Reply #24: Spain losing the roof over its head

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http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1242441-spain-losing-roof-over-its-head

They are not beggars, or junkies, or “undocumented” immigrants. They are the “homeless”, and they are spreading like wildfire throughout the Spanish landscape. They have lost their jobs, their house, their furniture, their illusions, their hope. Instead, they live with a debt clinging to their ankles, one that will drag along after them for the rest of their lives.

Paradoxical as it may seem, the worst is not to be without a home, but what comes after the foreclosure. “I’m condemned for life to have no property in my name. I cannot collect a salary, or have a telephone contract, or buy a car, or pay rent if I don’t want them to come after me for the debt”, laments Elena Parrondo, sitting next to her husband in their flat in the Madrid suburb of Meco that they’re about to lose.

The only crime this middle-class couple have committed is to become unemployed. Her husband had a good salary in a construction job, but was dismissed in November 2010. Then came the day when this 42-year-old woman, unable to feed her four children, took a difficult decision: to stop paying the mortgage.

“On February 11, I didn’t even have the money to buy bread. With the €1,000 in unemployment benefits, we couldn’t afford the mortgage on the flat, which was €680. We weighed it up very carefully, and stopped paying the bill,” she explains, not with aplomb. Her attempts to renegotiate with the bank failed. Since then, she’s been living with an eviction order hanging over her head.