Netco

Urban Lab is partner of the european project NETCO – Network of Cities for Collaborative Housing that aims to promote peer learning and exchange among city practitioners and civil society individuals and organizations on collective housing formulas at local level, as a long-term policy solution to address racial, gender and generational disparities through participation in neighbours’ and community engagement initiatives.

In this project, collaborative housing refers to those initiatives where the inhabitants have an active role in the ongoing management of the residential community. Collaborative housing, in its different shapes, from cohousing to community land trusts, functions as civic engagement enhancer, promoting social cohesion in cities by including lower-income households who may be priced out of gentrifying neighbourhoods.

Through a series of online and in person events, the unique European social and affordable housing branch of the welfare states will be showcased, through a compilation of local best practices on collaborative housing. The objective is to highlight key policies and actions, with a practice-oriented perspective, to provide answers for city practitioners and civil society individuals and organizations.

Collective housing thus becomes a tool to reduce poverty and inequalities and to achieve other fundamental rights, especially for those groups that for various reasons face bigger challenges such as the young, migrants, women, and the elderly.