Blanca Espinosa, a 78-year-old neighbor, who had lived in an apartment in the Gothic neighborhood of Barcelona since 1968, was evicted this Thursday. On November 22, neighborhood pressure managed to stop the elderly woman's fifth eviction attempt. The City Council and the owners of the property located at number 6 Boters Street then agreed on a time to negotiate whether Espinosa could remain in the property longer. The entity Resistim al Gòtic has released a statement accusing the City Council “and especially the Social Rights area headed by Mara Eugènia Gay for having broken at the last minute, in a totally opaque and shameful manner, an agreement that was made.” The City Council, for its part, assures that the property has not admitted that it is the City Council itself that pays part of the monthly rent, up to 1,000 euros, and thus buys time until Espinosa is given social housing.
At 9:00 this Thursday, the elderly woman, accompanied by EMS paramedics, left the home and tonight she will sleep in a hotel on Mallorca Street, where she will remain until she is assigned public housing with services for the elderly. Resistim al Gòtic assures that from November to February various negotiations have been carried out and an agreement had been reached. “Blanca would continue paying the old rent money (340 euros) and the City Council would complete up to the 1,000 euros required by the property with a fixed date (around a year) until they gave her public housing.” The entity assures that the City Council, at the last minute, has “dismissed the agreement” with the argument of “not being able to endorse quota agreements” or ensuring that “Blanca has resources.” For its part, Barcelona City Council denies Resistim al Gòtic's accusation and maintains that it was the property that “rejected the agreement at the last moment.”
Espinosa was evicted this Thursday for non-payment of an increase of 88.80 euros in rent after works to fix some drains that were carried out in 2017. Espinosa did not pay the increase in the price for several months and that was when she received the threat of eviction. The judge ruled in favor of the property and now the elderly woman will live in boarding houses and hotels until she is granted a place in social housing adapted for elderly residents. The City Council assures that an emergency home has been activated in Eixample for Espinosa and the elderly woman will be able to collect her belongings in the coming days.
Espinosa's case has been going on for seven years. In 2019, a court considered it proven that the contract had ended, and since then dates for the launch have been proposed and postponed. During Covid, and with municipal reports, the woman's vulnerability was decreed to prevent her from being kicked out of the apartment where she has lived for 54 years. But finally, and after an investigation by the owner, who claimed that the woman had owned half of a home since 2010, inherited from her in Barcelona, for which she received 79,000 euros. The Court of First Instance number 32 of Barcelona added that the woman had not demonstrated her vulnerability, since there was only a municipal file, which stated that she earned 437 euros per month, but without providing “justification for it,” according to the court. court, nor accompany other economic or registration data of more people in the family unit or vulnerable. For all these reasons, the court gave the green light to the eviction in June 2023.
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