It never ceases to attract attention that in the colossal block of Venus, in the neighborhood of Leaf, the portals always remain open, without any barrier that hides the decomposition that batters its neighbors. Nothing closes the way to the battered farm of Sant Adria de Besossentenced to a knockdown It has become an unresolved hieroglyph for 21 years: the administrations conceived the demolition in 2002 and then declared it impossible, while the building emaciated at a forced march. Now, pushed by a 2020 sentence that reproached them for “inactivity & rdquor; which he described as a “patent & rdquor ;, the Generalitatthe Diputación and the town halls of Barcelona and Sant Adrià hope to tear it down in four years, abusing the patience of the residents a little more. The aim is no small thing: it is about rescuing the inhabitants of one of the poorest streets in the Barcelona metropolitan area from rottenness.
“This is the fifth key we have from the goal,” says Andrés as he shows the key ring. “The doors always end up destroyed or they end up taking them & rdquor ;, he says. The step that the institutions that make up the La Mine Consortium have given this week to expropriate the property is received with disbelief within Venus, a stark demonstration of the impunity with which the institutions allow themselves to neglect their commitments, even if it is at the cost of the suffering of 244 families. Part of the neighborhood will go to the courts to reactivate the request that each household be compensated with 100,000 euros for the inclemencies they have endured while a solution has been postponed.
He Government it is now proposed that the block be vacated by 2027, a year later than it predicted in 2021. Neighbors are suspicious of any announcement of an upcoming rehouse. They are exhausted by the desolation that surrounds them and the promises unfulfilled for 13 years, when the operation to empty the property failed, demanding a payment for a new address that most residents could not afford. In some cases, the price exceeded 40,000 euros.
“Where do we get that from? we are one family humble. That is why we continue to live here & rdquor ;, Salu wields. The Generalitat is open to amending the requirements that revealed a trap that detained dozens of families when they had to leave the property in 2010. Be that as it may, Salu fears that history will repeat itself: “They have played with us and our feelings. Most of us want to leave, but I am afraid that they will give us hope, they will build apartments again and, in the end, we will stay here. And if it goes wrong again? I don’t believe anything.”
flagrant deterioration
“I’ve lived on the block since I was 11 years old and now I’m over 60. They say that in four years they could get us out of here, but I don’t believe it,” Andrés replies. He recounts the mess that overwhelms the neighbors: “Here at the entrance they put new tiles a few months ago but they have already been torn off. There are still the mailboxes that we had busted for years. There are new ones, which they put when they came to shoot a movie. The elevators they break every two by three. The door to the meter room is broken to store washing machines and more. Under my house, there was an anti-occupation door, but there are people living. I saw how they tore it to enter. If we have rats? They run so much that they pass us in the street… We pay 97 euros from the community to the town hall. It is not noticeable at all & rdquor ;.
At the number five of Venus the light He has returned at mid-morning, after a night in the dark. One more. Candles are always at hand in the house that the families of Ester and Ana María share. It has become so common for the current to drop that they already know where to place the mobiles with the flashlight on to try to maintain a routine by abnormal force.
“We arrived yesterday at nine at night and there was no light. She hasn’t come back until about 11 in the morning. We have had seasons that were the daily bread. We have been without electricity for 36 hours and entire weekends. Once his was in New Years Eve, we prepared a casserole and a ladle in case we ourselves had to give the chimes… She returned when there were 10 minutes left to twelve & rdquor ;, Ester shells. The home is inhabited by an elderly woman in a wheelchair and a child. “He grew up on the block in the dark: we took him and the car up the stairs in the dark and we bathed him in the dark,” recalls Ana María.
“Not even in 2039”
access to rooftop It is also clear, the same as in the goals. Now it appears less dirty than on other occasions, but the trace of an abandoned mattress and material used to inject the dose persists. It is unmistakable proof that drug addicts continue to frequent the place to consume on the sly.
“The blackouts end up forcing you to go up in the dark in the elevator, without knowing what you might find,” Marc complains. live this. what2027? I see it very close and four years fly by. I’m sure there will be more. We want them to tell us in writing. From the mouth, the words are carried away by the wind & rdquor ;.
“We have been waiting for so long that we do not believe it. I don’t see us leaving here even in 2039”, Ester suspects. “All our lives have been like this. They say yes, but then it’s no & rdquor ;, Ana María concludes.
Besides, they remain to be known requirements that the La Mina Consortium offers to the inhabitants to leave the building. The mess in the block is such that the cases will have to be studied to the millimeter, including those of families that have inhabited Venus since it was built in the 1970s, but without any title in their possession to prove possession of the address. In any case, the Generalitat undertakes to guarantee housing provided conditions of precariousness, even if there is no contract. Few are those who escape scarcity.
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Ester and Ana María are tenants. They know they have the right to social rentals, each separately. In any case, they do not know where or when they could move. “We only get compensation because we are not the owners. It is the only thing we know& rdquor ;, confesses Ester. He Department of Social Rights It proposes compensating those who are not owners with 6,846 euros if they live in three-bedroom homes and with 8,529 euros for four-bedroom apartments.
Andrés still has to decide between moving to a flat in La Mina -the new ones to house those affected will take four years to build- or paying the amount of the expropriation. They correspond to 97,450 euros for the address that belonged to her parents. “It seems little to me. The property is owned by three brothers and I should share the money with them. So what do I have left? Should I go to a tent?& Rdquor ;, she wonders.