Overcrowding

CONTEXT

According to Law 18/2007 on the right to housing, overcrowded homes are those in which there is an excessive number of people in accordance with the housing services and the surface area standards per person established in Catalonia, with the exception of cohabitation units linked by family ties, provided the excess occupation does not lead to manifest non-compliances with the health and hygiene conditions and does not generate serious cohabitation problems with the immediate environment.

Living in these conditions may generate tension and conflicts in relation to cleaning, the use of common services, personal relationships between members of the various cohabitation units (personal animosity and friendship), different forms of communication and cultural differences. These everyday tensions may escalate and result in altered states of mind like depression and stress-related disorders.

Overcrowding has repercussions on the health of the people who experience it. José Luis Oyón established in his study “Barcelona 1930: un atlas social” [Barcelona 1930: a Social Atlas] a direct relationship between overcrowding and the mortality rate. At that time, more than eight people sharing a home resulted in a mortality rate of 6.02%, while the rate for one to three people in the same space was 4.28%.

The overcrowding of a home, apart from being a stress factor, may be related to deficient hygiene conditions, excessive damp and a lack of ventilation. These situations cause poor health conditions and favour respiratory diseases like asthma, bronchitis and tuberculosis, among others, and the proliferation of insects and rodents. In short, overcrowding has adverse effects, directly or indirectly, on people’s health (see 5.4.6. Sanitary Housing Conditions).

OBJECTIVE

Detect and resolve cases of overcrowding.
Ensure the suitable use of the dwelling and the protection of its occupants.
Additionally, stimulate the improvement and maintenance of housing in general.

PROPOSALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Proposals and recommendations for the administration

Identification of the problems

Although it is possible to identify problems based on statistical data, they do not often reflect the true situation, and therefore, it is considered more suitable to identify cases based on complaints lodged by the community itself, when possible overcrowding generates cohabitation problems, or reports from public administration inspectors and representatives of the authorities in general.

To prevent overcrowding situations, the Government of Catalonia and local bodies must approve inspection programmes and, in the case of areas with a high concentration of overcrowded homes, the competent authorities can delimit them and declare areas of right of first refusal and right of redemption and areas of conservation and renovation.

Intervention mechanisms

The competent administration, if it is aware that a dwelling or apartment building is being used in an anomalous manner, must open an administrative file in order to issue the instructions necessary to determine, understand and verify the facts before ruling on the case.

With regard to the definition of intervention mechanisms it is essential to identify whether there is a profit motive or someone is profiting from the precarious situation of other people, or if on the contrary the overcrowding situation responds to the residential vulnerability of people who own the property or who live in this situation without the owner’s intervention.

If the overcrowding situation is not linked to a profit motive, the following actions are recommended:

Intervene through mediation in the resolution of conflicts with the residents association.
Activate municipal mechanisms to allow those affected to access suitable housing, which may be public, linked to public programmes (such as the rental pool) or through support to access the private market.

If the overcrowding situation is linked to a profit motive:

Impose penalties and establish preventive measures based on detected infractions.
Declaration of the inhabitability of the dwelling. This will mean an eviction order and the closure of the dwelling. In this case, it will be necessary to offer residential solutions to the residents, which may be through the owner, in the cases in which it is legally possible, or through the administration, when the owner has no obligations in this respect. If it is necessary to restore the required habitability status to the overcrowded dwelling, the competent authority may provide subsidies to execute the necessary repair work.

REFERENCE EXPERIENCES

Information only available in Catalan

Decret de Sobreocupació – Lleida. Decret d´alcaldia que resolt impulsar actuacions orientades a eradicar les situacions de sobre ocupació dels habitatges de la ciutat, que constitueix una utilització anòmala dels mateixos i un incompliment de la funció social de la propietat.
Pla d'accions per a l'habitatge 2013 – 2015 – L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. Pla d´acció que estableix com a mesura d´acció el control de la sobreocupació dels habitatges i de les situacions d´infrahabitatge.

LEGISLATION

Llei 18/2007, de 28 de desembre, del dret a l'habitatge. Articles 3, 5, 41, 43, 69
Decret 141/2012, de 30 d'octubre, pel qual es regulen les condicions mínimes d'habitabilitat dels habitatges i la cèdula d'habitabilitat
Ordenança municipal d´activitats i intervenció integral de l´administració ambiental de Barcelona.
Llei 39/2015, del procediment administratiu comú de les administracions públiques
Llei 24/2015, del 29 de juliol, de mesures urgents per a afrontar l'emergència en l'àmbit de l'habitatge i la pobresa energètica.