The Consell de Cent de Barcelona street, in the center of Eixample, hosts one of the most famous pacifications in the city and is, according to Time Out, one of the best streets in the world. Normally tourists and visitors travel, but this Friday has dawned with sleeping bags and mats in which dozens of people have spent the night here.
They are activists for the right to housing, who have spent the night in front of the Orsola house, a modernist farm that these weeks is monopolizing all the attention due to Josep’s eviction, a 49 -year -old teacher who has his expulsion set for this Friday. They have concentrated since Thursday afternoon, when the Llogateres union called a “cultural marathon” to show the support of citizens to Josep and that has been extended until Friday morning.
They have joined, since seven in the morning, as many early risers who, immediately, have filled the confluence of Consell de Cent and Calabria streets. “It’s a symbol and we have to defend it,” said a young man, with the sack rolled up in the backpack.
“Orsola house, you are not alone.” This song, out of a megaphone, has started the concentration, at 8:45 hours. At the moment, the only police presence is that of the urban Guàrdia that diverts traffic.
The Orsola house, after more than four years of conflict, has become a symbol of the fight against gentrification and seasonal rental. Everything goes back to 2021, when the investments bought the farm. Then there were 27 inhabited floors; Of them, a few had indefinite contracts and the rest, they would be overcome in a few years.
A year after the change of ownership, and after several concentrations, failed negotiation attempts and a failed mediation of the City Council, five of the neighbors of the Orsola house are out of contract.
The property filed demands against them to be able to carry out an eviction and, at this time, there are two neighbors to which the eviction has already been approved. The first of them to have a set date is Josep, and the city has turned to help him.
“Today is Josep, but tomorrow you can be you.” It is the sign that the housing crisis has reached the middle-high class neighborhoods.
That and that is in one of the most gentrified neighborhoods in Barcelona. Especially since the pacification of Consell de Cent street was finished. From that moment, the neighborhood – as the neighbors themselves have – began to lose businesses and inhabitants of a lifetime, who were replaced by Expatsseasonal rentals and premises of Brunch
Those new neighbors have arrived at the Orsola house. Although the property denies that its intention is to turn the farm into a seasonal rental building, what happened to date contradicts it. The homes that have been empty have been reformed and occupied by young foreigners who pay more than 2,000 euros per month.
That while neighbors like Josep paid between 600 and 800. But what bothers the old tenants is that the new ones do not know or undo the situation of the farm. “They don’t want to know. For them, the city is a decoration. They are only interested in doing good weather and not stealing them, but they don’t realize that theft is that they charge 2,400 euros of rent, ”Josep Torrent rivets.
A frustrated negotiation
Since the investments acquired the farm, the Unionat de Llogateres has urged collective bargaining with the property to take an agreement and thus avoid the expulsion of the neighbors. But all attempts have been unsuccessful, even a mediation conato that starred in the Barcelona City Council.
But after the media noise that has caused the call for Josep’s eviction, the tension began to grow in such a way that, a few hours after the call, the City Council requested in extremis that the eviction was paralyzed and that the parties sit down to negotiate , but the unionat and the property have accused each other of dynamiting any hint of dialogue.
Supported by an initiative of the Greuges Union (the defender of the Catalan people), the Consistory has offered to mediate among the parties. But from the unionat they have thrown him in face to activate in the absence of a few hours for eviction. “The City Council has contact with the property and with the tenant union and they know perfectly that it is the property that refuses to the negotiation,” they add.
Throughout the day on Thursday, the property of the farm has also pronounced publicly, something very unusual. Lionss investments, has issued a statement in which it denounces the “growing legal insecurity that housing owners face.” A situation, they affirm that “it is” aggravated by the slowness of judicial processes, which facilitate non -vulnerable tenants to refuse to leave the house. ”
#neighbors #concentrate #front #Orsola #house #avoid #eviction #spending #night #camp
