The Tarragona Block is the nickname of the building located at number 84-90 of the street of the same name in the Eixample of Barcelona. It is a large building containing 120 rental flats, which are under pressure from tourist apartments, as there are currently more than 30 of the latter in operation and the owner's plan is for the whole block to end up being rented out by days to tourists, with the intention of evicting the more than 80 long-term residents who continue living there. For this very reason, this building has been the catalyst of a neighbourhood campaign that has now been taken on by the recently formed Socialist Tenants Union of Catalonia (SHSC), which this Tuesday, outside the front door of this building, has announced the start of a campaign that brings together, under the same demands, six buildings in different parts of Barcelona facing the same issue as the building in Carrer de Tarragona.
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The union, which was launched in May as the merger of several local tenants' unions, has launched a campaign entitled 'Let's expropriate tourist flats' to denounce that housing "cannot be both a right and a commodity", as asserted by the spokesperson of the organization, Marina Parés, who railed against the "tourist lobby" for the conversion of housing into tourist apartments, which degenerates into a "hell of social coexistence" for the permanent residents, who are often forced "to leave for the outskirts". For this very reason, the SHSC has managed to bring similar blocks in the Ciutat Vella and Eixample districts into the same campaign to jointly stand up for their rights, although no specific measures have been announced at the moment.
"Where am I going at 82 years old?"
Enrique, one of the affected residents of the Tarragona Block, took part in the press conference to relate his experience - personal but with much in common with other residents - since he recalled that in his building they had to put up with a long period of rebuilding work to adapt the flats to the new use, and then cope with the problems of tourists using flats in their building. "There have been fights, shouting, parties and on one occasion the Mossos d'Esquadra had to come because there were 24 people in one flat", said the neighbour, who asserted that the intention of the owner is "to get the residents to leave", with regard to which he asks a question: "Where am I going to go at 82 years old?"
In this context, the tenants' body has demanded from the authorities a halt to the granting of new tourist licences, the revocation of those already awarded so that they can be used for regular housing and the renewal of all the rental contracts of the residents in the affected buildings. "We need a society that guarantees universal housing access, in which the priority is to satisfy human needs with quality. Only the expropriation of all tourist flats and their control by the working class will ensure that they cease to be used for the tourist business," the union spokeswoman pointed out.