Carmena Halts The Sale Of 2,000+ EMVS Homes

29 July 2015 – Cinco Días

Manuela Carmena, the mayoress of Madrid has announced that the Town Hall of Madrid will not sell any of the 2,086 rented homes, owned by the EMVS (Municipal Company for Land and Housing or ‘Empresa Municipal de la Vivienda y Suelo’), to vulture funds and that it will put a stop to 70 planned eviction processes. Her statement came after a meeting on Tuesday with the “Yo no me voy” platform, supported by more than 220 residents in five of the affected buildings in the ‘Centro’ neighbourhood of the city.

The beneficiaries of the social housing rental properties owned by the EMVS across the city started to receive notifications and visits in 2012, informing them that their contracts would not be renewed. Previously that was something that had happened automatically, every two years, provided two requirements were fulfilled, in accordance with Decree 100/86: the household income must not exceed a certain level and the tenants must not own any property in the Community of Madrid. In total, 2,086 contracts of this type are currently in place across the city’s 21 districts.

The EMVS started proceedings against tenants who refused to leave their rented homes. “To date, there are 70 processes underway, but these families have now recovered their homes. No-one is going to be kicked out on the street. The Town Hall of Madrid is going to withdraw all of those processes. For us, the right to housing, as recognised by the Constitution, is fundamental”, said Carmena. The EMVS’s commitment extends to 2,086 homes. (…).

Manuela Carmena said that the Town Hall is now “making contact” with residents who are currently “confused” because they think that their social housing contracts are going to be terminated and that their homes are going to be sold. We will explain to them that the contract “is valid and that they will not lose their homes”.

The councillor has not denied the “immense distress” that these tenants have gone through, after finding out that they had to leave the homes they had lived in for more than 20 years. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días

Translation: Carmel Drake