A macro-eviction threatens 50 people in Barcelona

BarcelonaMore than a hundred people are trying to stop a mass eviction this Wednesday in Barcelona. The same week that the housing crisis has triggered early elections and a general strike, and the same day that the new housing decree is published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), about fifty people are facing expulsion. It concerns building number 74 on Llenguadoc Street, in the Sant Andreu district, where eighteen apartments have been occupied for nine years. Several vulnerable people live there, including at least seven minors. "We are very worried," Mel, a resident of the building, explains to ARA.

Like her, who this Wednesday marks 32 years since she arrived in Spain from Brazil, many are migrants who 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 make them leave. "We are talking about families, children, elderly and vulnerable people who have had no alternative," says Maria Serra, spokesperson for the Housing Union Confederation of Catalonia (Coshac).

Union sources explain that the property belonged to Reale Seguros, but after several legal proceedings and seeing that the evicted apartments were being re-occupied, it was sold last year to the company Thunder Optical Minur SL, which has been trying to expel the people occupying the apartments ever since.

The inhabitants hope to reach a last-minute agreement that suspends or postpones the eviction. They are clinging to the hope that the two decrees approved again by the Spanish government on Tuesday will suspend the eviction. They were published in the BOE this morning, but the one referring to evictions will not come into force until Thursday.

Sánchez recovers the decrees

One of the decrees temporarily suspends evictions for vulnerable families and incorporates measures such as the extraordinary extension of leases for two years, in addition to numerous tax incentives both for the purchase of apartments and for tenants and small landlords.

The other decree establishes indefinite rental contracts and compensation for the tenant if the landlord wants to end the contract early. The expectation, however, is that ultimately only the first one will go ahead, since the permanent deputation of the Parliament –the parliamentary body that replaces Congress when elections are called or during holiday periods– will reject the other one.