Barcelona will buy the block threatened by a macro-eviction in Sant Andreu

BarcelonaAfter half a thousand people spent twelve hours trying to stop it, the mass eviction at number 74 Carrer Llenguadoc, in the Sant Andreu district, will finally not take place. The Barcelona City Council has announced that it has reached an agreement in principle with the owner of the building to purchase it. The eviction affected about fifty people and was scheduled to be carried out at 8 a.m., but it was not until 2:30 p.m. that the Mossos d'Esquadra arrived at the building to carry it out. When it seemed that it would go ahead, at 4:30 p.m., the situation returned to the initial point. The Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat de Catalunya had assured that they were working to stop the operation, while the group of people gathered kept increasing to exert pressure.

The affected property has eighteen apartments that have been occupied for nine years and where several vulnerable people and at least seven minors live. "We are very worried," Mel, a resident of the building, explained to ARA. Like her, who this Wednesday marks 32 years since she arrived in Spain from Brazil, many are migrants and they report that in recent years they have suffered all kinds of harassment to force them out. They explain that empty apartments have been bricked up, interiors have been destroyed to make them uninhabitable, and they have even received threats to leave. "We are talking about families, children, the elderly, and vulnerable people who have not had any alternative," says Maria Serra, spokesperson for the Housing Union Confederation of Catalonia (Coshac).

In an emergency evening press conference, the Deputy Mayor for Economy of Barcelona, Jordi Valls, stated that a principle of agreement has been reached with the property owners to acquire the estate using the housing emergency fund created a few weeks ago by the Generalitat, as well as municipal resources. "This fund must be used for situations like this," he defended. After stressing that it is a "complex operation" but one that is already underway, he assured that the purchase will be carried out and that the main objective this Wednesday was to stop the eviction.

"Both Mayor Collboni and President Illa have been on top of this," he said, and he defended the actions of the Housing Loss and Occupation Intervention and Mediation Service (SIPHO) and the Barcelona Social Urgency and Emergency Center (CUESB).

However, Valls also admitted that the driving force behind this intervention has been the social movements, "which have the capacity to apply pressure and reveal the reality" behind the evictions. For her part, the Secretary of Housing of the Generalitat, Lídia Guillén, celebrated that the eviction had been stopped "above all for those affected." "We need a great alliance with administrations, organizations, and neighbors to turn the right to housing into a reality," she stated.

This has been a key week in defense of the right to housing. After forcing the call for early elections and achieving consensus from the majority unions for a general strike, this Wednesday it was social pressure that pushed the City Council to buy the occupied block. After much back-and-forth and moments of uncertainty, at eight in the evening euphoria broke out when it was announced that the eviction, which had been scheduled since eight in the morning, was being stopped. The activists celebrated it, criticized the municipal government, and encouraged participation in the general strike.

"Paneque asked me to stop it"

Since early in the morning, hundreds of people have gathered in front of the building's doors with the intention of stopping the eviction. Neither the judicial committee nor the Mossos d'Esquadra, however, arrived at 8 a.m. and uncertainty gradually took hold of those present, especially the people living inside number 74 of Llenguadoc Street. According to union sources, the property belonged to the company Reale Seguros, but after several judicial proceedings and seeing that the evicted apartments were being reoccupied, it sold it last year to the company Thunder Optical Minur SL. The same sources assert that the new owner has been trying to expel the people occupying the apartments ever since.

"There are many of us, they are afraid of us, you'll see how they won't come," said a neighbor from the neighborhood optimistically early in the morning. As the day progressed and in the absence of the police and the judicial delegation, some of the people began to leave and among those present grew the sentiment that a suspension or a postponement would be achieved. Furthermore, the housing commissioner of the Catalan capital's city council, Joan Ramon Riera, and the director of the Housing Agency of Catalonia, Miquel Bagudanch, traveled there to learn about the situation firsthand and inform those present of the intention to stop it. "Councilor Paneque has asked me to stop this eviction," assured Bagudanch. "It is neither appropriate nor necessary to carry out this eviction," added Riera.

The goal of the administrations was to pressure for a negotiation table to find an agreed-upon solution that would avoid the expulsion. Municipal sources insisted that the city council had requested the suspension from the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) due to the vulnerability of the people living there. They assured that the four families with children in the block are being monitored by social services. "In case of eviction, if they do not have an alternative, emergency accommodation will be sought," they remarked from the City Council. On the other hand, the court stated that there was no record of any vulnerability report for the occupants.