The Berri-Otxoak exclusion platform denounced on 2 April in the Basque Government Delegation in Bilbao the decision taken by the Basque Housing Service, Etxebide, to make it more difficult to access housing and room rental aid. The Decree establishing the new Housing Act provides for the suspension of the Supplementary Housing Benefit of Lanbide and the Emergency Aid for Social Services. Instead, the Economic Housing Benefit will be the only rental aid in force.

The requirements for access to the Economic Housing Benefit will also be modified, requiring three years of enrollment in the Etxebide Basque Housing Service to access aid that until now did not require any seniority. The Berri-Otxoa platform has strongly criticised the government’s decision to “ask for registration in the Basque Housing Service for three years has serious consequences. This means that hundreds of families receiving the Supplementary Housing Benefit or the Lanbide Emergency Aid will not be able to access them.”

Today the new Decree will implement the reductions to access the Economic Housing Benefit, which “will affect at least 35,000 families”. The government has also cut aid of EUR 30 to deal with “disproportionate rentals and excessive promotions”, and Berri-Otxoa has denounced to the Basque Government headquarters that these decisions “violate access to decent housing”, “What options do the welcoming people and families of a single floor or room have to live independently? The answer is clear, none.”