Seven evictions a day. It is the chilling average of expulsions that occur day after day in the city of Barcelona. One of them, on May 18, has something unheard of and a lot of discomfort. A marriage of 61 and 57 years will be expelled from a two-story house in the Sant Andreu neighborhood at the request of the Habitatge Social and Caritas Foundation. The entities point out that the couple has breached the social reintegration program and that there are several families with children who also need this opportunity. The inhabitants, Leon and Maia Vephkhpvia, ask for a roof under which to live. Meanwhile, the administration once again proves incapable of guaranteeing the right to housing in the city.
Caritas has been caring for the family for 11 years Vephkhpvia. In 2013, it was made up of the couple, her youngest daughter, son-in-law, and a 2-year-old granddaughter. They lived in a couple of rooms in a flat on Calle de Urgell. “More people lived in that house, it didn’t have an elevator and it was full of cockroaches“recalls León, 61. He, a Georgian without papers, worked in construction intermittently. She, 57, cares for the elderly but after the pandemic her hours and salary have been reduced. Cáritas helped them with food and medicine. In 2015, when they could no longer afford the payments, the NGO offered them a two-story house with an interior patio in the Sant Andreu neighborhood for a social rent of 280 euros per month.
It was about the project Oikos, in which Caritas collaborates with the Fundació Habitatge Social. An entity that has more than a hundred flats in the city of Barcelona in which families living in a situation of social exclusion live. “We make one-year contracts that are extended and the prices are stipulated based on the situation of the family: from 30 euros per month to 280,” they explain. Entities help pay for supplies. “The only requirement is to participate and collaborate in the process of social reintegration.. We offer them social housing but the objective is to get them out of this situation: find work, get training, get social benefits…”, they comment from the entity.
unsustainable situation
The problem with the Vephkhpvia family, from the point of view of Cáritas and Fundació Habitatge Social, is that this pact was broken. “They did not allow any type of monitoring, they did not collaborate with the social services, they did not even allow the social educator to enter… They chose to ignore us,” they point out. The family admits part of this situation. “What happened was that our other son stayed on the street. And the educators told us that he had to go. How can a mother leave her child on the street?“, Maia assures. That was when, they acknowledge, the hostile treatment with the NGO began. In 2018 the family stopped paying the social rent. “I said that if they made me a six-month contract we were not going to pay“, assures Maia. “For us this situation is untenablewe owe ourselves to a social function of housing and responsible management”, insist the NGOs.
In 2019, the two children and the already three grandchildren left the Sant Andreu house. “We’re talking about housing being disproportionate to marriage. This house is designed for families with children“, they add from the entity. And they assure that they made several proposals to them. “Return the deposit of 3,000 euros so that they could pay for another home or a smaller apartment of ours. But they told us no to everything“, assures the entity. “This is a lie, because if they had offered us another flat we would have said yes, all we want is a decent roof that we can afford“, assures the woman. At the end of 2019 the foundation filed the complaint in court to start the eviction. “For us it is not easy but we have a thirty families who also need a home“, explain sources of the entity.
unsuccessful search
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In 2020, the couple went to the Sant Andreu Housing Unionwhich managed to paralyze the first two eviction attempts in March and July 2021. “It seems to us unheard of that a social entity like Cáritas leave this family to the street. What kind of social work is this?“complains one of the union members, Roger Ramírez. That same year the two entities, the city council, the family and the union agreed that the family would leave the house at the end of 2021. They are still there today. “We tried but it was impossiblewe survive on 550 euros a month”, laments Maia. “Our children cannot accommodate us, landlords ask us for payroll and we don’t have themMaya continues.
The next day 18 marriage must leave the house. Is It is expected that the Mossos riot police will make it effective by force, if required. A Moroccan family, without papers, without income and with three children under the age of 10 in their care, is waiting to start a new life there. “I know that this house is too big for us, and I can only thank Caritas for what it has done for us, which even today pays our electricity, water and gas bills… and what it continues to do for our daughter, They do help him, but we have nowhere to go. We only ask for a roofMaia pleads, covering her head with her hands. This Monday, the family managed to get into the Barcelona housing emergency table. It is the instrument of the administration that usually takes months, even years, to obtain social housing for vulnerable families in the city.