Barcelona will rehouse residents facing eviction in Vallcarca at Casa Orsola and two other blocks

BarcelonaBarcelona closed one of its most pressing cases on Tuesday. The city's ombudsman, David Bondia, announced the completion of mediation between the municipal government and the residents facing eviction from the occupied municipal buildings at 83 and 87 bis Vallcarca Avenue and 3 Farigola Street. As he explained at a press conference, of the 30 housing units, 28 met the vulnerability criteria. So far, half have accepted the offer, while the other half have not. Those who accepted the solution offered by the ombudsman will soon be rehoused in three apartments in Torre Baró, in the Gothic Quarter, and in one of the vacant units in Casa Orsola, in the Eixample district. None of them will remain in their original neighborhood. The ombudsman admitted that it had been impossible to find available apartments in Vallcarca or the Gràcia district. Despite closing the mediation process, the ombudsman expressed confidence that some of those who have so far rejected the offered solutions will eventually accept them. Regarding the 14 people who have not yet accepted the solution offered by the mediation, Bondia explained that they will remain in contact with social services and the organizations that support them. Among those who have rejected mediation are eight members of the same family unit (a married couple with two children and their four grandparents) and another married couple with two children. Bondia—who initiated the mediation at the request of the City Council as part of the pre-agreement between the PSC and Barcelona en Comú for negotiating the budget—has been pleased to have been able to offer housing solutions in six months for 28 of the 30 people who lived in these three occupied buildings. Regarding the two people who were not offered alternative housing, Bondia explained that they did not meet the vulnerability requirements to qualify for social housing.

"Agreements under threats"

Som Barri, the platform representing some of the Vallcarca residents affected by the area's urban planning, has been highly critical of the agreement, accusing the ombudsman of "whitewashing the City Council." According to the group's lawyer, Ester Murillo, those who agreed to be rehoused did so "under duress and threats," as they were warned that if they didn't accept the move, they could be evicted by the City Council at any moment. She also asserted that "they were presented with documents in Catalan that they didn't understand" or whose content was not explained to them. Murillo also criticized the fact that the mediation process was limited to finding new homes for the families involved in the blogs without even opening negotiations on possible changes to the planning regulations that could prevent the demolition of the three occupied buildings. The lawyer also denounced that the proposals made by the ombudsman and the City Council force those affected to leave Vallcarca and start their lives over in other neighborhoods of the city, requiring them to change schools in the case of the children. One of the residents who rejected the ombudsman and City Council's proposal is Carmen. In statements to reporters, she explained that she doesn't accept it because she currently lives with her partner, children, and grandparents in the same home, and the offer they received forces them to separate from the grandparents. Furthermore, she said, her children are very integrated into the neighborhood and the school and don't want to leave. "It's very difficult to integrate children into another school and make new friends," she lamented. In a subsequent statement, Som Barri and the Vallcarca Housing Union denounced "a lack of transparency and irregularities" in the ombudsman's actions. According to them, the municipal government "has used the ombudsman to prematurely close the process without providing it with the necessary time and resources." They also criticize the fact that two people were excluded from the process, learning of the mediation's end by telephone on Monday night "without argument or justification."