As Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy announces a 2-year moratorium on evictions for the ‘most vulnerable’ in Spain, Rachel Harris looks at the background to this decision and talks to an anti-eviction campaign group in Zaragoza.
As court officials and a locksmith climbed the four floors of the modern block of flats they hoped no-one would be home, as no-one had answered the intercom. It was always easier carrying out evictions if the family were not there. As the locksmith opened the door and entered the flat, he caught a glimpse of a woman climbing from a chair and throwing herself out over the balcony. She met her death within seconds.
Amaya Egaña’s desperate and lonely act, on November 8th, shocked Spanish society. A 53-year-old mother from Barakaldo in the Basque Country, it seems she had kept the imminent eviction secret from her husband and son, workmates and neighbours. It was the second suicide in 20 days, and, within days, another suicide was to follow.
There were 317 evictions of people from their homes on average per day in Spain during the first half of 2012. Many people who took on mortgages when they were working, before the crisis, lost their jobs. Now their benefits have stopped and they are also losing their homes. And, as well as this, under Spanish law, they still owe the outstanding mortgages even after they have been evicted.
One day earlier in Zaragoza, Ancy Buaty was not alone but celebrating with members of the campaigning group ‘Stop Evictions’. She was also due to be evicted, along with her two young children, but had won a one-month reprieve. Buaty, a 38-year-old Congolese immigrant, had contacted the group who had given her legal help and on the day of her eviction staged a demonstration outside her home from 7am. Police had cordoned off the building to enable the eviction while Buaty waited in her upstairs flat. By 11am news of the reprieve reached them and Buaty came down from her flat to thank the group for their support.
In Tenerife, meanwhile, another protest was going on – a hunger strike by Carmen Omaña, 48, who had been evicted the previous month. It was her fifth day on hunger strike, standing in front of the local branch of Bankia, who had been refusing to negotiate with her. The local Mayor then asked the bank to negotiate with him; when they refused, the council withdrew all its money from the bank, a sum of 1.5 million euros. Omaña was then picked up by a chauffeur from outside the bank and taken to a meeting with councillors and the local bank manager. The bank agreed to give her a flexible rent for a year and she will be back in her flat, along with her two teenage daughters. Bankia also agreed to a freeze on evictions in Santa Cruz, Tenerife.
The following night, demonstrations were held across Spain in memory of Amaya Egaña. In Zaragoza demands were read out to the crowd by local ‘Stop Evictions’ activist Pablo Hijar,34, who said: “there have been deaths and we have to act quickly. If the government want a quick solution they will copy France and not allow any evictions over the autumn and winter”. He explained that half-a-million signatures have been collected by the group in favour of government intervention to stop homelessness.
“We want these things to become law”, he shouts excitedly to a lively crowd who’ve marched to the Caixa bank, the bank which was to repossess Amaya’s flat. “Families who have been evicted should be able to stay in their flats for the next five years at a ‘social rent’. A policy of ‘dación a pago´ should be adopted (the debt is cancelled once the flat has been repossessed). The government should organise a programme of social housing.”
He continued, with passion, to cheers from the demonstrators: “People who are not in crisis are just sitting there while the crisis is happening. There should be dialogue between those who have power and those who are vulnerable. We, the people who are affected, have the power to make changes, real ones, not cosmetic ones”.
By Monday, Prime Minister Rajoy pledged to delay evictions of the most vulnerable for the next two years. Then the banks pledged to stop evicting those in “extreme circumstances” for the next two years. Police unions also announced their unwillingness to participate in evictions.
And by Thursday November 15th, after the one-day general strike, the details of Rajoy’s announcement were revealed. The moratorium would apply to those families earning below 1,600 euros a month whose mortgage is more than 50% of this, and then either have children under three, or are unemployed and without any benefits or have a disability, or dependants with a disability or are victims of domestic violence.
Pablo Hijar gave his reaction: “the government had to do something. The protests in memory of those who lost their lives were massive and combative. This is a blatant attempt to diffuse the social pressure created by the problem of housing and evictions in Spain. The decree is insufficient and excludes the majority of people affected. The requisites have no logic and are totally arbitrary. For example: they could apply to a family with one child under three but not to a family with identical economic circumstances with two four-year-olds.”
“Also it doesn’t deal with the question of the debt. Everyone knows that the debts of those affected can’t be paid back but the government acts blind and wants to condemn thousands of citizens to a life in debt. 11.5 million people are in risk of poverty or social exclusion in Spain. The situation for many families is desperate and this decree does not meet any of their needs. It’s false charity with the sole aim of reducing tension. And yet in Spain there are three million empty flats and 700,000 new ones which haven’t been sold.”
