Housing Network

BACKGROUND

INTRODUCTION

The Housing Network of Cooperatives of the Americas seeks to create a form of meeting, face-to-face and/or virtual, for organizations and individuals linked to cooperatives and other similar associative modalities, who work on the issue of social housing by adopting the tools of the self-management, participation, collective effort and solidarity. It may be integrated by first degree organizations, federations and confederations, as well as individuals.

The Network seeks to generate a permanent communication channel on these issues, which allows promoting the advancement of organizational, legal and financial frameworks for access to adequate housing and habitat in our countries; share information; encourage increased participation, in its most varied forms, both within social organizations and in their relations with the State and society, and any other action that contributes to strengthening this modality.

GENERAL PURPOSE

The fundamental objective of the Housing Network of Cooperatives of the Americas is to strengthen relations between those who are working for social housing in our America through cooperatives and other associative forms that share the same principles, to promote the development of this sector.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

1) Share information, experiences and initiatives that can be implemented and that benefit the sector in the different instances.
2) Influence the actions of public and private decision-makers, and especially in determining the policies of national, regional and local governments, for the best development of the sector.
3) Disseminate the legal frameworks, financial channels, organizational forms and others, which allow establishing an adequate context for the development of the sector in each one of the countries;
4) Promote the recognition of cooperatives, and in particular of housing cooperatives, as an alternative social and business model.

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE

Due to its nature, values, principles and characteristics, cooperativism is an effective alternative for the sustainable development of communities, and contributes directly and participatively to improving the quality of life of peoples. In particular, in the field of housing, it has made it possible to achieve substantial progress, especially with regard to the habitat of the lower-income sectors.
The cooperatives have committed to comply with the Millennium Agenda, to be consistent with the idea that resources are finite and that the environment is the legacy we leave our children.
As home builders we do not agree that the city is managed as a great market of opportunities. We defend equitable access, the democratic use of space, and the committed and active participation of the State as regulator and promoter of the right to decent housing and habitat.

We also defend the conception of decent housing and habitat and access to urbanized land as a matter of rights, and their consideration as such and not as a commodity subject to financial speculation, and we support the need to decommodify them.

In particular, we understand that it is of great importance to promote the acceptance, formalization and development of different forms of ownership, which are appropriate to the different circumstances of the recipients and to the legislation of each country, overcoming the reductionist concept that the only valid one is individual private property. and exclusive. Cooperativism, especially, has many successful examples to contribute in this search for new paths, such as the right of use and enjoyment.

We are also convinced of the importance of considering the gender dimension in housing and habitat problems, as well as preferential attention to the problems of young people, the elderly, people living in poverty, population rural, etc., and the unrestricted defense of non-discrimination for any reason.

These and other concepts contained in the declarations and resolutions of ACI and in particular of the 2016 Montevideo Housing Seminar, as well as the guiding principles of cooperatives, are the guidelines that guide our work and the axes around which the Network is articulated.

This tool, in which we include not only those who formally adopt the name "cooperative" but also others who, in the region, under different names, share the same ideas of solidarity and the same methodology, can be considerably strengthened through the union of the efforts that are made in the different countries, the knowledge of their experiences and the exchange of their knowledge.

For this reason, in the Seminar on Housing held as part of the IV Summit of Cooperatives of the Americas, which took place in Montevideo in November 2016, the participating entities resolved to create a Housing Network at the national level. of the Americas, instructing the Uruguayan representatives at said event, as guests of the meeting, to take the necessary steps to make said conformation effective.

This Network has interest and objectives in itself, but it can also become, in the longer term, the basis for forming the Housing Committee of Cooperatives of the Americas. The important fact that a two-day Workshop on Housing was held for the first time at the IV Summit, with significant participation, and that important conclusions were reached by consensus, has been an important motivator for create these instances, which will strengthen and deepen the exchange of experiences on the subject of the different organizations grouped in ACI.