Photos: Sergio Betancort
A couple with three minor children, who were going to be evicted this Friday from a house in the Altavista neighborhood owned by BBVA, will finally be able to stay in the property, although only for 10 more days. That is the term that the Court has given to this family, who occupied the property almost six months ago "out of necessity", just when the eviction was about to take place, which has finally been suspended.
Aridany Sánchez is 28 years old, lives with his wife and their three children aged one, eight and ten and until almost half a year ago "was living in rent". However, when "rents went through the roof", having only "temporary jobs" and his wife being "unemployed", he says he was forced to occupy the house from which he was going to be evicted this Friday, located on Almería street.
"The house belongs to a bank, which has had it closed for many years, it does not belong to any individual and it was not harming any humble person like me," said this father, who says he saw "no other alternative" for his children "to have a roof". In addition, this young man points out that "15 days ago" he also lost his job, which has worsened his situation.
The Arrecife City Council has promised to give them a solution
In order to enter the house, Aridany had to "pay 500 euros to the squatters who were there before". "But I had no other option, because I didn't have enough to pay a rent and two months' deposit that they ask for," says this father, who some time later found the eviction order. "They came here and gave me a paper saying that I had to leave. And no solution or being able to appeal or being able to do anything," criticizes Aridany, who in view of this also decided to go "to the Cabildo and the Arrecife City Council" with the mediation of the Podemos councilor in Arrecife, Leticia Padilla. And it is that, this young man points out that he has found a rental house for 300 euros, but that he cannot access it "until next month".
On behalf of the Arrecife City Council, this young man affirms that the Councilor for Social Services, Vicky Sande, has promised to give him a solution. "That they can give us a place to stay until we collect next month, because they ask me for 300 euros of rent and 300 euros of deposit and right now I don't have them," says Aridany Sánchez, who however affirms that this solution would not arrive "until next Friday". "We have a meeting on Monday, but we wouldn't have anything until Friday," he adds.
"And next month, with the 420 euros that I collected from unemployment and the 270 euros of aid for my children, we would pay for the house, although we will have to make a living to eat," says this young man, for whom "the important thing" is that his children "have a roof".
"Didn't they say that banks could no longer expel families?"
"Didn't they say that banks could no longer expel families?", questioned Leticia Padilla, councilor of Podemos in Arrecife, adding that "there is jurisprudence on the matter" and that "the Spanish State expressly recognizes the right to decent and adequate housing in article 47 of its Constitution".
"And on October 15, 2013, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (ECHR) cautiously paralyzed the eviction of two families living in a block of houses owned by the Company of assets from banking restructuring (Sareb)" in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights, Padilla points out, noting that "in this same sense the same court had ruled by cautiously preventing the eviction from their habitual residence of two families from the city of Madrid without a suitable housing alternative previously existing".
"The ECHR has described evictions as the most extreme form of interference with the right to protection of the home, condemning the absence of minimum conditions of habitability and the obligation to provide adequate relocation based on these rights," concluded the mayor of Podemos in Arrecife.
