Massive demonstration in Barcelona for the right to housing. In the absence of an official count, thousands of people, summoned by the Tenants’ Union under the slogan “it’s over, let’s lower the rents”, have been demonstrating since after 5 p.m. through the center of the city. In addition to the columns arriving from more than ten neighborhoods, organized demonstrators from towns and villages throughout Catalonia came to the capital, a sign that the housing problem goes beyond the greater Barcelona area.
Demonstrators march through the streets of Barcelona to support the demands of the Tenants’ Union: a 50% reduction in rents, permanent contracts to put an end to the “insecurity” of tenants, recover empty, tourist and rental apartments for residential use and. impose high taxes on multi-owner annuitants.
Additionally, he called on tenants to organize to “march to a rent strike.”
In the market, there are many young people who have difficulty becoming independent. This is the case of Sergi, Adri and Joan, three friends from Castelldefels (Barcelona), who stay with their parents even though they work because they cannot find an affordable apartment in their town. “My parents’ neighbors pay 1,600 euros in rent. I can’t face it alone,” laments Adri.
More veteran assistants are also expressing concern about what will happen when their contracts expire. “I still have a few years left, but I am already afraid of ending up like my sister, whose landlord has not extended the rent because she wants to rent a seasonal rental,” laments this resident of Poble-sec, who criticizes his neighborhood “has made the construction of tourist apartments impossible”.
A month after the massive demonstration in Madrid, the Barcelona march takes over the protest against the increase in rent prices, which are increasingly unaffordable for many working families. Housing is one of the priorities announced by the government of Salvador Illa, but medium and long-term public policies contrast with the urgency of many families.
In the Catalan capital, the average rent price is 1,132 euros per month, or 70% more than ten years ago, according to official data. Wages are far from this increase, which has expelled many Barcelonans from the city where they were born and where they would like to live. To the cocktail we must add the increase in seasonal rentals and rooms, the journey of several owners to escape price regulation.
In press statements, Tenants Union spokesperson Carme Arcarazo called for the protest to be a “turning point.” And it targets landlords whose lifestyle involves collecting rent. “Enough of rentiers getting richer while we are poorer,” he proclaimed, before addressing the Socialist Party: “Enough of cosmetic policies, these are real policies and not excuses for competition, because there is a party that governs in Madrid, Barcelona and Catalonia.
