On Wednesday morning, the Barcelona Urban Guard is evacuating the settlement of Pont de Calatrava, in the Sagrera neighborhood, in the same place where another shantytown was burned down yesterday. The City Council justifies the eviction with the imminent risk. Yesterday’s fire, which caused two injuries, occurred in a border area between the neighborhoods of La Sagrera and Sant Martí, in one of the peripheral spaces of the gigantic works of the future AVE station. Among those evicted there are families with children.
In Barcelona there are 64 settlements where 300 people live in poverty out of a total of 1,600 homeless people in the city, the municipality reported. The fifth deputy mayor of the City of Barcelona, Raquel Gil, last Tuesday lamented the lack of resources and collaboration between administrations in the face of phenomena such as settlements. “These phenomena exceed the capabilities of any city,” he said and considers “very important that the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, the Provincial Council and the Generalitat contribute resources, help coordinate policies and provide more adequate responses to put an end to multifocal problems that require a transversal vision.” Barcelona also maintains this position with respect to other phenomena such as the presence of homeless people in the areas of airports and large transport stations.
