Badalona City Council has extended funded hostel accommodation for six families evicted from Carrer de Covadonga by 15 days, after they were unable to find housing themselves. The families are among around 80 people who had to leave 20 flats in the Sant Roc neighbourhood because of damage to their building.
The council expects the building at numbers 14-16 to be propped up during the extension, a necessary step before residents can return, the Catalan News Agency (ACN) reported on 10th November. The initial emergency accommodation period was due to end that night.
A group of affected residents gathered outside the municipal government building to demand somewhere to sleep. Badalona Comunicació, a local news outlet, separately reported the two-week extension on 10th November.
Residents asked for accommodation funding to continue
The Sant Roc Som Badalona platform, a local residents’ group, said the council had initially considered the possibility of accommodating up to 17 families and had set aside a corresponding budget.
Eleven families subsequently found their own solutions, according to the group. It asked the council to use the money intended for those families to extend the funded stays of the six who had not found accommodation.
ACN reported that, apart from those six families, the displaced residents had managed to stay with relatives. The extension allows the families receiving emergency help to remain in hostel accommodation while the building is made safe enough for a return.
Cracks led to the evacuation
The residents left their homes after a woman reported cracks in the ceiling of her flat. The Guàrdia Urbana, Badalona’s municipal police, and firefighters attended the building.
The fire service’s collapsed structures group assessed it as being in very poor condition and concluded that residents had to leave, ACN reported. An earlier report published on 6th November said the block would need repairs before it could be habitable again.
In that earlier report, Mayor Xavier Garcia Albiol said the council had acted responsibly towards people without an alternative place to live, while saying it could not provide everyone with a flat. He described the emergency response:
“We are acting to deal with the initial shock.”
Albiol also called on flat owners to take corrective action, saying the public administration could not carry out renovations on private properties. The council’s estimate for propping up the building is two weeks.
Sources: La Vanguardia, liniaxarxa.cat (ACN), bdncom.cat.
