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UNABLE TO PAY her mortgage, Manoli Herrera turned over her flat to the bank and moved into one of six abandoned buildings occupied by other jobless families in Sanlucar de Barrameda, a seaside town on Spain´s southern coast.
“I did not want my two children to experience the violence of an eviction. They have already gone through so much,” she said as her children played in the courtyard of the occupied building.
Twenty struggling families, many with children, moved into the building on 30 June.
Several days later another 60 families moved into five nearby buildings.
The six new buildings belong to a real estate developer that went bankrupt and disappeared.
A message written on a white bedsheet that hangs from the courtyard of one of the occupied reads: “Everyone has the right to a home. Fighting for a home.”
The occupied buildings have been dubbed “The Courtyards of Dignity”. The name was inspired by the high-profile occupation of another building in May 2012 by about 20 families aided by anti-poverty activists in Seville, about 100km away that was called “Utopia Courtyard”.
The authorities evicted those families from that building in April.
Herrera, 39, said she lost her job in 2009 when the company she worked for went bankrupt.
With her husband also out of work, the couple eventually stopped paying their mortgage.
After missing three monthly mortgage payments the bank told the couple they had two options: turn over the home to the lender, or be evicted and be liable for the €86,000 they still owed.
They are part of a surge in the number of indebted Spanish families that have lost their homes since a decade-long property bubble burst in 2008, throwing millions of people out of work.
While evictions have soared, the collapse of the property bubble has left an estimated 700,000 empty new homes scattered across Spain – which are often the target of squatters.
“The ‘courtyards’ are a reflection of the social situation. They highlight the problem of the housing emergency that exists which the authorities try to hide,” said Francisco Cuevas of the CNT union who regularly brings food for the residents of “The Courtyards of Dignity”.
‘It was unbearable’
Sanlucar de Barrameda, a town of whitewashed houses that is now home to around 65,000 people, boasts nearby beaches that are a popular tourist draw. But few holidaymakers are aware of the occupation of the buildings in the city and the residents struggling to make ends meet.
Families in the six buildings rely on food donations and share whatever they have.
“United we are stronger. What we want are solutions for everyone. Not in drips and drabs,” said Juan Jose Munoz, a spokesman for the squats.
Before moving into the occupied buildings, Jenifer Garcia Vidal, 22, and her husband Esteban and two children, aged four and five, lived with her parents.
“We were nine people in two rooms, it was unbearable,” she said as he held her daughter in her arms.
The occupation of the buildings is a thorn in the side of local authorities.
“We can never support kicking down a door” to illegally enter an empty building, said the town’s Socialist mayor, Victor Mora.
The left-wing regional government of Andalucia, where the town is located, in April 2013 passed a decree that allowed it to expropriate properties from which people are about to be evicted for up to three years to allow them to continue to live there.
But the measure was blocked by the conservative national government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
Last week, the government of Andalucia announced it had reached a deal with a bank to turn 20 empty flats in the lender’s hands into social housing.
But “this is a drop of water in the ocean,” said Munoz.
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People seem to be a thorn in the side of the bond holders all across Europe
People the world over get in the way of governments. Darned nuisance they are. Would be so much easier to govern without them.
Leave the EU now! UK and Ireland must leave the EU and be like Norway and Iceland, members of the Common market, enjoying the same rights but keeping Brussels nose out of our business.
So the banks lend money. They are not getting that money back. And it is “the people” who are being screwed? Please explain.
Winston Teardrops, more than glad to explain.
Deutsche Bank borrowed insane amounts of money to Irish banks, they knew what they were doing was getting out of hands. Is the same principal that if a bank lends €1000000 to newly graduate 24 years old earning €30K per year, just because they believe that because he graduated firs in his class and landed a job in a huge multinational, he was on the sure track to be a senior member in 10 years.
You must be mental to do this, but they knew they had the EU machinery on their side as a safety net to get their money back in case their gut feeling came true.
Just because we are a small country nobody in Europe cares they can get away with this. You put €1000 to buy shares in Ryanair and if Ryanair goes bust the next day, your shares are word pennies and by rules of capitalism you can can kiss your money good bye, se la vie…
Look at some Irish construction companies being stuck in Poland, they build roads worth Billions and they are not getting paid by the Polish government, because they don’t have the money. Poland is a bigger economy and the Irish companies are nothing compared to the muscle of the Polish government. Invert the scenario, imagine we borrowed money to the Germans in the same way, do you think they will silence repay us that money back?
