Since the beginning, MOBA members from Croatia, Cooperative Open Architecture (ZOA) and Cooperative for Ethical Financing (ZEF) have been focused on a cooperative housing model based on public-civic partnership and the right to build as a path to increasing the non-profit housing stock, safeguarding from privatisation and speculation, and empowering citizens to self-organise for affordable housing solutions based on collective ownership.
Last month, their dedication to their vision and persistent contact with municipalities culminated in a formalised cooperation with the City of Pula, which marks the first instance of a municipality allocating funds from its own budget to the development of a cooperative housing project in the CSEE region.
This breakthrough comes after years of advocacy, education and work on the recognition of cooperative housing in Croatia.
The first city to recognise this model of affordable housing was the City of Križevci, leading to Križevci, ZOA and ZEF partnering up for an ESF project “Stimulating the development of cooperative housing in Croatia” that set the groundwork for further development and national-level advocacy that contributed to the inclusion of support for cooperative housing in the National Housing Policy Plan until 2030 adopted earlier this year.
While cooperation with Križevci is ongoing and a building permit has been secured, the City of Pula has now allocated funds from its own budget for the preparation of a cooperative housing project, with our Croatian members set to provide technical and capacity-building support to both the city and future housing coop tenants.
The model of cooperative housing in cooperation with local self-governments units that ZOA and ZEF advocate, consult, and educate towards is particularly replicable, scalable and highly relevant, especially as five Croatian cities are working with the European Investment Bank to support the development of affordable housing and an approach to access to finance.
MOBA continues to closely support its members in their efforts to mainstream cooperative housing in Croatia. We can’t wait to witness the long-term effects the project will have on the urban and social landscape of Pula and integrate this experience into our regional approach.
MOBA in Pula – where we were established in 2020 as the first European Cooperative Society (SCE) in Croatia and, admittedly, one of our favorite locations for MOBA meetings.
Public presentations of the cooperative housing solution in the local and regional context, held in Pula with interested citizens and local stakeholders in 2023.