DANIEL SOMOLINOS Madrid

Madrid

Updated Tuesday,16January2024 - 00:49

"When he's high, with his eyes like they're out of their sockets, it's really scary. He once pulled out a machete and chased a married couple down the landing... If they didn't take refuge in another neighbor's house, I would probably have killed them."


Tejedores, in the district of San Blas, is an example of a traditional street on the outskirts of Madrid: rows of almost identical buildings, with hanging garments decorating the façades, colourful but worn. Of hard-working neighbors who leave at dawn and don't return until nightfall. But in one of its blocks, number 37, the tranquility is broken.


Here, for 24 years, lives a family of Roma ethnicity that was placed by the Institute for Rehousing and Social Integration (IRIS), belonging to the Community of Madrid. His neighbors are "tired of screaming in the early hours of the morning, beatings and continuous parties." Of "drug dealing". And of buyers who even "call other intercoms asking 'where is it sold'".


They also speak of a "violent, rude and disingenuous" family man. "He didn't treat his wife well because when he drank, he lost his mind... And he drank well. In the end, she grabbed her young son and left, she couldn't take it anymore. And for me to make that decision, being a gypsy, which you know are much more traditional... what would the hell I lived in be like," says a homeowner who, like the rest of the neighbors who have spoken to this newspaper, opts for anonymity for fear of reprisals.


It recalls that, at that time, plaintive "bangs and screams" could be heard throughout the building. Although one of the most "serious" episodes occurred in 2019. On one of those nights of "racket and stomping," the couple who lived just below went upstairs to ask them "please" to stop the noises since the husband got up at 2:40 a.m. to go to work and their nine-year-old son had school.


"They made it impossible for them to live together. So they went up. When they called, one of the sons, drugged, opened the door, and he did not take their request well. 'You're coming to fuck around,' he told them. That's when he pulled out the machete, which was a considerable size, and they started screaming. With the commotion, a neighbor opened the door and they were able to take refuge in their house. If she hadn't been there...", says another owner. The police came, "the gypsies denied it", and that was the end of the matter.

But that couple, after having "their windows urinated from the terrace above", "spit and paper with snot thrown at them during the pandemic" and even the dogs "defecated" on their doormat, decided to leave their flat, despite paying a social rent of only 300 euros, and flee away from that block.

One of the Weavers landings, 37.E. M.

Today, and although more than two years have passed, this problem, instead of being solved, "has multiplied". Because the property they left behind "has been squatted by one of the sons of the gypsy family". A fact that, together with the machete episode and other similar ones, have been included in a complaint filed at the San Blas police station this past December 16, after a long time avoiding taking that measure for fear of a 'vendetta'.


"This squatter is a savage. Forgive me for saying it like that. When he gets high, he screams, he plays the music at full volume... And he doesn't treat his partner well either. The police are called every now and then, but when the patrols arrive they can't do anything. They ask them and they say they're just playing."

And another resident says: "One day, as soon as the agents left, he started banging and kicking all the doors shouting 'who was it'. I was looking for the person who had called 091. It was like a horror movie."


All this scenario, they explain, is generating anxiety, sleep problems, blood pressure surges... in addition to seeing how, day after day, the value of their properties is devalued. They are trying by all means to reverse this situation as they fear a repeat of what happened on December 15 less than 100 meters away, on Lenceros Street, when a 48-year-old woman ended up in the hospital after receiving a hammer blow to the head after complaining about the noise caused by a tenant. "It's the feeling that until a misfortune happens, no one will do anything. And when it happens, what? Then everyone will throw their hands to their heads. When the police receive so many calls and from different people..."


From the Housing area of the Community of Madrid, when asked by this newspaper, they confirm that the IRIS received a complaint in relation to this family. They add: "Social workers will contact the property manager so that, if there are new recent complaints, they will begin an immediate intervention."


Words of relief in a jaded community: "There are a lot of people who want to leave. If I had money, I would have left by now. It's very clear to me. But that the honest people have to leave and the troublemakers stay..."