Home » Business » The first semester closes in Reus with 70% of the eviction orders stopped

The first semester closes in Reus with 70% of the eviction orders stopped

The crisis derived from Covid-19 has put many people on the tightrope who, before the pandemic, did not have enough resources to have a decent life. In the first six months of 2021, 142 eviction orders have been issued, of which 30 have been fulfilled, and the remaining 102 have been stopped. Of these 102 postponed evictions, 66 correspond to properties of large holders, and 49 to individuals.

During 2020, a total of 371 eviction files were processed, of which 96 were extended. 66% were properties of large holders, and the remaining 34% were private individuals. According to data from the consistory, 336 files are currently being worked on, and 39 of them already have an eviction date set. Of these 39 properties, 20 belong to small owners and 19 to large holders.

The solutions that are being sought from the Reus executive for these cases are slightly different: of the 20 cases with individuals, 14 are under study and an intervention is being evaluated, and 6 have been referred to an emergency table. Of the 19 files in relation to large holders, 13 have been referred to the Servei d’Assessorament sobre el deute Hipotecari (SAH), an information and advice service aimed at families with difficulties in paying their mortgage or rent, and for The remaining 6 are looking for other routes, since they cannot be derived because they do not meet the requirements.

The PAH and the SH affirm that, when the moratorium ends, “there will be a wave of cases”

The Councilor for Social Welfare of the City Council, Montserrat Vilella, explains that “the solution to solve the problem of evictions is to have more social housing in the city, an issue that we are already addressing from the municipal level and from the Generalitat.”

Precisely more social housing is what two of the main entities that collaborate against evictions in Reus, the Sindicat d’Habitatge de Reus (SH) and the Platform for People Affected by Mortgage (PAH) claim. The SH spokesperson, Issam Oudriss, affirms that they have been asking for a park of social flats for a long time, and that the City Council “puts a piece of land up for auction and financially helps construction companies to build blocks, which makes the neighborhood more expensive. and people have to leave, it is a policy of gentrification.

Oudriss also criticizes the vulture funds for the speculation process they carry out: “It is no coincidence that in some blocks of the suburbs, the most precarious, half the floors are empty,” he adds. However, the Minister of Drets Socials of the Generalitat, Violant Cervera, stated on July 27 that Reus has 397 social housing units, one of the highest figures in all of Catalonia.

The extension of the anti-eviction decree issued by the Pedro Sánchez Government provided for the suspension of evictions for families in vulnerable situations. People who find themselves in this situation must request a vulnerability report from Social Services as long as they meet a series of requirements: not having enough income to support their family, to pay rent, supplies, etc. Last year a total of 230 reports were requested in Reus, of which only 3 were unfavorable.

The City Council recognizes that the solution is to have more social housing

During the first half of 2021, 214 have already been requested: 4 denied and 29 pending study. Vilella highlights the fact that “practically all the requested vulnerability reports have received a favorable response from the Reus City Council Social Services”, and adds that the council is “fully aware of the importance of these reports for avoid evictions of families who are in a vulnerable situation ”. The PAH spokeswoman for Reus, Sandra Casanova, states that the situation of vulnerability is very relative, and gives the example of a family of four that has an income of 1,500 euros per month: «Rents do not fall below 500/600 euros So, if you are a family of four, what is 1,500 euros? ».

The Spanish executive also decreed the right of landlords and owners to compensation, provided they can prove economic damages. The City Council explains that they have no evidence that this measure has been applied. However, the courts begin to ask the council to assess the vulnerability of some owners.

Both the SH and the PAH declare that the steps that the Spanish and Catalan governments have followed with the aim of paralyzing the evictions have not been enough: “They have been patches,” Casanova remarks. For his part, Oudriss highlights that the regulation has barely changed, since he argues that the anti-eviction moratorium is only aimed at families with dependent children and whose property is owned by large holders: “Evictions that were in a fairly ‘acceptable’ situation to legal level still are, and those that were impossible to stop also continue to be ».

Why is it being evicted?

The causes of evictions are usually quite heterogeneous, as can be seen in the 371 files processed last year: 48% were due to rent defaults, 45% to illegal occupations and 7% to foreclosures. However, in the SH of Reus they affirm that the main cause is “job insecurity and the impoverishment of society in general: jobs are lost, the unemployment rate grows again …”. Oudriss assures that right now it is very difficult to acquire a property or look for a rental contract: “In this situation, people choose to occupy and look for a roof for their family.”

The profile of evicted people is also very variable. Casanova expresses that, from the 2008 crisis, “many people who were in a fairly good economic situation suddenly saw that they had nothing.” Therefore, he affirms that a contrast of this magnitude, accentuated by “harassment” by banks and telephone calls, causes consequences in the family that are very difficult to alleviate.

A general bewilderment

While waiting for an agreement on the new Housing Law, no one knows what will happen on October 31, the day on which the new extension of the anti-eviction moratorium decreed by the central government ends. Casanova foresees that, when the day arrives, “there will be an impressive wave of evictions, and I don’t know if we will be able to solve it because they have not bothered to build housing parks, which is what we have demanded for a long time.” Along the same lines, Oudriss assures that many large owners “are not interested in the moratorium continuing, since they are losing money”, therefore, he senses that, as of October 31, the cases that have been postponed throughout This time will be resolved negatively for the families: “All those evictions accumulated for more than a year will be carried out in a few months.”

‘Silent’ evictions

When we talk about evictions we always imagine the sad scene of a family having to leave their home in front of a police group, but this is not always the case. Invisible evictions, those cases in which families leave home before being evicted by court order, are often not taken into account. With regard to these cases, Casanova states that there are many, and that it is almost impossible to control them because many times they are families who “do not go to the platform out of shame or because they do not know how to act.”

From the SH, Oudriss declares that, after the crisis, these types of evictions are “majority”, but that “when someone walks through the door, their problems become everyone’s, and vice versa.” Casanova adds that in the PAH of Reus they work in an assembly way, so everything must go through the assembly, thus carrying out a “collective empowerment” that helps them carry out a “personal catharsis” and help each other.

  • living place
  • eviction
  • Reus City Council
  • perspective
  • poverty

– .

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.