Tension in Vallcarca over the eviction of a family with two minors

BarcelonaTens of people gathered this Wednesday morning in front of number 3 Farigola street, in the Vallcarca neighborhood of Barcelona, where a family with two minors lives, to try to prevent their eviction. At the same time, up to six riot police vans from the Guàrdia Urbana also arrived at this same spot to carry out the eviction, which was finally carried out around 10 in the morning. A strong police cordon was set up first thing in the morning. In fact, the first moments of tension were experienced early on, when some of those gathered tried to overcome the police barrier.

The affected property is an old mechanical workshop owned by the City Council where, according to the Vallcarca Housing Union, six adults and two children aged 10 and 9 lived and worked with the scrap metal business. The council explained that in the last sixteen months it has offered several "residential alternatives" to those affected, who live in "substandard housing" conditions, but that the family has declined them. Spokespersons for the Vallcarca Housing Union, on the other hand, responded that the council's options involved dividing the family unit and changing their area, which also meant changing the minors' school and moving them away from their family, school, and support network.

The Som Barri Neighborhood Association defends that the family, of Gitano-Romanian origin, is "fully rooted in the neighborhood, despite the difficulties and discrimination they suffer, such as the impossibility of finding a rental apartment". "There has always been a willingness to dialogue," they emphasize, while lamenting that the response has been "the silence of the City Council."

The council, for its part, has detailed that in the case of the family with two minors, the administration offered them two homes, one in Torre Baró and another in Parc i la Llacuna del Poblenou. After mediation with the Ombudsman, it points out, the offer of the apartment in Poblenou was maintained and a third was proposed. These sources said that all offers remain valid. Regarding the other two couples, the City Council has stated that they have always rejected any connection with social services.

An eviction with an open date

For its part, the Vallcarca Housing Union also denounces that the affected parties learned on Tuesday "through unofficial channels" that the eviction of the property would be carried out this Wednesday. It details that the communication arrived after last June they received a notification warning that the eviction would take place "within a period of 30 calendar days", without specifying the date. The union has denounced that this is an "eviction with an open date", a practice it considers contrary to fundamental rights, and recalls that, since December 2023, courts are obliged to set a specific date and time for carrying out these actions.

These same entities have also criticized the strong police deployment planned to carry out the eviction, and estimate that the cost of the operation allocated to the eviction is higher than what it would have cost to cover more than a year's rent for the affected family.