Eighty percent of the reports received by the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) and local police forces regarding squatting involve empty apartments owned by large landlords or investment funds. According to data published this Saturday by the Catalan News Agency (ACN), squatting has fallen by around 18% during the first 10 months of this year compared to the same period last year, although more attempted squatting incidents have been recorded. Mossos' Deputy Chief Executive, Alicia Moriana, told ACN that when squatting occurs in apartments owned by large landlords or investment funds, the police often encounter "some difficulty" in locating the property owner and getting them to file a report, a crucial step for police intervention. In fact, the police have even encountered cases where "not even the investment fund itself was aware that it owned" the occupied apartment, and others where the owners refrain from initiating legal proceedings due to the costs involved until the property becomes "financially attractive" to them.

Altruistically and unconditionally, 55-year-old Àlex Puy Ampurdanés has taken in four of the people who had occupied the former Civil Guard barracks in Sabadell. "If life had always been easy for me, perhaps it wouldn't have occurred to me to take anyone in. But with my experience, I couldn't say no," he explains. Àlex also lived on the streets for years, and he says he only managed to get back on his feet because someone helped him.

The Express eviction proposal has been the subject of debate in Congress This week, just a few days after a ruling by the Barcelona Court to set a common criterion for occupationsBeyond the measures that have garnered the most attention so far, the Barcelona Bar Association (ICAB) has presented a proposal to empower homeowners' associations to take civil action if the owner has failed to do so in the event of an occupation that creates problems with coexistence or health. This is a "very transversal" solution that goes beyond the criminal sphere, according to the dean of the Bar Association, Jesús Sánchez.

The offensive launched by Junts a month ago against home occupations took its first step in Congress this Tuesday. With the support of the PSOE, PP, Vox, and PNV, a bill has been passed that introduces modifications to civil and criminal legislation allowing for express evictions within 48 hours. "Common sense should prevent us from justifying that, in order to guarantee the human right to housing, we can violate the human right not to be arbitrarily deprived of our property," argued Junts MP Marta Madrenas, who admitted that there is an "alarmist" discourse about the occupations, but that this does not prevent it from being a "serious" problem and "it is serious."

"Two guys were fighting with a knife on the corner. They looked like two roosters. I was so scared that I ran away". Antònia walking past Blesa street in Barcelona's Poble-sec neighbourhood when she saw the fight, which ended with both men involved in a health centre. Neither sustained serious injuries; one was stabbed in the buttock and the other in the leg. According to police sources, the two men knew each other and are known in the area. The police are investigating the incident and no arrests have been made. Blood stains could be seen on the pavement an hour after the double stabbing. The blood stains go all the way to a large metal gate, where someone has already poured buckets of water to make them disappear.

The organisations for the right to housing have sent a clear message to Pere Aragonès's new Government, just twelve hours after the inauguration of the republican as president of the Generalitat and in the middle of the debate about the role of the Mossos d'Esquadra in this type of actions. Early this morning, housing activists have occupied Republican Left of Catalonia's (ERC) headquarters to protest against an eviction in the Bloc Llavors, a well-known building on Carrer Lleida, in Poble-sec district in Barcelona.