València

Caliu Urbà is the name of the pilot in València.

The pilot combines the provision of 8 apartments in the social public housing stock with a communal area on the ground floor overlooking the street. The investment focuses on fitting out the communal premises, which will be used for social support and community building, as well as supplying furniture to equip the apartments made available by EVHA. Social support is provided by Valencia Acull.

 

What "caliu" stands for?

According to the Valencian Normative Dictionary, "caliu" is defined as:

1.m. Mixture of glowing embers and ashes that is left on a bonfire once the flame is fully extinguished.

2.m. Pleasant ambiance, affectionate, emotional, passionate.

3 Under the "caliu" of (someone or something). Under its shelter or protection.

We feel that this deeply Valencian term, impossible to translate in another language, condenses powerfully what we are trying to build in the Valencian MERGING pilot project.

A widely agreed target population

From the very beginning of the MERGING project, a wide range of Third Sector and Public Sector entities working both, municipally and regionally have been an active part of the formulation, design, kick off and follow-up of what ultimately became the ongoing Caliu Urbà pilot project.

The Follow-Up Committee consists of representatives of 7 NGOs working with migrants and refugees, 2 representatives of regional public administration working on housing, 1 representative of the municipal Centre for Assistance to Migrants, and 1 representative of the national administration Welcoming Centre of Refugees. From that representative Follow-Up Committee, we came up collectively with the target population most in need of a specific and innovative assistance: the vast majority of applicants for International Protection in Spain whose applications become ultimately rejected.

Nevertheless, it was also important to ensure the legal robustness of the project to all the stakeholders and to its potential beneficiaries. That is why we nuanced the definition of the target population on people who had seen their IP applications previously rejected and that, at the moment of their embarkation on Caliu Urbà, had already achieved their temporary residence permit. Furthermore, although another criterium is that they are in a situation of risk of socioeconomic and housing exclusion, they have to have access to a minimum level of income to pay for their basic supplies and groceries, with no rent payment obligations at least for the first year of the pilot project.

A normalised, participatory and horizontal integration in a centric and gentrified neighbourhood

Map of the pilot assets

Assembly with beneficiaires organised on 12 July 2023

The aim of the pilot project is to enhance holistic integration and achievement of financial autonomy of beneficiaries, as well as to foster community building and exchange on the way. The goal is to offer beneficiaries decent and normalised housing as backbone from which to reach their socioeconomic stabilization required to accomplish their desired life projects in València. The framework to do so is based on a co-participatory approach, with periodic assemblies opened to all beneficiaries and a continuous open line of communication regarding any issues, conflicts or propositions.

The project also stresses the importance of promoting integration at the core of the city of València and within normalised building communities. That pretends to avoid the traditional tendency of public housing projects in Spain and the bias of private housing market (formal or informal), of relegating racialized and economically challenged migrants to geographically and symbolically peripheral areas. Areas that usually concentrate a structural lack of public services and equipment, precarious connectivity with nodes of work and administrative services and loopholes of exclusion and ghettification. Furthermore, this tendency is counteracted in one of many European city centres suffering from a steady high rise in housing prices fueled by touristification and gentrification.

17 beneficiaries have installed since June 2023 in the aforementioned flats (including 5 children and adolescents between 7 and 15 years old) from 6 countries (Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, Morocco, Ivory Coast and Pakistan). All of the participants are administratively regularized, with various backgrounds: one family is granted international protection, others have received humanitarian protection, and most have ultimately seen their application for refuge rejected and have recently regularised their administrative situation through social or labour rooting pathways according to Spanish Aliens Regulation. All of them were in a situation of high residential vulnerability and are currently in a situation of precariousness or risk of social and economic exclusion, which Caliu Urbà is aimed to proactively counteract.

A quick mapified overview on Caliu Urbà

December 2023

Participative workcamp for the refurbishment of the common space

 

March 2022

Visit of Quatorze in València to meet with University of València partners and explore the possibilities in this beautiful city.