The pressures of the Arenys de Mar (Maresme) Council to stop the problem of the promotion of social flats in the Pla dels Frares, where the storage rooms located in the parking lot have become housing for a dozen young people who have been taken into custody , have borne fruit. The Housing Agency of the Generalitat has begun the process of eviction of these spaces, some of which are also a center for marketing and other criminal activities, a fact that, according to the residents, they have been complaining about for more than two years years.
The promotion of social flats dates from 2006 and it is from 2019 when the occupation mafias make August and enter 35 of the 68 homes. Of these, Habitatge has been able to recover 29 through judicial procedures. The intense activity of the mafias has also led to the majority of the 26 storage rooms in the garage, linked to social promotion, being used for criminal activities. According to the first investigations, one of the tenants, who the police have already identified, would be responsible for renting these spaces where the immigrant teenagers live.
Neighbors, in general, people with few resources, are afraid of the threats they receive from the squatters when they try to complain. “They threatened to kill my son when I told them I would call the police,” explains a tenant.
The Generalitat, which according to Albert Toledo, director of Housing Promotion, “became aware of this problem in October” despite the fact that it has a periodic inspection service, has been able to regain possession of two of the storage rooms. From now on, according to the director of the agency, Sílvia Grau, the residents of Pla dels Frares will receive letters reminding them of “the obligations of behavior and maintenance of the building’s common spaces” and another specific missive to the tenants who have the storage rooms linked to the contract. “We give them ten days to remove all the utensils they may have accumulated in the space and to give access to the inspectors”. In case of non-collaboration or obstruction of the official action, the head of Housing assures that “we will start legal proceedings to recover the storage rooms and try to identify those responsible” for the activity. An action that, they estimate, could be extended beyond a year.
Another circumstance that aggravates the insecurity in the area and which the Councilor for Social Services of the Arenys de Mar City Council, Soraya Real, insistently claims is the danger of having the doors blocked. In collusion with one of the neighbors, the storage rooms located on the first floor are locked. A key that the Housing Agency does not have. The police maintain an operation in Pla dels Frares after detecting that the storage rooms could be stores of drugs and stolen items. In the parking lot, according to the neighbors, there is “a constant and suspicious traffic of small traffickers who move around on scooters”.
Since 2019, to avoid occupations, the Generalitat has kept a protocol active that consists of the placement of armored doors on the flats that remain empty. “It is a reinforced and very expensive system of smart doors connected to an electronic system, which incorporates an alarm system that alerts the security forces of the attempted occupation,” says Grau.
Councilor Soraya Real reiterates that the new government of Arenys de Mar, which emerged from the last elections of June 2023 and presided over by Estanis Fors with an absolute majority of Junts, “we undertook to address this problem and we have had to to make it very hard for the Generalitat to pay attention to us”.
