Call of attention of the Council of Europe to Spain for the problems of access to housing. The European Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, has asked the Spanish Government to extend the measure of suspension of evictions and releases of habitual residence for vulnerable people and families beyond December 31. The activist and human rights expert also urges the approval of the housing law “as soon as possible”, which is currently in the parliamentary process.
In a statement with the preliminary conclusions of his visit to Spain last week, Mijatovic maintains that “housing should not be perceived as a good that is only available to some people. Access to adequate housing is a fundamental human right for the full enjoyment of most other rights”.
The commissioner, who reports to the Council of Europe, maintains that the problem comes from afar and that it is a consequence of the reduced social housing stock "due to years of little public investment, the high costs of renting or buying a house, forced evictions and the increase in homelessness. In this context, she maintains that the temporary suspension of evictions that was decreed with the covid crisis "must be extended" and target the most vulnerable "until a broader and more stable alternative accommodation solution is found."
Thus, the current European Commissioner for Human Rights endorses part of the demands of various organizations in Spain that denounce the shortage of affordable housing and housing alternatives in the event of eviction. This is the case of the Movement for Decent Housing and the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH). Organizations that demand that rental price controls be implemented and that the homes and land belonging to Sareb - known as a bad bank because it was created to dispose of the toxic assets of financial institutions - become a public park.
At the moment, negotiations continue so that Congress gives the green light to the housing bill, approved in the Council of Ministers last February and sent to the Congress of Deputies for processing by the urgent procedure. The project remains stuck in Parliament after receiving more than 800 amendments and due to disagreement on key aspects that exists between the partners of the coalition government, such as the request by United We Can to introduce a cap on rental prices in the so-called areas of stressed market. Despite this, the Executive of Pedro Sánchez hopes to reach a consensus in the coming weeks.
