A protected-housing building in the Vila Olímpica, built by the union’s own housing cooperative on land the city gave it. And among the neighbours, the union’s leadership.
That’s what this El Periódico piece by Xabier Barrena found in February 2011. The building was put up by Llar Unió Catalonia, UGT’s housing cooperative, a few metres from Avinguda d’Icària, on a municipal plot (the 22@ plan makes developers cede land to the city for public housing). The owners included UGT de Catalunya’s organisation secretary, Jordi Camallonga; the head of its public services federation, Ramon Cebrian; a manager of the municipal Housing Office, Enric Cremades; and the sister of the general secretary, Josep Maria Álvarez. All of them bought on the same day, 26 September 2008. The two best flats, about 90 m² with a terrace or a patio, went to the organisation secretary and the general secretary’s sister.
The union’s answer: it was a lottery. The cooperative awarded flats by points (years in the union, years on the waiting list) and then a draw among equals.
The article itself is careful: it found no irregularity in the documents. The point is a different one: protected housing exists for people who can’t afford the market, and here it ended up housing the people who ran the organisation building it. For scale: the cheapest similar flat for sale nearby, in 2011, after months of falling prices, cost 450,000 euros.
And the clock: protected flats can be requalified and sold freely 15 years after the award. For these, from September 2023.
How it’s supposed to work, by public register and lottery: Protected housing in Barcelona.
https://www.elperiodico.cat/barcelona/20110204/alts-carrecs-de-la-ugt-691755