The rescue of hundreds of inhabitants of the periphery awaits at the doors of Barcelona since 2002. poverty and the inaction of the public powers have retained them in a block that has become a focus of degradationsubstandard housing and drug marketing in the neighborhood of Leafin Sant Adrià de Besòs. After 21 years of ups and downs, it is now promised to begin the eviction of the dilapidated building on Venus Street in the first quarter of 2024. If we do not interfere further delaysthe operation should be completed in about four years with a demolition which has been in demand since 2010, when it was frustrated due to the high cost that was demanded from families with low income in exchange for a new apartment. In some cases, it exceeded 40,000 euros.
“Now they would be asked for 85,000 to 90,000 euros. He made the rehousing would fail then. “We will avoid it,” promises the Secretary General of Social Rights, Oriol Amorós. In any case, the outcome still does not seem to have a clear path.
The La Mina Consortium – which integrates the Generalitatthe Deputation and the city councils of Barcelona and Sant Adrià – has told a large part of the residents what options it offers them to change their home or be compensated for leaving Venus. Not everyone agrees to the offers. “Are insufficient and people are very upset. “That is why 600 allegations have appeared against it,” says Paqui Jiménez, spokesperson for those affected.
One of the challenges is to provide a solution to those who are in a hurry to prove that they are owners of the homes. The Generalitat reveals that only 105 families have proven to be owners of their homes, less than half of the building. It is necessary to prove it to collect the amount of the expropriation -97,450 euros for three-bedroom apartments, 121,514 euros for four-bedroom apartments- or relocate as owner, with no further requirement than about 10,000 or 15,000 euros in taxes that the Generalitat is preparing to assume 15% of the ownership.
“We didn’t have the money”
Pilar Cortés remembers having always lived in La Mina, conceived in the late Franco era to gather barracks. “When we came from La Perona “Venus was only one year old,” he recalls. My parents bought me a flat in the block when I got married. It was mine, but they took it from me because they asked us for 300,000 pesetas for the deeds and we didn’t have the money. The home ended up in the hands of the administration and Carmen – a widow and with a pension minimum – is not satisfied with being offered 6,846 euros and a social rent to leave.
Remedios Arriba does not see her future clear either. He acquired a home in Venus in 1996 for “three and a half million pesetas”, he says, but he was not able to afford the notarial deed that would now open the doors to another home he owned. perceive a guaranteed minimum income of 480 euros. “I have no means, and I am between going to a rental apartment that will never be mine or seeing if there is aids to be able to do the writings. “It’s in the air,” she notes. Yolanda Cortés has been in the same home for 23 years, which is still in the name of her aunt. “They will give her the money, but she is not even registered”, he complains.
At the same time, there are those who have not been able to afford the expense of formalizing a inheritance, another obstacle to owning the homes. “They ask some neighbors for 8,000 euros that they don’t have,” Jiménez exemplifies. In Venus and the streets around it, 7,099 euros per capita were declared in 2021, one of the lowest incomes in Catalonia.
The La Mina Consortium tries to confirm the cases of those who claim to be owners who bought or inherited precarious property. If you do not document it, you will be granted a rental. “There are cases easy to solve and others that will cost. The important thing is that all the families in the building have a home, because Venus is not a place worthy to live,” Amorós corroborates.
Occupancy risk
The 239 homes inhabited in the property will not be emptied at once. “It’s a mistake. “Every entire staircase should be evacuated and walled up,” Jiménez thinks. Amorós admits that it is “one of the difficulties”, because “there is risk that the homes are taken care of.” The La Mina Consortium has contracted a patrol service surveillance and installation of alarms and sensors in anticipation of the start of the eviction. It costs 183,920 euros for one year.
937,036.10 euros per year will also be paid for dismantling floors to make them uninhabitable as they become deserted and cover doors and windows. The contract opens the option of relocating residents within Venus while they wait to leave the building, concentrating them on the lower floors to wall off the upper half staircase. Amorós clarifies that this will only be done “if it were the desire of the neighbors.
The demolition of Venus is now postponed to 2028. The Generalitat predicted three years ago that it would be demolished in 2026 and, a few months ago, in 2027. Before that, it remains to build and acquire dozens of homes for the rehoused.
“We already have 32 apartments that we have bought. We will see the first movements at the beginning of 2024. Surely we will be able to allocate at least 30, Amorós predicts. He estimates that 266 homes are required, of which 92 are already in the hands of the administration. However, 58 remain busy illegally since two staircases were attacked at the same time in 2017. Only five of those homes, now boarded up, have been recovered. Furthermore, the formalities to build about 60 apartments in La Mina, with no known date for their construction.
Related news
Amorós cites the neighbors’ allegations as a reason for the new delays. “We have also been delayed by a small group of households that have not appeared. We know that some floors have been used for activities illicit. “These are not coming to ask for compensation,” he points out.
A separate issue are the hundred neighbors who demand 12.5 million as reparations for the deterioration that they have suffered while a solution for the property was delayed. “The fact that there are people who litigate will delay,” warns Amorós, who makes leaving the block conditional on each plaintiff first renouncing to litigate. “If an agreement is reached, it is not litigated. “If someone wants to wait, they will stay there alone until the court decides.” “What do the lawsuits have to do with relocation? It’s a blackmail”, Jiménez stirs.