The housing occupancies continue to drop in Catalonia. Between January and June of this 2023, a total of 4,300 have been registered, according to data from the complaints collected by the Mossos d’Esquadra and local police officers to whom EL PERIÓDICO has had access. The figure represents a 10.8% less than those of the first semester of 2022, when 4,821 were recorded, and 11.8% less than in 2021, when the figure rose to 4,878.
On the other hand, in this first semester there have been 253 home violations. This figure represents 5.5% of the total occupations and violations of residence that have been registered in Catalonia. By occupations, it is understood the entry into an empty house in which no one usually lives with the aim of settling in, while the breach of residence is that in which the entry occurs in a house where someone habitually lives, either first or second residence, to stay. This second constitutes a more serious crime punishable with greater penalties.
The hottest police region in terms of occupations has been the North Metropolitan, which encompasses the regions of Vallès, with Sabadell and Terrassa in the lead, and Maresme, with Mataró as the epicenter. In this region there have been 1,509 occupations and 43 home violations. They are followed, at a great distance, by the South Metropolitan Region, which includes the Baix Llobregat, Garraf and Alt Penedès regions (702 occupations and 28 violations), and the Barcelona region (657 occupations and 49 violations). The Girona region adds
If we look at the 253 home violations, 147 (57.7%) were in primary residences, while the other 106 (42.3%) were in second residences. Therefore, and to dismantle statements that in recent weeks, first during the campaign for the municipal elections on 28-M and now in the campaign for the general elections on 23-J, only 3.2% have launched from the PP and Vox of occupations of dwellings in Catalonia (146 of the 4,553 total) have occurred in a first residence.
By police regions, home violations were mainly concentrated in the Girona region (55), followed by Camp de Tarragona (50), Barcelona city (49) and the North Metropolitan region (43).
The figures confirm a decrease that began in 2021. Sources from the Department of the Interior attribute this decrease, among other factors, to police pressure and also to the new anti-occupation law that the Parliament approved on February 8 and that makes it easier for municipalities to eviction process. Thus, the norm, supported by ERC, PSC, Junts y Ciudadanos, empowers municipal governments to promote evictions in the face of conflicting occupations if the large landowner does not act within a period of 30 days. It is a law that leaves out small owners and focuses on giving the municipalities instruments to act against large holders who ignore their properties.
Despite the fact that the figures reflect this decrease, the PP and Vox insist on the contrary. “The problem of the occupation does not stop growing in Spain,” the PP commented on June 13 to various media. The party’s campaign spokesman, Borja Semper, assured that “squatting has increased by 50% in recent years.” In his electoral program, which Alberto Núñez Feijóo has presented this week, includes the creation of municipal technical offices to fight against illegal occupation that have legal advice for affected residents, as well as measures to evict in 24 hours.
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The express evictions They are an option that the PSOE negotiated in Congress and that caused tensions with its Podemos partners. Through amendment number 270 in the project for organizational efficiency of the public Justice service, the Socialists wanted to incorporate that in “processes relating to trespassing or usurpation of immovable property or real property rights owned by others”, the judge or court may reasonedly agree “the eviction within a maximum period of 48 hours”.
Despite the decrease, Catalonia continues to be the autonomous community where the phenomenon of occupation has the greatest impact, practically non-existent in communities in the north and west of Spain such as Asturias, Cantabria, Aragón, Extremadura or Castilla y León.