Tomorrow he will be 50 years old. A date to celebrate if it were not because that same day, at 11 in the morning, she may be forced to leave the apartment where she lives with her minor children, 17 and 14 years old, if finally, as announced, the judicial launch, which was already postponed in May for this new date, after the complaint of the owner of the property that Barbara Concepcion Bello It has been rented for more than a year and a half on the fourth floor of the Cumbres de Güímar building, in that same municipality. The landlord denounced the non-payment of the rent -600 euros per month- in December.
Barbara acknowledges that “I have not been able to pay her because since the state of alarm has closed the hotels and I have not been able to work as a chambermaid, I could not even enter the ERTE because my job was temporary. He only had a help of 450 euros per month for six months for being a victim of gender violence, “he says while showing us one of his legs, which he has operated after a beating that his ex-partner gave him shortly after arriving at the apartment that he now shares with her two youngest children – the oldest daughter no longer lives with her.
Since then she has managed on her own to be able to live badly, her children’s studies being her priority and for this she has started working again as a chambermaid, “but only single days, this month for example I have only been six,” she says. He relates that the Social Services of the Güímar City Council are aware of the situation, but they always tell him the same thing: “We do not have free houses in Güímar” and also points out that “they tell me that every day seven or eight people pass through Social Services in the same situation, looking for a house ”. Months ago he received a check from Hiperdino for food from the council for 120 euros and now he usually goes to the Espacio 16 association to collect non-perishable food.
Barbara has the support of the Platform for Dignity, whose lawyer takes her case, but not so from her neighbors, “because almost everyone looks at me with a bad face,” she says, acknowledging the possible friendship with the landlord, who on the other hand is registered in the apartment occupied by Barbara and her children, which makes it even more difficult for her to defend herself before the Justice, despite the fact that there is supposedly a moratorium promoted by the State Government that prevents evictions at least until October.
Both the platform’s lawyer and the Canarian Housing Institute have asked the Court to stop the launch, relying on a “vulnerability” report from Güímar Social Services.