Resilient Affordable Housing Strategies: A methodological approach to analyzing the impacts of Barcelona’s inclusionary housing policy on affordability in gentrifying neighborhoods

Housing unaffordability, gentrification and related residential displacement and exclusion are well-documented stresses that limit the resilience of a given urban place. The Barcelona City Council is dedicated to alleviating these stresses through a comprehensive strategy comprised of a variety of policy initiatives addressing housing affordability. As part of this broader strategy, the City Council has proposed a citywide inclusionary housing measure requiring 30 percent of all newly developed or significantly rehabilitated housing units to be dedicated as protected public housing. This paper fits within a larger research effort seeking to better understand the proposed initiative’s impacts related to its purported goal of public housing production as well as broader implications on the housing market. To do so, this paper provides a methodological framework for assessing these policy implications using neighborhood-specific economic feasibility modeling. Through the examination of inclusionary policies in comparable cities in the U.S. and Western Europe, this paper will form a basis from which to critique the proposed policy due to its inflexibility and lack of neighborhood-specific adaptability while maintaining that a well-designed inclusionary policy can generate significant public benefits to the City of Barcelona.