Social Rights creates exceptional aid against seasonal worker settlements

The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and 2030 Agenda has created an exceptional line of grants for city councils to rehouse seasonal workers living in irregular settlements. Order DCA/1079/2026, of October 7, published in the Official State Gazette on October 12, 2026 (BOE-A-2026-21231), establishes the bases for aid limited to the 2026 financial year and distributed through competitive bidding. It is signed by Minister Pablo Bustinduy Amador and enters into force the day following its publication.

The order responds to Judgment no. 672/2024 of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court, which annulled the Agreement of the Council of Ministers of November 22, 2022, by which Royal Decree 983/2022 was approved, and ordered these aids to be articulated through competitive bidding. The ruling is the immediate precedent for this line and justifies its approval despite not appearing in the department’s 2024-2026 Strategic Grant Plan.

The text is based on the annual reports of the Ombudsman since 2001—with special mention to those of 2020 and 2021—, the 2021 Annual Report of the Andalusian Ombudsman, the 2020 visit to Spain by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, and the joint Communication AL ESP 1/2020. Its declared purpose is to reinforce the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Strategy, with SDG 11 as the primary reference.

An exceptional line for local entities

Beneficiaries may include the local entities referred to in Article 3 of Law 7/1985, of April 2, affected by irregular settlements of seasonal workers, the public bodies dependent on them, and the groupings constituted under Article 11.3 of Law 38/2003, of November 17, General Law on Subsidies. In groupings, all entities are jointly and severally liable and must sign a prior agreement identifying the lead entity and the executing entities.

Management is centralized and corresponds to the Directorate General for the 2030 Agenda, while the processing falls to the Sub-Directorate General for Analysis and Strategy of the 2030 Agenda. The call for applications will be approved by the head of the Ministry and its summary will be published in the BOE; the award resolution must be published within a maximum period of six months from that summary, with negative silence if it is not issued.

What can be financed

The grants will cover construction, adaptation, and acquisition projects for properties located in non-segregated environments intended for temporary and non-permanent housing, as well as the adaptation of environments to ensure a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Each application must include a project that meets adequate housing standards and a plan for relocation, sociocultural inclusion, and transition to standardized housing.

The relocation plan will be designed based on:

• Family units with minors and individual and family diagnoses.
• Precarious health, education, and social service conditions.
• Permanence in the municipality.
• Other situations of special vulnerability accredited by municipal social services.
• Exit strategy from temporary housing with socio-labor insertion itineraries, mediation, accompaniment, and census registration.

Temporary mitigation actions, such as water points, sanitation, fire prevention, or social assistance offices, will also be valued.

Scoring, deadlines, and control

The evaluation, up to a maximum of 100 points, will be carried out by a Technical Valuation Commission chaired by a representative of the Directorate General for Agenda 2030, with a non-voting secretary and three members. The criteria are distributed as follows:

• Expected impact according to the social diagnosis: up to 20 points.
• Comprehensive perspective of sustainable development: up to 20 points.
• Design with accessibility, energy efficiency, and urban quality: up to 15 points.
• Effective participation of seasonal workers in their environment: up to 15 points.
• Equal treatment and prevention of discrimination: up to 10 points.
• Quality of the relocation plan: up to 10 points.
• Adaptation to other uses outside the season and previous experience: up to 5 points each.

The cutoff score will always be higher than 50 points. The application period will not exceed one month from the publication of the summary in the BOE, and the execution period will be three years from the day following the granting resolution.

Payments, justification, and repayments

The grants will be paid via advance payments without requiring guarantees and will be compatible with other aid provided that the total cost of the project is not exceeded. Justification shall be presented within three months: with a simple justification account if the aid is less than 60,000 euros, and with an audit report registered in the Official Registry of Auditors (ROAC) if it is equal to or greater than that amount. Indirect costs may reach 10% of the granted subsidy, except for public entities, and the audit report may not exceed 1.5% of the requested amount.

Partial non-compliance with execution exceeding 75% will result in a proportional reimbursement; below that threshold, the reimbursement will be total. Falsifying data, failing to meet the objectives, or failing to justify the aid will result in a 100% reimbursement.

The order opens a channel of direct state funding to municipalities with agricultural camps, which are required to present relocation plans with exit itineraries toward standardized housing. The exceptional nature of the line, limited to 2026, together with the requirement for competitive bidding, concentrates the distribution among city councils capable of accrediting a social diagnosis and execution capacity within three years.

Source: Official State Gazette, no. 253, October 12, 2026, Sec. III. Other Provisions, page 136267 (official reference: BOE-A-2026-21231).