The Public Prosecutor's Office warned that the Badalona City Council failed to fulfill its obligation to provide emergency assistance to the homeless people it evicted from the former B9 high school. Specifically, it lacked a protocol for assisting the homeless through municipal services and also failed to apply the established methodology for such situations, which would have involved offering support to those affected, referring them to available residential resources, and providing follow-up care. In a document signed on March 10, the prosecutor warned the court that authorized the eviction that the council had not acted in accordance with its orders. When endorsing the eviction of the occupants of B9, the judge of the Administrative Court No. 11 of Barcelona specified that, given the vulnerable nature of the situation, it was necessary to take "the measures stipulated in the municipal services' protocol for assisting the homeless and provide them with emergency social assistance." Following this order, Following the eviction, the Public Prosecutor's Office asked the city council to clarify what measures it had taken to protect vulnerable people. who lived in building B9. The City Council's response, as described by the prosecutor, was "a report that essentially states that such a protocol is lacking." The council also pointed out that "they would not be obligated to do so under current legislation, but that they use a methodology for situations involving homelessness, social exclusion, and housing emergencies."

On a vacant lot near the Treball Digne bridge in Barcelona's Sant Andreu district, carts piled high with suitcases, bicycles, and other personal belongings are piled up. The owners have hastily gathered their possessions and remain nearby, sitting silently on the bridge itself or at its ends, or gathered on benches, waiting to find out where they can go for shelter. They are more than a hundred people who lived in two shantytown settlements located on land owned by Adif (the Spanish railway infrastructure manager), which a large contingent of Barcelona's Guardia Urbana (municipal police) and the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) evicted and dispersed this Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. The Barcelona City Council has reported that the operation was prompted by a Fire Department report concluding that there was a "very serious and imminent" risk to the people living in these conditions, leading to the decision to intervene "urgently," as there was a "risk to their lives." According to Barcelona Fire Chief Sebastià Massagué, a fire broke out last weekend in one of the shacks. "The report simply emphasizes the safety of the people and highlights the risk of anyone else being trapped," he said. 126 people were evacuated from the shacks, located on a plot of land in the Sagrera area, four of whom were women, according to Sant Andreu councilor Marta Villanueva. There were no minors among them. The area, with about forty shacks, contained combustible materials, including waste, electrical appliances, tents, propane tanks, portable stoves, and small fires, all of which increased the risk of fire and, therefore, rapid spread. In fact, Massagué said that some people were even sleeping in an electrical substation. "We wanted to prevent further casualties," he explained.

Celestino Merino is 77 years old and has lived in his apartment on Salou Street in Sants for 45 years. However, life hasn't been easy for him in the last year: seven months ago he was widowed, and at the same time, the real estate company Second House bought his building and now, he says, they want to evict him from the apartment where he has always lived with his wife. One loss is compounded by another, which is yet to come: "I've lived my whole life here, with her, and now it seems I'll have to leave." His eyes well up with tears, but he accepts that if the real estate company doesn't agree to negotiate, he'll have to say goodbye to all his memories in a few days. "It will be hard, I'll miss the neighborhood a lot," he admits. This retired pastry chef is the oldest resident affected by the project launched by Second House, which has also bought two other buildings in the Catalan capital, one on Tapioles Street and the other on Cortines Street. But Celestino's case is not unique: in total, there are almost a dozen neighbors whose rental contracts the real estate company has decided not to renew when they expire, and they face imminent eviction.

Not even the statue of Goya could be removed from Plaça Sant Jaume. The housing movement, which gathered in the center of Barcelona to demand the right to a roof over one's head, prevented the truck from taking away the giant bust of the Aragonese painter, placed in the middle of the square for the Spanish film awards ceremony held in Barcelona. At least, until the end of the demonstration under the slogan "Enough excuses. Apartments are for living," which filled more than half of the Barcelona square. The square can hold about 6,000 people when full, but according to the Barcelona police, the protest drew 1,100. Protests by social organizations followed. from the agreement between Junts, PP and Vox In Congress, protesters sought to overturn Pedro Sánchez's social measures package, which included an anti-eviction law. A vote in Madrid that will leave many "vulnerable families" homeless has prompted Enric Aragonès, spokesperson for the Rental Companies Union, to denounce the situation: "If we keep repeating that the economy is improving, but we continue to live worse and worse, we already know who is taking advantage of this frustration; it's fertile ground for extremism." The mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, and Míriam Nogueras, spokesperson for Junts in Congress, have borne the brunt of the criticism. Much of the frustration of the protesters, who see how increasingly difficult it is to live with dignity in their city, has been directed at them. The Socialist mayor is criticized for "rolling out the red carpet" for "investment funds," as one banner proclaimed. "Collboni, no matter how much he gestures, is doing the same thing as Abascal," denounced Marta Espriu of the Housing Union Confederation. Nogueras was remembered as a representative of a "right wing" that has sided "with employers" and whose vote is pushing many vulnerable families toward homelessness. "150,000 tenants live in fear of when their contracts will end," lamented Espriu, who estimated that 13,000 families could be affected by the end of the moratorium voted on in Congress by Junts and the Spanish right and far right. Among pensioners and representatives of the left demanding an end to speculative housing purchases was also a group of young people from a recreation center in Gràcia. Thirty teenagers who also called for a better future. “We won’t have decent housing when we grow up, and we won’t be able to live in our neighborhood,” lamented 17-year-old Guim. “We see that housing prices are rising, and with the salaries we’ll have, we won’t be able to buy a place or move out on our own. Never,” added 16-year-old Bruna. “You can’t speculate with a person’s rights. If you can’t leave someone who is dying unattended, you can’t leave someone without a home either. Let them make a business of other things, let them sell nougat or cars,” concluded Biel, one of the youngest in the group at 15.

