X-ray of the squatting in Madrid: almost four usurpations a day and 15%, violent assaults

• Events: An assistant squats the house where she worked after the old woman she cared for died of Covid

• Housing The Madrid City Council creates an anti-squatter office to advise neighboring communities

In the first six months of the year,

, according to data provided by the Ministry of the Interior to this newspaper.

The sum is equivalent to a daily average of almost four usurpations.

It is the first time that the Interior and the Police offer official data on complaints about squats in Madrid.

In the portal of crime statistics of the Ministry of the Interior this epigraph does not appear.

Neither do the reports of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid and the Prosecutor's Office.

According to these statistics,

in the first half of the year, behind Andalusia with 1,183 squats and Catalonia with 3,611.

By provinces, Barcelona is the worst hit by these real estate misdeeds with 2,644 complaints compared to 657 in the Madrid region.

The phenomenon of squatting in Madrid reached its maximum ceiling in 2015 with 1,630 complaints in that year and was reduced at a later date until in 2019 it experienced a new rise with 1,441 complaints compared to 1,372 in 2018. Throughout this year The figures

when in the first six months there were 726 squats, compared to 657 this year, although we must take into account the two months of confinement when this criminal activity stopped.

However, the total number of squatted homes in the region is currently unknown.

And the social perception is that the phenomenon is increasing, since every week there are several cases of squatting that provoke

The Community of Madrid estimates that there are currently some 4,300 squatted houses in the region.

Slightly less than half (2,017)

dependent on the Housing Department of the regional government of Isabel Díaz-Ayuso.

The other 2,300 homes

in the region have been accounted for by the Community thanks to contacts with different legal and judicial bodies.

Of the 2,017 squatted homes in the Community of Madrid, a total of 300 have been attacked by force -which represents 15% of the total- "either by a kick in the door or by forcing any of their entrances violently" , they explain in the Department of Housing.

"The rest are occupied irregularly, but

" they emphasize from the department of the counselor David Pérez.

So far this year, the Community of Madrid has initiated

, a procedure that has allowed the Housing Ministry to rescue 200 homes in the last 12 months that had been taken from the old Ivima.

The Madrid City Council has also reacted to the usurpations of flats.

The mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, presented last week

This is the case of a plot on Antonio Grillo Street, in the Chueca neighborhood, and another building on the Carabanchel-Aravaca highway.

In 2016, the former government delegate, Concepción Dancausa, launched an Office for the Monitoring of Occupied Housing in coordination with the National Police.

This body has a telephone number (900 100 301) and an email address (madrid.ocupacioni@policia.es), which operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Since the Office was launched, the Police and the Civil Guard have identified some 4,200 squatters, according to Jupol, the majority union in the Police.

80% of them have a police record and 30% are in an irregular situation in Spain.

According to 2018 data,

The National Police estimates that there are at least 20 mafia groups dedicated to squatting homes.

Some confine this criminal activity in a single district of the capital and others are dedicated to looking for flats on the periphery of the region.

Only in the Tetuán neighborhood there are at least four gangs dedicated to committing these crimes, according to police sources.

"There are two groups of Moroccans, one Romanian and one gypsy," says an agent who has worked in the neighborhood for more than 20 years.

“They know it all and they themselves

They smash the door, put a new lock on it and turn it in with a key, ”says this official who assures that there are more and more entire blocks squatted, such as Moquetas 3 Street or Plátano Street.

«The other day a kid from the neighborhood came to explain to me that they had sold him a flat for 2,000 euros and that two weeks later the judicial commission came and evicted him.

He told me that he could not report them and that if we could do something, "says this veteran agent.

A young man who occupied a chalet in Eurovillas pointed out that he had paid 350 euros for the house to a clan.

He assured that they offered him an apartment in Fuenlabrada for 500 euros, a chalet in Valdemoro for 2,500 and an apartment in Usera for 1,000.

Depending on the bank that owns the homes, mobsters offer lower rates.

, since the launch procedures can take up to six years.

Pedro paid 1,500 euros in the Nueva Numancia de Vallecas neighborhood for an apartment seized by a bank from a family that could not afford the mortgage payment.

"I have lived here for five years and before the confinement I received the eviction letter," laments the married man with five children.

In this case the neighbors support him and assure him that he has not caused any problems in this time.

"I have told the bank to make me an offer to pay for the apartment, but they have not answered me," he says.

The Madrid Prosecutor's Office is waiting to receive

.

Among the dozens of cases of squatting there are unlikely issues.

Like an urbanization on Calle de Ronda de las Comunicaciones in Valdemoro where

after the developer that built them failed.

Only three have their rightful owners and it is easy to identify them because they are the only ones who have electricity meters in sight.

A bank has already taken over the homes this year and has already filed a complaint to evict the squatters.

In that same area of ​​Valdemoro, Zuloaga street,

four bedrooms, four bathrooms and a swimming pool.

One of the squatting tenants, José, a Dominican national, indicates that two years ago he paid 6,000 euros for the house to a clan.

On Nicolás Morales Street, in the Oporto neighborhood of Carabanchel, there is an entire estate that has been squatted for more than seven years that is owned by Sareb.

The block is a continuous source of insecurity problems.

Neighbors are terrified of squatters.

“We cannot go on living like this.

They threaten us and tell us that they are going to rape our daughters.

There are daily quarrels, stabbings and drug dealing, ”says Isabel, one of the neighbors.

The desperation of the neighbors has led them to beg the judge to

.

Last week they went to court 96 of Plaza de Castilla to ask the magistrate.

"We have a serious health problem due to squatting," says Mercedes.

"I can't sleep because of her and the only thing the doctor tells me is to increase my medication," she explains.

In several areas of the region the solution to squatting is provided by the neighbors themselves affected by the presence of intruders.

Thanks to the mobilization and pressure against the intruders, this week they have thrown squats in Aranjuez who had been in a chalet for 72 hours.

And the same happened in the urbanization of Eurovilla de Nuevo Baztán, another residential area in Colmenar de Oreja and another in Pezuela de las Torres.

Given the increase in usurpations, the sale of armored doors that can be purchased from 2,000 euros has doubled in Madrid.

Andrés has a company that already has a job for a year.

"

" he says, although he clarifies that the mafias already have systems to open 90% of the doors.

Daniel Estévez, the head of Desokupa, the company that recovers usurped homes, says that in five years they have returned 1,000 homes to their owners in Madrid, 5,200 throughout Spain.

Estévez points out that they

and that “they only negotiate for individuals and neighborhood communities.

We do not work for banks.

And he sentences: "Since May we have not seen such a problematic level of squatting."

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