Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni has launched a transcontinental alliance of city leaders to tackle the global housing crisis, as reported by Metropoliabierta. The initiative, 'Mayors for Housing', now includes over 25 European cities and has expanded to North and South America, with mayors from New York, Toronto, and Santiago de Chile joining the coalition.
Collboni's 'right to stay' agenda, which includes a rent cap that has reduced average lease prices by 4.4% and a ban on tourist rentals set to return 10,000 homes to the residential market by 2028, has become a model for international urban policy. At the recent HOWS Barcelona congress, he called for a global network of mayors to secure external funding and shape housing policy at the European and international level.
"There has been a strong response from the United States. We don't want more confrontation or lies, we want to talk about our problems," Collboni told Metropoliabierta.
Transatlantic Momentum
Supported by cities including Amsterdam, Athens, Copenhagen, Lyon, Lisbon, Paris, and Rome, the alliance aims to pressure EU institutions for greater municipal access to housing funds. The recent Democratic wave in US midterm elections has been seen as an opportunity to strengthen local-level cooperation, with Collboni warning that housing instability threatens democracy by fueling populism.
Atlanta’s mayor has since joined the coalition, reinforcing calls for cities to lead the response to housing unaffordability.
Sources: Metropoliabierta.
