“They have told me that they will be able to relocate my father to an apartment in Esplugues. They can help me better, but I’ll figure it out,” Tamara Molina commented yesterday, with her nerves on edge and finishing a cigarette. Her father has Parkinson’s and must be on a machine. She is one of the 112 people evicted on Monday from the building known as El Barco, in Esplugues de Llobregat, after a technical report decreed the danger of imminent collapse according to the City Council.
38 families with 25 minors live there, the municipal administration counted. Yesterday the City Council found an apartment for three of them. One was already able to spend the night in her new home in the medium term, but in the other two homes basic supplies such as electricity were pending, municipal sources confirmed late in the afternoon. “We are working piece-rate,” they added. “Housing solutions cannot be found in 24 hours,” insisted the first deputy mayor, Eduard Sanz.
Meanwhile, the rest of the 38 affected families urgently need solutions. Ten decided to resort to the emergency response provided by the City Council, consisting of a shelter in Barcelona. The others were relocated to the homes of friends or family. “They tell us that they are looking for solutions, but they don’t come. They told us they would be by our side, but we are on the street. “I no longer have any confidence until I see myself with the keys to an apartment,” remarked Azif Kifi, who like his neighbors paid the rent to the City Council, owner of the property for less than a year after a forced expropriation initiated by the previous owner. “My house won’t fall on me, but it kills me with disgust,” said another affected neighbor. The City Council and neighbors pointed out the lack of maintenance by the former owner.
In this context, five people decided yesterday not to leave El Barco and continue living there despite the requests of the administrations. Early in the morning the number was six families in the building. But several decided to leave on a day with inspection by the Firefighters and concentrations of activists in favor of neighbors’ rights. They claimed a place in Esplugues for their neighbors. At some moments there was tension and the intervention of the Mossos was required.
“I call for responsibility. It is a building declared in ruins and can collapse,” said Eduard Sanz. A court order is pending to proceed with the eviction of these five people.
Sanz reported that the City Council is prioritizing the relocation of the most urgent cases, such as families with sick people in their care. Then those of those with minors will arrive. The City Council hopes to quickly find the apartments that are necessary. “Not all of them will be able to be in Esplugues,” Sanz acknowledged. We are collaborating against the clock with third sector entities and neighboring town councils.
The first deputy mayor, who already recalled on Monday that the responsibility for housing lies with the Generalitat, urged the Government to help: “We have asked the Catalan Housing Agency for apartments, but we have no response,” he confessed.
