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."

The promotion that advertised the 30 minutes This Sunday's report on the B9 compound in Badalona stated: "Everyone has an opinion, but we went inside." This was the report's great strength: the journalistic merit of having gained access to B9 before the eviction of the four hundred people living in squalor and understanding what the interior of that former high school was like, what was happening there, and how its occupants were organized.

“I’ve spoken to many journalists to try to change this situation. They’re gone now, but I’m still here. So no, I don’t want to talk, and I don’t want my picture taken,” says a weary man living in a tent under the C-31 bridge. Like him, many are fed up with denouncing the conditions they’ve been living in since being evicted from the abandoned B9 high school in Badalona a month ago. In the last 30 days, moreover, They have been especially cold and rainyThis has contributed to the strain on the dozens of people still living in the settlement, who are increasingly desperate. "Nobody is doing well in these conditions, it's very difficult. We're suffering physically, emotionally, and psychologically," explains a resigned Mamadou, who does agree to speak with ARA.

"There was nothing. What you'd find in a sports hall. I don't know if they expected people to sleep lying on the basketball court." Carles Sagués, spokesperson for Badalona Acoge, criticizes the meager resources the city deployed Sunday night to provide shelter for the homeless as temperatures dropped. The City Council opened the doors of the La Colina pavilion, but there were no beds or blankets, the activist explains. There was also no option to use the showers, nor were residents allowed to bring their own sleeping mats or bags "due to the possibility of contagion," the council argued, according to Sagués. The group of activists who visited the space even felt uneasy—"we almost didn't dare," Sagués admits—about informing the people still living in a settlement under a bridge on the C-31 highway, approximately an hour's walk from the La Colina pavilion, about this option. since they were evicted from the old B9 school More than two weeks ago.

The Catalan government (Generalitat) brought the relocation process for those evicted from the former B9 high school in Badalona to a close just hours before it was due to end in 2025. They have announced the opening of a "new phase" in the emergency program implemented by the Department of Social Rights and Inclusion in collaboration with social service organizations. From now on, according to sources within the department, the Badalona City Council's social services will be responsible for monitoring and making new referrals for the approximately forty people still sleeping under the C-31 bridge. The government and the alliance of social service organizations will form a group to design comprehensive inclusion plans for those evicted from the former high school in Badalona. These plans will address their immigration status, access to the job market, training, and healthcare. According to the Department of Social Rights, "the return to Badalona of those temporarily displaced as part of the emergency operation will be encouraged so that they can develop their inclusion plans within the municipality."

Also at Christmas, the activist Carlos Sagués She's been going back and forth, visiting the dozens of people who, after being evicted from the B9 building in Badalona, ​​continue to live in squalor under the C-31 highway bridge. Much to her chagrin, Sagués is the public face of Badalona Acull, the umbrella organization for the city's social service agencies, whose volunteers dedicate countless hours, physical and emotional effort, to caring for this group. All of this is done without any public aid or subsidies. The case of the occupants of the former high school, cleared by court order earlier this month, isn't Sagués's only cause; she's been known for years for her efforts to prevent [the eviction of these people]. evictions of the residents of Sant Roc

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.

Around seventy people continue to live in squalid conditions in Badalona, ​​under the C-31 highway and exposed to the effects of the cold, rain, and wind storm, ever since the mayor of Badalona, ​​Xavier García Albiol, evicted them from the building they had occupied for years, the former B9 high school, just before Christmas. This Saturday, the opposition municipal groups—PSC, ERC, En Comú Podem, and Guanyem—urged the mayor to "immediately activate Operation Winter" to try to alleviate the situation of these people. In a joint statement, the opposition accused García Albiol of not having any emergency plan in place and demanded that he reopen the Can Bofí Vell municipal shelter and implement residential solutions "given the critical situation the city is experiencing."

On a Sant Esteve marked by rain and cold, Ousseynou Touré complains that he has nothing hot to eat. Since being expelled from the abandoned B9 high school in Badalona, he has been living under the C-31 bridge in a tent, which is completely soaked due to the storm that has hit the city in the last two days. He is unwell, has the flu, and is worried that his health will worsen. "With this cold, I won't last much longer," he says. Like him, dozens of people who lived in the B9 until 10 days ago are still sleeping outdoors with no alternative to where they can go, beyond this refugee camp on the outskirts of one of the most populated cities in Catalonia. "We are in the 21st century, who should have to live like this? There isn't so much misery in Africa," he asks.

