Mortgage Nightmare: Increasing Protests in Spain as Forced Evictions Continue to Rise
Increasing Protests in Spain as Forced Evictions Continue to Rise
After a record number in 2012, forced evictions in Spain have become the symbol of a crisis that shows no signs of improving. Next year isn’t likely to be any better, but with more attention now being paid to those losing their homes, relief in the form of legal reform may soon be on the way.
Joan Peinado Garrido, 59, can’t sleep at night and he’s lost his appetite. He takes various medications and, has resumed stuttering when he’s upset. The frail man gently guides his 86-year-old mother, María José, from the tiled kitchen to the living room.
The old woman uses a cane and is dependent on her son’s help for more than just walking. For half a century, the family has been living in the white corner house at 52 Avenida Mediterránea in the town of Vidreres, near the provincial capital of Girona northeast of Barcelona. Now, Peinado has to vacate his home — and he has no idea where he, his unemployed daughter Mireilla, 28, his seven-year-old grandson and his mother will find lodging.
It smells like cleanser in the house. The floors of the kitchen and bathroom are sparkling clean, and the wineglasses are arranged in neat rows in the living room glass cabinet. Grandson Marc has created a nearly perfect circle with his toy cars in front of his bed. His grandfather sleeps on a nearby cot. There are no boxes or other indications that the family is about to move.
Some 400,000 eviction proceedings have been opened in Spain since 2007, with roughly half of the families involved having already lost residential properties due to foreclosures. For most of them, these were their homes. Now, in the fifth year of the financial crisis, the evictions have become an iconic image of the country’s economic plight. During the first six months of this year alone, the Consejo De Poder Jucicial, a professional association of judges, registered 94,502 repossessions — and the evictions reached a record 532 a day during the first half of 2012.