Spain: Homeless People Take Over Vacant Apartment Buildings
March 4th, 2013Via: Guardian:
“Life changes when you lose everything,” says Manoli Cortés. “There was a time when I was happy just to work and look after my home. Now, at the age of 65, I have suddenly become an activist.” She is sitting in a typical Spanish living room: immaculately clean, filled with family photographs and dark wood furniture. Meanwhile, with its crisp, geometric lines, sliding French doors and private balconies, the exterior of her building looks much like any other newly built urban apartment block.
Look a little closer, though, and a different story is told. The afternoon sun shines down on concrete walls adorned with spraypainted banners and stencilled slogans, the most revealing of which reads: “Ni gente sin casa, ni casas sin gente” (No people without houses, no houses without people). This is Corrala Utopía, the first in a growing network of previously vacant properties in the Andalusian capital of Seville now occupied by victims of Spain’s ongoing economic crisis.