One of the most emblematic Christmas movies has always been, How wonderful it is to liveThe tender story of a man, George Bailey, who runs a kind of savings bank with a cooperative to build homes for the poor, and who is besieged by the town's richest man, Mr. Potter, whose dream is for the town to bear his name, Pottersville, for everything to be his, and for the poor to live in destitution. Frank Capra's film represents values, within the framework of humane capitalism, similar to those of... A Christmas Carol Dickens. Social responsibility, humility, empathy for the disadvantaged. Pottersville, which resonates ever more strongly in the present, is, on the other hand, the great metaphor for unfettered capitalism and inhumanity.

Under the C-31 bridge there are more questions than answersThe only certainty this Wednesday, Christmas Eve, is that dozens of those evicted from the former B9 high school in Badalona remain without relocation assistance from the Red Cross and the Department of Social Rights. Essentially, they are asking for more information to assess whether it's worth leaving their lives in this remote location for temporary shelter, even if only for two months. "Yesterday, everyone was rushing to get people onto the buses, but without explaining how or where, without giving these young people any information," one complains. Victoria Columba, from Regularization NowFor him, the plans "have arrived late, are poorly done, and are insufficient" to address the needs of all those affected.

Which We are living these days in Badalona.It is a reflection and consequence of the xenophobic rhetoric of the far right, which, in order to respond to people's discontent, seeks easy scapegoats in the weakest link of society: the most recent arrivals. The city's mayor, Xavier García Albiol, of the PP, He has behaved like an ultra-conservative, incendiary leader, blatantly linking immigration with insecurity and promoting and turning into a propaganda spectacle the eviction of a former educational institute occupied by people with nowhere to sleep.

In the morning, while doing that lovely thing of "decorating the house" for the celebration (it's more of a celebration than a party), as a declaration of intent that essentially says "You are welcome," we read the day's news in the ARA. Department of Social Rights has signed an agreement with the entities to provide shelter for the homeless of Badalona, ​​who lack it and have taken refuge under bridges. Every year, when the Institut d'Estudis Catalans chooses the neologism of the yearWe played a game where we tried to guess the most "beautiful" word in our language. Shelter It's one of those that always wins. Well then. It seems we'll put it into practice.

The eviction of the B9 high school in Badalona has caused a social upheaval in the city. For this reason, according to Directa, Mayor Xavier Garcia Albiol convened meetings with residents of the Sant Crist and Montigalà neighborhoods on Monday. In one of the meetings, as heard in an audio recording distributed by the same media outlet, the mayor asked the residents for "room to try to resolve the situation": "and if not, do what you think is best." Faced with the agitation of those present, Albiol urged caution: "I have a special recommendation for the younger people: don't say certain things because absolutely everything here is being recorded." "Imagine if something happens tonight," he asserted, "whoever said something should be burned down will be held accountable."

The opposition in Badalona City Council took advantage of the extraordinary plenary session called for this Wednesday to criticize Albiol for his handling of the eviction. The issue was not on the agenda, but parties ranging from the PSC to ERC, Badalona En Comú Podem, and Guanyem Badalona demanded explanations from the mayor regarding the "humanitarian crisis" facing the city. However, the mayor responded that "the issue is almost resolved, if not resolved." He added: "The residents are, in very general terms, satisfied with the actions of their government." Dolors Sabater, of Guanyem, described as "extremely serious" the fact that the PP government evicted the 400 people from building B9 without offering them any alternative housing in the middle of winter. Aïda Llauradó (En Comú Podem) blamed them for "creating chaos," "singling out and discriminating against migrants," and fueling "hate speech," while the Republican Àlex Montornès described the attitude toward the deported migrants as shameful and appealed to the spirit of the people. "The solution isn't to shut down accommodations in parishes or to call for burning down shelters," he emphasized. What most angered Albiol, however, was the intervention of the PSC representative, Christian Carneado, who thanked the Generalitat—also led by the Socialists—for acting in the face of the municipal government's "dereliction of duty" and "lack of humanity," and reminded everyone that the Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating the matter. "We should reflect on this and apologize," he told Albiol. The mayor, who agreed to speak because the issue is "current," responded that "things have started to work out well when there has been institutional collaboration. And I'll leave it at that," he said, suggesting that the Catalan government had not cooperated until now. Having said that, the Popular Party member doubled down on his defense of his actions regarding the B9 building. "It wasn't an action against irregular immigration or against immigrants. Badalona has immigrants, and they are welcome if they come to work. It was an action against illegal employment," he said. "I don't care if the squatters are black or white, handsome or ugly. This is our line of work, and we will continue to pursue it," he concluded. The Comuns and Podemos parties are filing a complaint against Albiol.