The decision of Congress repeal the omnibus decree this Tuesday The measure, which included a series of social steps to help vulnerable families, such as extending the moratorium that suspended evictions for vulnerable groups, has a side effect for landlords who had previously seen these proceedings suspended. The lower house's rejection of the so-called social shield, which was opposed by the PP, Vox, and Junts parties, means that landlords can now immediately request the lifting of the eviction suspension and claim the financial compensation they are entitled to for lost income. However, the process will not be automatic, as lifting the suspension will take two months for all landlords and up to four months for large property owners. Although an extraordinary provision is planned to allow landlords to request this compensation, the deadline to do so is Monday, February 2nd. Therefore, the Association of Rental Property Owners (Asval) has recommended that landlords submit their applications before that date, even if they do not have a complete file, as this does not invalidate the applications. These applications must demonstrate that the eviction suspension was due to the Royal Decree. The compensation amount can be determined based on rental price reference indices or other benchmarks. If the rent was lower, the compensation will be equivalent to the lost rent, and housing expenses incurred by the landlord during that time will also be taken into account. In any case, compensation cannot be requested until three months have passed since the suspension order, as this is the period social services have to offer the vulnerable family alternative housing. "It is important to verify that there is a court order suspending the eviction, in which the judge justifies their decision based on the tenant's proven economic vulnerability. If the suspension is for other reasons (for example, procedural ones), or is issued by decree, the compensation may be denied," Asval reports.

A Barcelona court will have the final say on the eviction of a tenant in the Gràcia neighborhood of Barcelona. The investment fund that owns the apartment has taken the case to court to force the eviction with the aim of converting the property into a colivingThis is number 14 on Sant Agustí street, where there are already four apartments that are colivingsSeveral files and fines have long since confirmed that The work to divide the apartments had been done illegally.

Around twenty residents gathered this morning in front of number 24 Tigre Street, in Barcelona's Raval neighborhood, to protest the second eviction attempt against seven families from the building. This time, however, the neighbors' solidarity wasn't enough, and the court officials and the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) carried out the court order and evicted the affected residents, including several teenagers and a 90-year-old woman, according to the Ciutat Vella Housing Union. Municipal sources clarified that the 90-year-old woman was not evicted, although she is among those affected. The union maintains that the seven affected families had valid rental contracts and were up-to-date on their payments. In fact, the same sources added that "officially," it was a "precautionary eviction following a ruling that considers the building to be at risk of collapse." However, the union maintains that there are "two reports prepared by the fire department" that contradict the ruling and certify that the building is sufficiently stable and "there is no risk of collapse." In fact, according to the union, one of the biggest "contradictions" in this case is that the eviction is due to an "alleged risk" to the families, but, on the other hand, three other families (four, according to the City Council) still live in the building and will not be evicted because "they have previously been involved in legal proceedings."

The Catalan government and social organizations continue to relocate the people who were evicted on December 17th from the former B9 high school in Badalona without the City Council, under Mayor Xavier García Albiol, offering them any alternative housing. This Sunday morning, the Department of Social Rights reported that temporary accommodation has been found for another six people, bringing the total number of those rehoused to 153. The Minister of Social Rights and Inclusion, Mònica Martínez Bravo, explained to RAC1 that the government's intention is to continue working with other administrations and social organizations to find dignified solutions for all the particularly vulnerable people who had been sheltering in tents and cardboard boxes under the C-highway bridge. The B9 building had housed around 400 people, but many of them decided to leave the former high school a few days before the police operation to avoid being identified by the officers.

