The City Council has reached an agreement with SAREB (the Spanish government’s ‘bad bank’) to regularise the situation of 68 vulnerable families who were squatting in homes they had previously owned. The families, who were in the process of being evicted, will now have a social rent contract for between 12% and 30% of their income.
Most of the families are households with children, mainly headed by women in precarious labour situations. The agreement with SAREB is not limited to these 68 families but is also monitoring 300 other families currently in the process of being evicted and living in SAREB-owned flats. The deal also includes a commitment not to evict families in vulnerable situations.
Drop in squatting in Barcelona
The recently published report ‘Data on the evolution of squatting in the city of Barcelona 2019-2022’ highlights a 17% drop in squatting in Barcelona between the third quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2022. This drop is linked to the investment in public housing and the expansion of the public housing stock of 11,500 homes, mediation carried out by the Barcelona Anti-Eviction Unit in over 14,000 eviction cases and subsidies to cover rental debts for small owners.