The 48 families who reside in the building located at number 42 Isla de La Graciosa street in San Isidro (Granadilla de Abona) deny an offer of social rent or money to abandon their homes and confirm that they are receiving the judicial communication by which will be evicted on the 17th. With this, they deny the Desokupa company, which tried to evict the property between Wednesday and last Friday.
The neighbors who reside in this building as occupants, some of whom have done so for more than a decade, expect the arrival of between 30 and 40 members of the company dedicated to vacating homes tomorrow. David Esteve, head of Desokupa, announced on Friday – through a publication on social networks – that he would return with that staff and a purpose: «Now we are going to vacate you yes or yes. I can guarantee you that.”
Esteve leads a company whose actions have generated much controversy. He was the one who made public that the property offered the neighbors a social rent of 450 euros per month per dwelling and that eleven of them signed agreements to leave their homes in exchange for 1,500 euros per apartment for a provisional rent elsewhere. Likewise, he defended Desokupa’s intervention in this building as legal, having communicated it “via online” to the Granadilla de Abona City Council. The Consistory claimed to have evidence of only one communication, but denied having the power to intervene.
Without water and with little light
All the extremes were denied yesterday by the neighbors who last Wednesday saw how a Desokupa team entered the building through one of the portals to the roof, where they replaced the door with another anti-squat, “broke several solar panels and disconnected the tanks of water”, according to those affected, leaving the residents without drinking supply and, partially, without electricity.
There are more than 150 people who reside in this building, among which minors and elderly predominate and who make up families that receive the minimum vital income, others who are affected by the application of an ERTE, unemployed and/or in a situation of vulnerability. . They have resided in this building since the beginning of the 2007 crisis as squatters, “with verbal permission from those who governed Granadilla de Abona at the time, but they have done everything to adapt and equip the property.” They maintain that they want to regularize the situation and pay a social rent. At the moment, they have the support of social groups and the surrounding residents, who remain in the area before the announcement that Desokupa will return with more troops.
To collaborate
The Tenants’ Union of Tenerife (SIT) calls for collaboration and resistance, ensures that those who live in the building “have authorization from the institutions” to do so, but the property “has been acquired by a limited company that now wants them take to do business”. From this group they remember that it is a building that “was abandoned” and that those who have inhabited it for more than a decade are those who have cleaned it up and provided basic services.
It should be remembered that David Esteve claimed to have reported alleged attacks and threats from neighbors to the cameraman of the team that starred in this week’s intervention and to the security guards who were left in the building, who had to leave their jobs, he said. Aspects also denied by the affected population.
