment will also include an analysis of how urban and territorial planning influences access to housing and whether it really meets the housing needs of the municipality.
With all this information, strategies will be established to carry out an action programme aimed at ensuring that citizens have access to decent housing that is suitable for their needs, in economic conditions that are proportional to their household income.
‘We are particularly excited to begin this process. It is only the first step, but it is a very necessary one to guarantee the right to decent housing for families and young people in Calpe,’ said Housing Councillor Mireia Ripoll, who is committed to implementing “an innovative and sustainable management model that goes beyond new construction, taking into account that Calpe is a municipality with limited land and highly developed urban planning”.