Daughters evicted from home in San Isidro whilst their mother is in coma in hospital

The platform ‘El Pueblo Tiene Hambre’ (The people are hungry) denounced an eviction yesterday, which was carried out last Thursday of a family in San Isidro in the municipality of Granadilla, made up of a mother and her two daughters, who are aged 17 and 19 years old leaving them on the street.

After being told the news the day before, the mother, aged 47, who suffers from diabetes, had a hypoglycaemic attack, fainted, and fell to the ground suffering a blow to her head which caused her to have a stroke and left her in a coma from which she woke up yesterday in La Candelaria Hospital, where she remains admitted, as Alba, her eldest daughter, explained via the platform to Diario De Avisos.

The platform's spokesperson, Eloy Cuadra, stated that the family received a communication in January from Granadilla court to pay an outstanding amount that was owed from the social rent, warning them that if they didn’t pay it, the eviction would be carried out on February18th.

"The mother, who worked in a hotel until the pandemic arrived, paid the amount that was requested into the account in which she normally pays her rent, and understood that the matter had been resolved, but the eviction continued its course because the court was not notified" he explained.

Cuadra pointed out that the house has already been sold by the banks real estate company to a vulture fund, which is a foreign venture capital company destined to acquire properties at a low price and then sell them on, are the ones who initiated the eviction proceedings in court.

"In all the years that we have been on the street defending people who are worse off, we have rarely encountered a case of violation of rights and cruelty as flagrant as this one," said Cuadra, who questioned "why the royal decree that is in force prohibiting the execution of evictions until May 9th has not been respected, especially if the affected family has met the requirements established, including the existence of a minor in the household and low income”.

Cuadra said that the affected family had not approached the City Council of Granadilla “because they told him that if they paid the outstanding debt, everything would be solved, and when the eviction came they did not have time to react." Municipal sources confirmed that the notification of the launch scheduled for last Thursday (February 18^th) was never received in the Consistory.

Alba told DIARIO DE AVISOS that they have the receipts that show the payment was made. "We have a rental contract until September and we had to pay next in March, so we don't understand how the eviction could be carried out," she said.

The eldest daughter, who was in the mainland when the eviction process happened, confirmed that the intervention took place when the house was empty. "My mother was still in hospital and my sister was out, so they arrived, put the anti-occupation sign on the door and left." Currently her sister is staying with some friends of the family.

Alba plans to return to the island today as she was waiting to find a “cheap flight”, and admits that the family is devastated. "Where are we going to live if we don't have resources?" she wondered. Yesterday though she received good news: "My mother has woken up, now they are doing tests to see if she can move and speak ok."

For its part, ‘El Pueblo Tiene Hambre’ trust there will be a reversal in the courts. "We must return the house to this family because they have a valid rental contract and documentation that proves it," said its spokesman, who defends a protocol "so that when an eviction enters the court, a report is sent to the City Council for the record, and cases like this don't happen again”.