Fatima arrived from Morocco to Vitoria in 2019. “I am a Basque from Morocco,” he says smiling in Basque, thinking about its Berber origins. He has osteomyelitis on one of his knees and the only chance he was given in Morocco to save his life was to cut his leg. The family migrated to avoid it.

In March 2020, Berakah donated the shelter to Fatima and her family, in the context of the containment of the pandemic, on one of its floors in the canton of San Marcos of the Casco Viejo de Vitoria. The Berakah Association is a social action program of the parishes of Santa Maria and San Vicente Mártir del Casco Viejo, which aims to “help the most disadvantaged” people of Vitoria-Gasteiz and receives, among others, the assistance of the Diocese of Vitoria-Gasteiz and the Caja Vital. The neighborhood has many infrastructure and assistance programs –food distribution, after-school activities for children, apartments and locals...– as well as religious – masses, processions...– . Hundreds of families (thousands according to their memory) in poverty participate in their initiatives.

Fatima, on the one hand, spoke thankful to the association, “we don’t forget that they gave us help and shelter,” but she spoke very critical of eviction and ways of doing in general.

Obedience and intransparency

Fatima says that Berakah wants to control the lives of those living on his floors, who put great pressure on them to participate in their activities and programs. It sets as an example the need to send children to after-school activities. In other neighborhood associations, some families have pointed out their participation in religious activities in Berakah, for fear of being excluded from the programme (e.g., food distribution). Fatima says she has never gone to Mass, but there are many who leave for fear, including those who are not Christians.

In any case, the lack of transparency is also a norm, according to Fatima. For example, when some families on the floors of Berakah started receiving the municipal emergency benefit (666 euros for the whole family), the association told them that they had to start paying 300 euros for the apartment. They assured them that it was a measure agreed with the municipal social services, but when everyone informed their social worker about the payments, they told them that they knew nothing, and that in order to pay for that, Bera had to make a rental contract – nor gave them any proof of payment.

“Then, all of a sudden we were told that 300 euros were not to be paid,” Fatima explains. Similar examples, such as the “arbitrary” distribution of food from the Food Bank.

Threats and eviction

Fátima says that housing in the canton of San Marcos is in “very precarious” conditions (wetting, walls or cracked roofs...). Last weekend there was a serious problem in the houses of the portal: “Cracks and leaks appeared, the water slipped down the lower floor of our house and feared electrocution, in houses with high humidity and some children started with respiratory problems.” He explains that they called the leaders of Berakah, but they responded that they would “wait until they go on vacation” or leave. However, out of fear of what was going to happen to them, they called the firefighters “because you couldn’t touch the roof because it was dangerous and they were going to make a report for the city council.” But no one took measures and followed with the door: first a Caritas worker; finally, the families of the three houses presented together in the municipal social services, “showed their concern”.

Those in charge of Berakah didn't like anything looking for help outside, and then they started, according to Fatima, the threats by mail and the order to leave the keys and leave the house. He says he showed his willingness to leave, but if he gave him any alternative, "not to stay in the street." He says that the threat message was taught to his social worker and that since then phone messages were cut and meetings were called from Berakahti: “They were watching if we had a phone or were recording.”

Then, in the two of the three houses of the portal the wetting and cracking on the Christmas dates appeared. (Photos: Bizi Auzoa)

Eviction

In this context, on 26 September, the order for execution of the eviction was notified. He had a period of two days to voluntarily leave his home – legally he should have received the complaint before the notification of execution, but it has not been so and has lost the opportunity to appeal. He has managed to delay execution for a month, but the family is very committed.

In recent weeks and days they have gained roles and paid work, but at the moment getting a rental is “impossible” (“they ask us for more than 2,000 euros and do not want children”). It calls for the social worker to move to a house in Etxebide and hopes that. Fatima has just left the intervention of an abdominal hernia that uses crutch for knee ostiomelitis. “I’m really bad, very afraid, we don’t know what’s going to happen.” He has long gone to the Bizi housing network in the Barrio de Alde Zaharra and together they try to cope.

Complaint and its results

Last week Bizi made eviction threats public in the neighborhood and asks residents to stay “vigilant” over the coming weeks. Members of the network have informed ARGIA that the three families in the canton of San Marcos are not an isolated case, as they have had prior knowledge of the evictions, eviction threats and abuses of Berakah. On this occasion, “they will defend the homes of the neighbors”.

Fatima is publicly denouncing his situation “so that no one else can live it”: “What I personally want is to leave the program without threats or abuses in order to live with dignity. But in Berakah there are many people in a very vulnerable situation, in a great situation of dependence,” he explains. “There is hope to organize,” says Bizi’s colleague who has helped the quote and Fatima agrees: “For a while, Berakah cut off some users of its floors, not since the court was publicly reported.”