A 70-year-old man committed suicide last Tuesday in Sabadell after the judicial committee evicted him from the house in which he had lived for 30 years with his wife, with reduced mobility. The couple had not paid the rent for months and could not withstand the pressure of staying on the street, according to the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages in a statement.
The events took place last Tuesday, when a judicial delegation, which was not accompanied by the Mossos d'Esquadra, appeared at the apartment on the Terrassa road where Álex and his wife had lived for three decades. The woman has been ill for years and has reduced mobility to the point that she remains in bed most of the time. According to Catalan police officers, on Tuesday morning the tenants opened the door to the group and Álex left the apartment. His wife was left inside him in bed. The delegation then called the Mossos to prepare for the woman's departure. The agents activated an ambulance and social services. A few minutes later, a new call to the regional police alerted that Álex had taken his life in a park near his home.
The Platform for People Affected by Mortgage and the Sabadell Crisis (PAHC Sabadell) has released a statement in which it denounces that when the delegation arrived, the couple “did not have any housing solution or alternative.” The PAHC maintains that Álex's eviction was “invisible”, nobody knew anything “because of the shame and social stigma” of facing being expelled from your home. The PAHC itself recognizes that both “had been forced to stop paying rent due to the economic situation they were experiencing: they prioritized continuing to pay the rest of the expenses, basic supplies and meals, before paying rent payments that were unaffordable for them.” .
“Álex's family were his neighbors. He was known in the neighborhood for being a handyman, he had fixed the houses of everyone who asked him to and he was remembered as a very reserved person and always dedicated to helping others,” the platform's statement reproduces. According to the PAHC, the elderly man's health condition became complicated in recent months, which is why he had had to stop working.
The deceased's partner now remains admitted to the hospital. The PAHC asks the City Council for a “residential alternative” for the woman and for the City Council to pay the man's funeral expenses, an extreme to which the Sabadell City Council has shown itself willing. A spokesperson for the Consistory has assured that “they did not have any information” about the situation of Álex and his partner. “When we received the information about the uprising, we tried to contact her (Álex's partner) several times without success,” he informed EL PAÍS. After the Catalan police contacted the municipal social services, the resources were activated and now the City Council is working to guarantee the woman a residential alternative.
The Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia has highlighted in a brief statement that the lawsuit for non-payment of the monthly payment was filed in April 2022 and that the court itself notified social services. The statement warns that the contract was in the name of Álex's partner since 1983 and the monthly payment was 480 euros. “When the lawsuit was filed, the debt was 3,334 euros,” they say. The ownership of the apartment is not a large holder and on the same Tuesday he recovered the property.
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People with suicidal behavior and their family members can call 024, a helpline of the Ministry of Health. You can also contact the Hope Telephone (717 003 717), dedicated to preventing this problem. In cases that affect minors, the Anar Foundation has the telephone number 900 20 20 10 and the chat page https://www.anar.org/ Help for Children and Adolescents.
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