Suspended almost half of the evictions scheduled in Barcelona in the last month

BarcelonaA key week for the movement in defense of the right to housing, which after forcing early elections is heading towards the first general strike in the State since 2012. The catalyst for all this social effervescence has been the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal and the housing decrees that preceded it. Congress rejected them in the first instance and they were finally approved by the permanent deputation of the Spanish parliamentary chamber. As ARA has learned, since they came into force a month ago, the courts have suspended 129 evictions in Barcelona, that is, practically half of those that were scheduled in the Catalan capital in the last thirty days. In the vast majority of cases, this is due to the direct application of the new decree, which broadly speaking temporarily suspends evictions of vulnerable people without alternative housing so that a case like that of this 87-year-old neighbor from Madrid, who died two weeks after being evicted, is not repeated.

Thus, although the number of evictions scheduled in Barcelona for the month of October was similar to that of previous months, their outcome has been quite different. In September, the month before the decree came into force, there were 167 scheduled evictions, of which 95 (57%) ended with the people living there out of the apartment. This percentage in October fell to 38%: of the 290 scheduled, 110 families lost their home. The most notable change, however, is the number of processes that have ended up being suspended: while in September the courts suspended 30, in October this figure rose to 129 suspended evictions, most of them due to the application of the new decree.

Although the number of evictions suspended after the approval of the decree has increased, the new rule includes some exceptions. For example, the judge may change their mind when reviewing the tenant's situation after one year (whether or not they continue to be vulnerable or if they have an alternative) and, if the eviction affects a landlord who owns one or two properties and is a person at risk of vulnerability, their situation prevails over that of the tenant. L'ARA has verified how, despite there being people who have accredited vulnerability, the new mechanisms that are supposed to avoid the expulsion of people like them have not protected them because, on the other side of the story, there is also a case of vulnerability. However, in this last month there has been a change regarding evictions from homes owned by large holders. In September, 45.7% of these evictions ended with the family on the street. In October the figure fell to 21%, since most of the cases were suspended.

Accumulated expenditure

Although the judicial path has halted many of the evictions scheduled in the last month, it must be taken into account that the suspension is not a definitive solution and it will be necessary to see what ends up happening to the families living in these apartments after the temporary protection conferred by the decree. In some cases, the eviction was postponed or rescheduled and already has a new date set. It is also necessary to take into account that the majority of the evictions suspended in October were scheduled due to non-payment by the tenant, and the new decree provides that it be the public administration (in this case the Generalitat) that assumes the accumulated expense, therefore, as evictions are suspended, the debt that the Catalan executive will have to assume later grows.

For now, the permanent deputation of Congress will debate and vote this Thursday on the two housing decrees approved by the council of ministers the day after Pedro Sánchez called the elections for November 29th. It will be hours before the electoral campaign formally kicks off, which will start at midnight. The first decree, which suspends evictions for vulnerable families and incorporates the extraordinary extension of leases, will be able to be validated because the majority in the body that functions with the dissolution of the General Courts has a progressive majority. Therefore, the vote against by Junts will not be able to derail the vote as it happened previously in Congress.

In contrast, the second decree, which includes the automatic renewal of rental contracts and, in the event that the owner wishes to terminate them, compensation to tenants of a minimum of twelve monthly payments, will be repealed again before it enters into force. It was one of the measures for which Sumar lobbied and one of the clearest demands of the Tenants' Union, but foreseeably the PNB will reject it along with the PP, Vox and Junts and, therefore, it will not go ahead.