Jaume Asens, a Member of the European Parliament for the Comuns party, has also filed a complaint against the mayor of Badalona for the eviction of the former B9 Institute in Badalona. As he explained to Catalunya Ràdio, Asens accuses Albiol of denying public services for discriminatory reasons, hate crimes, disobeying a court order, and administrative malfeasance. "Albiol thinks Badalona is the United States and that he can act like Trump, but he cannot be above the law," he said on Wednesday. The MEP recalled that the court order authorizing the eviction stipulated that the mayor must provide an alternative, which the Badalona City Council has failed to do. In fact, Albiol has repeatedly stated that the council "would not offer accommodation or residential resources." This Tuesday The Prosecutor's Office has already asked the judge who authorized the eviction to request explanations from the City Council. Regarding what measures have been taken to protect the vulnerable people who have been evicted, Asens asserts that Albiol selectively denied assistance to the migrants based on their origin and social status, which would constitute a denial of public service on discriminatory grounds. The Comuns representative also points out that incitement to hatred does not require explicit expressions to be committed. He further argues that there is evidence of repeated disobedience in the Badalona city council's failure to effectively comply with the court order authorizing the eviction. Podemos has also filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office alleging that a "real and sufficient" residential reception system was not organized during the eviction. In a statement, the party recalls that the eviction was authorized by a judge "with express conditions" such as the principle of proportionality, the application of the municipal protocol for assisting homeless people, and the provision of effective social care, including the offer of residential resources. Podemos believes that these conditions have not been met and considers that crimes of failure to provide assistance, administrative malfeasance, and offenses against moral integrity may have been committed.

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After a week outdoors and facing the tension and Tension among a small part of the residents of Badalona Contrary to the lack of support for those evicted from the B9 building, the Department of Social Rights has signed an agreement with various organizations to provide shelter for those who, since Saturday, have been camped under the C-31 bridge and in the ten or so that had occupied the former municipal shelter of Can Bufí Vell, which has been closed for almost two years. The agreement guarantees accommodation for the next two months in different locations throughout Catalonia and also means abandoning the plan to house them at the Parish of Our Lady of Montserrat, the space that could not be opened on Sunday due to a blockade by a few dozen residents. "In the end, the minority won," sources from the third sector told ARA. Without the possibility of using the parish, all parties involved have been working to find new residential spaces and, finally, with the consensus of those affected and the mediation of the ombudsperson for grievances, Esther Giménez-Salinas, the operation to try to house the more than one hundred of the 400 people from Badalona began this Tuesday. Thus, the regional government has already emptied the municipal shelter and transferred those who had occupied it to various towns to escape the cold. It has also deployed a team with municipal social services and the Red Cross to rehouse those currently under the bridge in the Sant Roc neighborhood. The total number of people included is currently unknown as a count is still underway.

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The decision to force four hundred homeless people onto the streets with police batons has degenerated into an extremely serious social crisis in Badalona. There have been clashing demonstrations, attempted lynchings of those evicted from the B9 shelter by groups of residents, and the impossibility of housing a group of these people in a church, even with the assistance of the Red Cross, due to the real risk of violence. Amidst the deplorable nature of it all, the only positive outcome has been the exposure of a certain type of person, and a certain type of rhetoric, sadly common these days: those who hate what they call "do-gooderism."

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When things are done wrong, you can't expect them to turn out right. Tonight, In Badalona, ​​two groups of neighbors clashed at a distance, one group against the evicted immigrants and the other in favor.The audio in this video explains everything:

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Under the C-31 bridge, between Badalona and Sant Adrià de Besòs, all the realities of the world have converged, along with some of the miseries of this country. We find great universal classics: the second-to-last to arrive against the last, that is, the poor against the very poor, workers with precarious economies against those who aspire to one day have precarious jobs with papers, in a situation that amounts to an unexpected (and bitter) twist on what was once called class struggle. All of this is fueled by the deliberate conflation of poverty and crime, and the gospel of hate according to TikTok, disguised as concern for security.

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Two separate demonstrations, one for and one against the acceptance of those evicted from the B9 high school in Badalona, clashed this Monday afternoon in front of the gates of the municipal shelter that closed almost two years ago in the Montigalà neighborhood. On one side, hundreds of activists, convened by the Socialist Housing Union, defended the humanitarian assistance provided to the group of young migrants, about ten of whom have been using the shelter since becoming homeless a week ago. Separated by a cordon of riot police from the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), some 300 people shouted racist slogans demanding that they be evicted from Can Bofí Vell and not given shelter. "Let them go back to their country," was the least offensive slogan heard from the neighborhood gathering, where families with children were seen alongside far-right individuals who accused "blacks" of being criminals and creating insecurity. "We don't want them in the neighborhood," a neighbor stated, but her husband, standing beside her, also rejected the idea of opening any other space to care for them.

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