The Jaume Collboni Government expressed this position during the presentation of a City Table to address homelessness in the Catalan capital, days after the large police operation cleared the space in Badalona.
The Deputy Mayor for Social Rights, Raquel Gil, stressed that the eviction was planned and that the situation of the building, where about 400 migrants had been living for two years, should have allowed the municipality and supra-municipal entities to generate a prior response.
“"Badalona must be a fundamental part of this response, but not the only one."
The mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, has ruled out offering a residential alternative, a fact which, according to Sònia Fuertes, means the evicted people will move, as they “have the right to do so”.
The lack of an immediate solution resulted in about a hundred of the affected individuals spending the night outdoors in front of the former institute. The spokesperson for Badalona Acull, Carles Sagués, lamented the situation, stating that there are now “dozens and dozens of people looking for ways to survive”.
The Barcelona City Council insists on the need for a country-wide agreement to address homelessness in a “cross-cutting” manner, a stance shared by the Ombudsman of Catalonia, Esther Giménez Salinas.
