A resident of the old Palma prison has accused the City Council this Thursday of breaking the promises made to the inhabitants and allowing them to continue living "surrounded by rats and garbage". "We were promised something and absolutely nothing has been done," she pointed out during an intervention at this Thursday's municipal plenary session.

The spokesperson for the Platform of Mortgage Affected People (PAH), Àngela Pons, has lashed out at the decision of the Palma City Council (PP with the support of Vox) to reject neighborhood requests to reverse the transfer of endowment plots to development companies for housing construction. Pons has censured that public land is being given away to put homes on sale for 270,000 euros or rental flats for 1,400 euros. "They are not limited prices nor reasonable rents," she criticized, before concluding: "They are giving away municipal land to rent flats for 1,400 euros".

One night like any other, Ariadna tucks her daughter into bed inside her home, a caravan. Every evening she faces the same uncertainty: how long can she live like this; when will the Administration recognize her right to officially exist where she lives? The girl is six years old and has been trying to register her address at her home for three years. Without success.

One October evening, as dusk fell, the local police arrived at Son Bordoy, a vast plot of land in the Molinar neighborhood where approximately 200 people live, including some with disabilities, victims of gender violence, and minors. "Two vans arrived, and I was scared. Suddenly, I asked what was happening, and they told me we had 10 days to leave the land," says Paco, a 24-year-old who has lived there and is registered as a resident for as long as he has. After all this time without having "any problems with anyone," as he claims, he now lives with the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen to his home.

The Platform of People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) Mallorca has denounced the lack of social housing for women victims of gender-based violence. In a statement, the group pointed out that, from the perspective of the right to housing, one of the groups most affected by the lack of solutions is that of women victims of violence. "The People's Party (PP) wants to talk about violence against women when they are the main abusers. Or are there no women involved in the evictions and expulsions they carry out to benefit their friends and associates? Or is there no violence against women in the expropriation of public land under the pretext that it is necessary?" The platform lamented that every month they witness new forms of institutional abuse against citizens "with the complicity of those who finance them: construction companies, real estate agencies, financial institutions, those who pay off debts and distribute profits using public assets and the economy."

Àngela Pons has been a volunteer for various causes since the 1970s, "when social services didn't yet exist." At that time, she was helping out at Can Gazà. She experienced the ravages of heroin, "a real scourge," and 14 years ago joined the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages in Mallorca (PAH), a free association that helps people struggling to pay their mortgages, rent, or facing eviction. Like many others, she selflessly dedicates her free time to defending the right to housing. "We're cooks, and I don't have any education. I had to work hard," she says, referring to skills she learned on the job, forced by the crisis generated by the real estate bubble and the rise in the Euribor, which left thousands of families homeless. "It seemed very unfair to me that, after years of paying the bank, they wouldn't give people a chance when the wealthiest people were getting their loans refinanced," she recalls of her early days. The worsening of the problem, which has become transversal and now extends to rentals, has led the association to expand its services. "Housing has become a inflated stock market product with which companies [investment funds and vultures] make a lot of money. Governments allow them to use housing for speculation instead of stopping the monsters and creating housing. In two years, they evicted 250,000 families," he criticizes.