None of those mentioned in this story would be saved by this government measure. Suicides have continued. But the pressure on the government is mounting.Judges in many regions have halted all evictions while they re-consider all the pending cases.
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As court officials and a locksmith climbed the four floors of the modern block of flats they hoped no-one would be home, as no-one had answered the intercom. It was always easier carrying out evictions if the family were not there. As the locksmith opened the door and entered the flat, he caught a glimpse of a woman climbing from a chair and throwing herself out over the balcony. She met her death within seconds.
Amaya Egaña’s desperate and lonely act, on November 8th, shocked Spanish society. A 53-year-old mother from Barakaldo in the Basque Country, it seems she had kept the imminent eviction secret from her husband and son, workmates and neighbours. It was the second suicide in 20 days, and, within days, another suicide was to follow.
There were 317 evictions of people from their homes on average per day in Spain during the first half of 2012. Many people who took on mortgages when they were working, before the crisis, lost their jobs. Now their benefits have stopped and they are also losing their homes. And, as well as this, under Spanish law, they still owe the outstanding mortgages even after they have been evicted.
One day earlier in Zaragoza, Ancy Buaty was not alone but celebrating with members of the campaigning group ‘Stop Evictions’. She was also due to be evicted, along with her two young children, but had won a one-month reprieve. Buaty, a 38-year-old Congolese immigrant, had contacted the group who had given her legal help and on the day of her eviction staged a demonstration outside her home from 7am. Police had cordoned off the building to enable the eviction while Buaty waited in her upstairs flat. By 11am news of the reprieve reached them and Buaty came down from her flat to thank the group for their support.
In Tenerife, meanwhile, another protest was going on – a hunger strike by Carmen Omaña, 48, who had been evicted the previous month. It was her fifth day on hunger strike, standing in front of the local branch of Bankia, who had been refusing to negotiate with her. The local Mayor then asked the bank to negotiate with him; when they refused, the council withdrew all its money from the bank, a sum of 1.5 million euros. Omaña was then picked up by a chauffeur from outside the bank and taken to a meeting with councillors and the local bank manager. The bank agreed to give her a flexible rent for a year and she will be back in her flat, along with her two teenage daughters. Bankia also agreed to a freeze on evictions in Santa Cruz, Tenerife.
The following night, demonstrations were held across Spain in memory of Amaya Egaña. In Zaragoza demands were read out to the crowd by local ‘Stop Evictions’ activist Pablo Hijar,34, who said: “there have been deaths and we have to act quickly. If the government want a quick solution they will copy France and not allow any evictions over the autumn and winter”. He explained that half-a-million signatures have been collected by the group in favour of government intervention to stop homelessness.
“We want these things to become law”, he shouts excitedly to a lively crowd who’ve marched to the Caixa bank, the bank which was to repossess Amaya’s flat. “Families who have been evicted should be able to stay in their flats for the next five years at a ‘social rent’. A policy of ‘dación a pago´ should be adopted (the debt is cancelled once the flat has been repossessed). The government should organise a programme of social housing.”
He continued, with passion, to cheers from the demonstrators: “People who are not in crisis are just sitting there while the crisis is happening. There should be dialogue between those who have power and those who are vulnerable. We, the people who are affected, have the power to make changes, real ones, not cosmetic ones”.
By Monday, Prime Minister Rajoy pledged to delay evictions of the most vulnerable for the next two years. Then the banks pledged to stop evicting those in “extreme circumstances” for the next two years. Police unions also announced their unwillingness to participate in evictions.
And by Thursday November 15th, after the one-day general strike, the details of Rajoy’s announcement were revealed. The moratorium would apply to those families earning below 1,600 euros a month whose mortgage is more than 50% of this, and then either have children under three, or are unemployed and without any benefits or have a disability, or dependants with a disability or are victims of domestic violence.
Pablo Hijar gave his reaction: “the government had to do something. The protests in memory of those who lost their lives were massive and combative. This is a blatant attempt to diffuse the social pressure created by the problem of housing and evictions in Spain. The decree is insufficient and excludes the majority of people affected. The requisites have no logic and are totally arbitrary. For example: they could apply to a family with one child under three but not to a family with identical economic circumstances with two four-year-olds.”
“Also it doesn’t deal with the question of the debt. Everyone knows that the debts of those affected can’t be paid back but the government acts blind and wants to condemn thousands of citizens to a life in debt. 11.5 million people are in risk of poverty or social exclusion in Spain. The situation for many families is desperate and this decree does not meet any of their needs. It’s false charity with the sole aim of reducing tension. And yet in Spain there are three million empty flats and 700,000 new ones which haven’t been sold.”
None of those mentioned in this story would be saved by this government measure. Suicides have continued. But the pressure on the government is mounting.Judges in many regions have halted all evictions while they re-consider all the pending cases.
.