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News > World

Madrid's Podemos-Backed Mayor Saves 70 Families from Eviction

  • Manuela Carmena, the mayor of Madrid, has been meeting the heads of Spain’s biggest banks to discuss the country’s housing crisis and evictions.

    Manuela Carmena, the mayor of Madrid, has been meeting the heads of Spain’s biggest banks to discuss the country’s housing crisis and evictions. | Photo: Reuters

Published 28 July 2015
Opinion

Over 50,000 Spanish mortgage holders lost their houses between 2013 and 2014.

Madrid’s recently elected left-wing mayor announced Tuesday she had annulled eviction orders for 70 families living in social housing, while preserving over 2,000 similar rental contracts.

Manuela Carmena was elected earlier in May under the banner of a local coalition Ahora Madrid, which included anti-austerity party Podemos, with a program focused on protecting housing.  The ruling conservative Popular Party (PP) had been governing the capital for the past 24 years and the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis in Spain led to tens of thousands of families evicted from their homes.

“There were 70 processes under way, but today those families have recovered their homes. Nobody is going to be thrown out on the street,” said Carmena.

The evictions followed a 2012 deal made by the Madrid social housing body EMVS to sell five blocks of public housing to the Spanish real estate developer Renta Corporacion for about US$24 million.

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The deal eventually fell apart, although tenants claimed they were asked by EMVS to sign new contracts including a sell-by date on their subsidized terms in the event of a sale, in order to make the flats more attractive to sell to investment funds.

The city council confirmed the mayor's decision in a statement: “The EMVS will no longer pressure the 220 families that live in five blocks owned by them in the center to leave, and it will stop the eviction processes for the 70 homes.” It said a further 2,086 similar social rental contracts around the city would be safeguarded.

Alberto Romeral, a pensioner who benefited from the measure and leader of the “Yo no me voy” (“I’m not going”) group told Reuters: “We are grateful that [Carmena] looks out for the people of the city and their problems and does not want to crush them.”

Carmena discussed with the directors of the country's biggest banks upon evictions, including Santander, BBVA and Bankia.

Her administration has also implemented a mediation service for people who cannot pay banks or their mortgage.

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