Waiting for the eviction of a former Civil Guard barracks in Sabadell

SabadellAt first glance, the walls appear sturdy and the facade is in perfect condition. Inside, it's true that some windows lack glass, the copper pipes and cables have been ripped out, and the paint on some walls is peeling. But the apartments are in really good condition: they're large, bright, and above all, it's surprising that they've remained closed for more than 25 years despite the severe housing crisis. Even more so considering that they're all public housing. They were part of the former Civil Guard barracks in Sabadell and were abandoned with the deployment of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Spanish police) in the late 1990s. Since then, they've been empty due to a dispute between the Ministry of the Interior and Sabadell City Council.

A few weeks ago, about 40 people, including some families with minor children, moved in because they have nowhere else to live. The council has already notified them that they must vacate this Friday because, according to municipal sources, "there is a risk to their safety," according to a technical report on the condition of the premises prepared by the City Council itself. The premises, which have deteriorated over time due to lack of maintenance, have been due to nothing less than the dispute between administrations. A dispute that still persists.

The former barracks consists of what used to be the police headquarters and four residential buildings with around thirty apartments, where officers used to live with their families. The people who have now occupied these apartments claim that what is truly degraded is the barracks itself, not the apartments, and they lament that no one from the City Council has bothered to check either the condition of the apartments after they fixed them up, or the stories of those they now live with.

Like that of Elvis Teboh, 41, originally from Cameroon. He has lived in Spain since 2005, married a woman from Valencia, and has two daughters, ages 18 and 13, who are Spanish nationals. But in 2016, he divorced and was left without papers, since his residence permit was linked to his marital status. The stress this caused led to paralysis. "I have a recognized 66% permanent disability, but that's all I'm good for," he says, unable to hold back tears as he shows his Generalitat (Catalan government) ID card. He also has HIV and is undergoing treatment. Until now, he'd been sleeping in a park.

Elvis moved into one of the apartments in the former barracks three weeks ago and can say he's completely transformed it in that short time. The apartments that remain empty are littered with rubble, and a thick layer of dust covers the floor, windows, and doors. In the apartment he's settled in, however, everything is now spotless. He says he's had to work hard for days. He's furnished the living room with three chairs and some kind of small table, and has placed a mattress in one bedroom and two gas burners in the kitchen. The bathroom is also spotless: there's a shower, toilet, and sink, but there's no water. There's also no electricity. "This isn't life, but at least we can survive here," he says. "And it's safer than the street," he adds.

Desiré Silva and Natalia Baca also say they had to work for days to refurbish the apartment they and their families have settled into. It's now spotless and minimally furnished. It doesn't look like it's been abandoned for more than two decades. Both are from Peru and arrived in Spain two years ago. Desiré has three children, ages 16, 13, and 5, and both she and her husband work: she in a nail salon and he in a barbershop. Natalia is the mother of a six-month-old daughter and a three-year-old son, and her husband also has a job. He's a bricklayer.

The two families previously lived in rented rooms for which they paid between €500 and €650 a month. This was one of the problems: the price of the room varied depending on the owner's decision that month. "He threatened to throw us out onto the street and call the police to take our children," explains Desiré, who says they couldn't go on like this. It was constant suffering.

Most of the people living in the apartments of the former barracks are foreigners, sub-Saharan Africans or North Africans, but there are also Spaniards. Like Tino Ferreira, 47, who was the first to occupy one of the apartments with four friends two months ago, because they were fed up with sleeping on the streets in the cold and fearing being robbed. They say that climbing plants used to cover much of the building's facades and trash made access difficult. They have taken it upon themselves to clean everything up. Plant debris is now piling up around part of the entrance to the compound. "And now they want to kick us out?" he asks.

The Nadie sin Techo Sabadell association submitted a petition to the City Council this Wednesday requesting that if the people currently living in the former barracks are evicted, they be offered alternative housing. "We believe it makes no sense to evict a group of people from a building citing safety reasons and leave them on the street, a far from safe place," they argue. They add: "It's incomprehensible to question the healthiness of the spaces they occupy [...] and assume that living on the street will improve health conditions." Sabadell City Council has not specified where these people will end up if they are evicted.