Since the Catalan Housing Agency of the Generalitat began managing the promotion of social flats of the Plan dels Frares in Arenys de Mar, built by the Catalan Soil Institute in 2006 and administered by Adigsa, the degradation, as has happened in other similar developments, it has become worse, according to the residents, due to the lack of commitment and maintenance of the Administration, which has allowed dozens of people, many young migrants, to settle in the storage rooms of the garage mentored by the General Directorate of Child Care and Adolescence (DGAIA) mentored until the age of 18, before falling outside the official circuit of housing aid.
The social blocks of Pla dels Frares have 68 flats of between 36 and 72 square metres. Nine are managed by the City Council for social reception. The car park has 82 spaces and 26 storage rooms, and the building also has two commercial premises “that no one wants to rent”.
The subhuman situation in which young people live in Pla dels Frares, certified by dozens of reports from the Local Police and social services ignored by the Generalitat, is exacerbated by the lack of security. The squatters live squalidly and share three square meter storage rooms where they cook and pile all their belongings. “It’s a trap”, warn the neighbors, there is no possibility of escape in case of fire, as the emergency exit is blocked. In addition, the place has become a stronghold of crime, where fights are frequent.
A few days ago, technicians from the Catalan Housing Agency went to the call of the municipal government to check how that promotion of social flats, 17 years after the inauguration, has become a degraded area that generates a great insecurity
The storage rooms are accessed through the parking lot at the foot of the street, the door of which is always open. “We will repair it and after a few hours it will be blocked again”, say City Council sources. Dozens of abandoned vehicles are parked inside, most with old license plates, covered in dust and now used as closets, full of clothes and mattresses. The rest of the car park is also in a deplorable state, with no maintenance or cleanliness. “Neighbors don’t keep our cars in our places anymore”, they say. They say that the usual thing is that “you find it without wheels or with broken windows”. However, the spaces are occupied by vehicles that do not belong to the residents, but to criminals who rent them out, as they do with storage rooms.
On the second floor of the car park, the stench of urination is unbearable. You can see two corridors with doors on the side, the only ventilation of which is a grid about 15 centimeters wide. The area is freely accessible because the bolt on the door has disappeared. The living storage rooms are accessed through a narrow corridor one meter wide, all with numbered metal doors. In one you can see a large poster on the wall and various household utensils. In the corridor, pans that have been used, dishes and leftover food show that cooking is done regularly, which poses a serious risk not only to the occupants of the basements, but also to the residents of the 68 floors above.
Some owners, who are entitled to a parking space and a storage room in order to have a social rental flat, choose to rent them irregularly. “They don’t ask, they charge and they don’t care who gets in”, explain the most critical neighbors, who, when they receive a visit from technicians from the Catalan Housing Agency, councilors from the City Council and the Local Police, breathe a sigh of relief “Let me go in to look at my car now that the police are there, I don’t dare go in at night”, says a young woman who lives with her mother in one of the protected flats.
In fact, in the garage, the traffic of criminals, destitutes and drug addicts is incessant. The area has become a very active drug selling point where there are often fights and even fires. An added risk is that, if a neighbor, fed up with the situation, decides to leave the Plan dels Frares, a few hours later the home will be broken into. “We can’t even go on vacation because they occupy our house”, they lament.
Now, 17 years later, the Generalitat has pledged to remedy the subhuman situation and has filed an eviction lawsuit. The situation, in the hands of justice, tends to be prolonged, unless the Catalan Administration insists on it and justifies the humanitarian emergency. Housing is waiting for the eviction and they promise that they will then seal off the parking lot and clean up the storage rooms.