The extension of the social safety net currently in force, which expires on December 31, is beginning to take shape. After the Spanish government announced that current subsidies for public transport will be maintained, although the extent and duration remain unclear, EH Bildu has reached an agreement with Pedro Sánchez's government to also extend the ban on evicting vulnerable families without alternative housing throughout 2026. Social movements advocating for the right to housing had been lobbying for weeks to maintain this measure, which was approved during the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the ban on cutting off basic utilities (electricity, water, and gas) in vulnerable households and the social electricity voucher have also been extended for another year, as announced this Monday by the Basque nationalist party. In a press release, EH Bildu stated, "It values the agreement reached [this Monday] after intense negotiations in recent weeks. [...] It will allow us to continue offering much-needed protection to thousands of people going through a difficult social and economic situation."

The situation of the hundreds of people evicted from Badalona is terrible. Terrible for them, uprooted and homeless in the dead of winter, condemned to the underworld of crime and addiction, with a future as black as soot. But they are not the only ones who demand our attention: their presence is a headache for the residents of Badalona who arrived before them, who mostly live a precarious daily life, with inadequate public services, and who now only need to encounter bewildered and/or violent newcomers, who are of other races. This challenges some of us who try to subjugate them, and which the right and far right try to bring to the surface to become an ideology, a worldview and a vision of people.

Today is Friday; moreover, it is the Friday on which the Christmas school holidays begin and on which we enter these two hazy days of life in slow motion and from which we will wake up, as if we had hibernated, the day after Three Kings Day.

This Friday morning, Haji woke up to good news and bad news. The good news is that his dog, Tupac, will have a roof over his head. The Foundation for Advice and Action in Defense of Animals (FAADA) in Barcelona will take care of him. The bad news is that he will remain homeless. Until Wednesday, his home was the B9 high school in Badalona. Evicted, all he had was a corner in a tent, right in the square across the street, to avoid sleeping rough. Now he doesn't even have that.

Some of the 400 people evicted yesterday in Badalona They spent the night on the street.

Some of the 400 people evicted yesterday in BadalonaThey spent the night on the street

Mamadou's eyes well up with tears as he says aloud, "There's no plan." It's almost nine in the evening. More than 12 hours have passed since the police began evicting the abandoned B9 high school in Badalona, where until recently some 400 people lived. Now, more than a hundred are gathered in the open area in front of the building, with nowhere else to go. Many didn't sleep last night, and those who did woke up in the early hours, on high alert, knowing they were about to experience something terrible. one of the largest evictions ever carried out in Catalonia

Dozens of people with nowhere else to go are sunbathing in the Sant Roc neighborhood of Badalona. They do so amidst hastily made makeshift bags, old suitcases, and rusty bicycles. It's all they have. They are some of the residents of the abandoned B9 high school, where Until recently there were more than 400 occupantsMost of them undocumented migrants who had already been in other settlements in the city. This Wednesday they were evicted again, as had already happened with the occupied warehouses where they lived before.

The mayor of Badalona, ​​Xavier García Albiol, has managed to pass himself off, in the eyes of many, as a man of order, a zealous guardian of civility and courtesy. He is right-wing and Catholic, as proclaimed by the leaders of his party, Feijóo and Ayuso, in their renewed crusade for Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Spain, against the Moorish influence brought to us by the woke And the left-wing bondholders, who, as we know, are always around. To demonstrate that his devotion is true and profound, Mayor García Albiol erects a Christmas tree every year that is the largest in Catalonia, or in Spain, or in the solar system.

This morning, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) evicted the building that formerly housed the B9 high school in Badalona.

Maricarmen is an 87-year-old resident of the Ibiza neighborhood in Madrid, next to Retiro Park, which has become one of the most expensive areas in the Spanish capital. She had Wednesday, the 29th, circled in red on her calendar: after 70 years living in the same house, a court was planning to evict her. Hours earlier, however, the Madrid Tenants' Union announced the judge's decision to halt the eviction due to the lack of alternative housing. "Neighborhood pressure has succeeded in suspending the eviction," the union celebrated Tuesday night in a statement. Although it is a temporary suspension, it provides a small lifeline for a resident who feared being evicted from her family home overnight because of a sexist law from the Franco regime. "We cannot allow speculators to throw us out of our homes. It's not fair," Maricarmen denounced on social media.

The Sitges Club de Mar was emptied this Tuesday against the clock after the State requested the eviction of the entity, which was finally upheld by the courts. This is the outcome of a dispute that the Sitges club has been waging with the Ministry of Ecological Transition (MITECO) for months in an attempt to prevent the demolition of the space. Finally, the club must comply with the notification they received last Thursday, October 16, and leave.