There is a sense in Ireland and Spain it seems that housing is a good that people are just ‘entitled’ to, a sense that the normal rules of economics don’t apply to like some non-Newtonian fluid etc. Well the reality is that factors of production go into a house like any other good. These factor suppliers must be repaid – builders, banks, developers, material providers etc. Becuase of irresponsible/criminal behaviour by banks, people out there understandably have their backs up against banks. But that does not justify reneging on commitments by borrowers or squatting by people who have contributed nothing. Anyone who thinks that what is happening there in Spain is a solution is a fool. There were similar calls in Ireland to just give property away. Who pays ultimately? Somebody must. BTW poor judgement regarding ability to repay does not exonerate one from the obligation to repay. Two adults sign these loan agreements. Hard times now? OK renegotiate restructure but there is no walk-away solution.
Meanwhile in Deutschland, people are seeing their squares and statues renovated in a multi billion Euro splash to redecorate their cities with our money. The money they invested in our banks, but because they are Germans, they don’t play by the rules of capitalism, so they forced us to give them their money back from their toxic investments in Anglo, etc.
Cheer up Manoli, Somewhere in Germany your counterpart is enjoying a trip to the mall to change their kitchen
At this stage the council should step in and organise a situation where these families can maintain and eventually purchase these abandoned houses.
Receiver will get his money, eventually.
The families have homes to get back on their feet.
Sounds abit too easy, doesn’t it.
At least squatters in Spain don’t have to worry about heating costs….
Why is nobody stating the obvious in relation to all these western property bubbles? I studied property & asset bubbles, and the cause is always too much credit, although the causes for the excess credit vary. It really is very basic finance.
The excess credit for the current bubbles began with Reagan & thatcher deregulating banking in the 80s, but only really gathered its ruinous momentum under Clinton in the 90s. Anyone with the vaguest financial knowledge knew exactly what the results of those deregs would be, but the advisors & bankers championing dereg had a lot more than vague financial knowledge. It is not a conspiracy theory to say that these property bubbles and inevitable subsequent crashes occurred by design. To think that they occurred accidentally would be extremely naive. This is invasion without tanks, but all we have to do is call a halt and we can be victorious. This crash more than any other will attract bewildered looks in the future.
Well done, you Spanish people. Practical and courageous. Why should families be homeless through eviction when there are properties vacant which could accommodate them? The Irish people should start getting real. I am not advocating the UK situation where squatters moved into family homes whilst people where on holiday etc., I am advocating, however, that people occupy vacant properties instead of enduring the rigours of ghastly run down B & B’s and substandard accommodation – for which the Government pays slum landlords a veritable fortune every year.
The Spanish eviction laws date from the forties under the Franco dictatorship. In the European court of human rights they were deemed to be unconstitutional and in breach of the charter on human rights so instead of complying with the ruling the right wing government tried to shore up the laws and this too has been deemed illegal, so technically all the evictions that have been carried out are illegal, Spain is turning into a right wing state with the erosion of human and legal rights, take for example the justice reform which basically got rid of legal aid, the fiscal amnesty for the wealthy (declare your ill gotten gains and pay 10% to make it legal) the withdrawal of universal justice (which were used to try drug smugglers over 100 drug smugglers have been let free and thank god the law has been declared unconstitutional) the citizen safety laws which makes it on offence to film a police officer during a protest or insult Spain or any of its institutions, a justice minister who is opus dei, the head of the police of Madrid giving a distinguished service medal to the Virgin de Rocio, the jobs ministers saying she would pray to the Virgin for guidance, a first minister who is actually proud of the fact the only paper he reads is the sports paper, the ruling party have over 1000 politicians in corruption scandals, the ex president of Madrid who hit a parked police bike and drove off leading them on a chase to her house, the daughter of Carlos Fabra insulting the unemployed
They got option to hand back house and walk away or be evicted and still owe bank the money !!! Here you have not got choice whether hand back or evicted corrupt banks still go after you for money that the corrupt developers got both of banks and by over charging for badly built houses and apartments while planning turned a blind eye
Where are all the people that were giving out on here last week about our own homeless needing to be homed.
Not a peep out those that begrudge kids a roof over their heads in this country but because it’s another country they couldn’t care
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