Mataró family including person with disability evicted

An eviction was carried out this Tuesday against a family that included a person with a disability in Mataró, around an hour north of Barcelona.

The family had been renting the apartment, owned by a large-scale property holder, for 11 years.

The family consisted of Jordi, who suffers from a rare condition causing mental health issues, and his sister, a mother of three.

Pilar Sánchez, of the Mataró Housing Union, stated that the housing decree the Spanish government was due to approve this Tuesday, "however ridiculous it may be," would have halted this specific eviction.

"It is extremely serious," she declared, adding that pressure must be applied "right up to the last moment." She added that the family has no alternative housing.

Despite opposition from a small group of neighbors mobilized by the Housing Union, the eviction in Mataró's Cerdanyola neighborhood was carried out on Tuesday morning without major complications.

A large police deployment secured the area from 6.30am, and neither the affected family nor the protesters put up any resistance.

The court officials arrived at 8am and the necessary procedures were completed within a few minutes.

Alícia, the head of the family, explains that the three-day hostel stay offered by social services "is not an alternative" and calls for her case to be fast-tracked by the municipal emergency board in an effort to secure social housing for her and her family.

"I’ve been looking, but everything is very expensive, and I can't afford a standard rent," she laments.

She explains that, through city council mediation, she tried to negotiate with the owner, a multi-property landlord, to either secure a social rent agreement or pay off the accumulated debt in installments. She states that neither option was accepted by Investmar, the company managing the property.

For months she had only been paying part of the rent because she could not cover the full cost, and this accumulated debt is what has now left her homeless. "I paid less because I didn't have enough money left for food or school expenses," she recounts shortly after the eviction.