Pilar, in tears: "I have contributed for 40 years and now I sleep in the car"

PalmaPilar López Cabrera, 65, explained this Thursday, through tears and during the Palma plenary session, the ordeal she is living through after having lost her home. "I am Spanish and have 40 years of contributions, but I have spent the entire summer sleeping in my car," she recounted. During the months of July and August, she claims that she slept inside the vehicle, washed herself in establishments like Eroski or Mercadona, and showered every morning at the Ciutat Jardí showers.

Pilar had been living in a rental home on Joan Crespí street since 2012, which this summer passed into the hands of a vulture fund. According to her account, the fund sent her intermediaries and, at one point, even offered her 60,000 euros to leave the apartment. A few days before the eviction, she claims another person allegedly offered her 10,000 euros.

Her economic situation is especially delicate. Pilar claims that she receives a pension of 480 euros and that the loss of her home has left her in a situation of vulnerability. She explained that she left the Gerónimo Pou hostel on June 22 and that, after finding no alternative accommodation, she ended up living temporarily in her car.

Her residential journey has been long and marked by various situations of precariousness. According to her explanation, she lived for 16 years in a Civil Guard barracks, from which she left, always according to her testimony, after suffering a complicated situation. Subsequently, she went on to live as a tenant in a garage, in another illegal dwelling, and, finally, she accessed the Joan Crespí home through La Caixa until this June.

Pilar also recounted the difficulties that, according to her, she has in accessing emergency accommodation resources. She asserts that she suffers from an illness that requires certain hygiene conditions and that some of the shelters she has been able to access do not adapt to her needs. "I accessed shelters, but given the illness I have, regarding hygiene, I cannot put myself just anywhere," she stated.

She also explained that she is waiting to receive diapers and that, due to supply problems, on certain occasions she has had to turn to a friend.

Currently, as she explained, she is staying in a hostel in Secar de la Real, but she does not know how long she will be able to live there.

Despite everything, Pilar wanted to make it clear that she has no intention of leaving Mallorca. "I am not leaving this island," she stated. She detailed that she has lived in Mallorca since 1987 and has claimed her years of contributions and her connection to the island. "I am as Mallorcan as anyone else," she concluded.

"In Palma we have many 'Mari Carmens'"

The representative of the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages, Àngela Pons (PAH), has endorsed Pilar's testimony during her speech at the plenary session. "In Palma we have many Mari Carmens", she said in reference to the 87-year-old woman who has been evicted by a vulture fund.

The representative of the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH), Àngela Pons, endorsed Pilar's testimony during her speech at the plenary session. "In Palma we have many Mari Carmens," she stated, in reference to the 87-year-old woman who was evicted in Madrid by a vulture fund.

Pons began her speech by singing "Yo soy español" (I am Spanish), a proclamation that was chanted by some of those present at the plenary. The activist wanted to denounce in this way, as she explained, the existence of first and second-class Spaniards which, in her opinion, is promoted by the current rulers, whom she qualified as "hypocrites." "It is not an insult, it is a fact," she added. The Mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, called her to order and asked for respect. "We are lax and allow her to intervene in every plenary session, but according to the regulations we could choose not to," he remarked.

From the PAH, Pons also denounced the situation of the people living on the Son Bordoy land, where, as she explained, there are about 200 people in sub-standard housing who will be evicted from the site due to the construction of a new housing development. One of the most tense moments of the intervention came when Pons asked Martínez to look her "in the face." From the benches, some of those present chanted the same request.

The PSOE councilor of Palma, Xisco Dalmau, pointed out that "the situation is increasingly deteriorating" and that, with the start of the political term, "housing is once again the main humanitarian problem of this city." Dalmau explained that in recent days the case of Mari Carmen has become known and that this Thursday the plenary session also heard that of Pilar, "a person who was evicted from her home half a year ago and who precisely now has nowhere to live, in a very delicate health situation." "This municipal government, instead of attending to, listening to, and providing an answer, is turning its back on it," he lamented.

For her part, the spokesperson for MÉS per Palma, Neus Truyol, has asserted that "for many years this city has been suffering from a housing access crisis" and that there are "very many families who have a job but cannot make ends meet because they cannot pay the rent prices or the mortgages that are on the market". According to Truyol, the PP in the City Council "is implementing policies against this priority of families" because it "incentivizes real estate speculation and does not address these problems that families experience daily". As an example, the eco-sovereigntist cited the 200 people who, as she has denounced, will be evicted from Son Bordoy without a housing alternative, as well as the case of Pilar, who "is also living on the street and also has no housing alternative".