The pressure from the Arenys de Mar City Council (Maresme) to tackle the problems that arise in the promotion of social flats in Pla dels Frares, where the storage rooms located in the parking lot are used as housing by a dozen formerly supervised young people, have given rise to fruits and the Habitat Agency of the Generalitat has begun the process of evicting these spaces, some of which are also a center for dealing and other criminal activities, a fact that, according to the neighbors, they have been denouncing for more than two years.
The promotion of social apartments dates back to 2006 and it is from 2019 when the occupation mafias make their move and raid 35 of the 68 homes. Of these, Habitatge has been able to recover 29 through judicial procedures. The intense activity of the mafias has also led to the majority of the 26 storage rooms in the garage, linked to social promotion, being used for criminal activities. According to the first investigations, one of the tenants, who the police have already identified, would be responsible for renting these spaces where immigrant teenagers live poorly.
The neighbors, generally people with few resources, are frightened by the threats they receive from the squatters when they try to complain. “They threatened to kill my son when I told them he would call the police,” says a tenant.
The Generalitat, which according to Albert Toledo, director of Promoció d'Habitatge, "was aware of this problem last October" despite having a periodic inspection service, has been able to recover possession of two of these storage rooms. From now on, according to the director of the agency, Sílvia Grau, the residents of Pla dels Frares will receive letters reminding them of “the obligations of behavior and maintenance of the common spaces of the property” and another specific letter to the residents. tenants who are tied to the storage rooms by contract. “We give them ten days to remove all the utensils they may have accumulated in the space and give access to the inspectors.” If they do not collaborate or hinder official action, the head of Habitatge assures that “we will initiate legal proceedings to recover the storage rooms and try to identify those responsible” for the activity. An action that, they estimate, could last more than a year.
A situation that aggravates insecurity in the area and that the Councilor for Social Services of the Arenys de Mar City Council, Soraya Real, insistently claims is the danger of having the doors blocked. In collusion with some of the neighbors, those located on the first floor are inaccessible and under lock and key, which the Habitatge agency does not have. The police maintain an operation in Pla dels Frares after detecting that the storage rooms could be warehouses for drugs and stolen objects. In the parking lot, according to the neighbors, there is “a constant and suspicious movement of small camels that move with scooters.”
Since 2019, to avoid occupations, the Generalitat has activated a protocol that consists of placing armored doors in empty floors. “It is a reinforced and very expensive system of intelligent doors connected to an electronic system,” says Grau, which incorporates an alarm system that alerts the security forces of the attempted occupation.
The new government of Arenys de Mar, emerged from the last elections in June 2023, chaired by Estanis Fors, with an absolute majority of Junts, from day one, as Soraya Real reiterates, “we committed to addressing this problem and we have had "We had to be very hard so that the Generalitat would listen to us."
