Herri Labanderia will open this week: “Over the years we have recovered another space left by the City Hall for the neighborhood,” explained the housing network Etxean Bizi, one of the agents who participated in the initiative. The laundry will open to the public at 117 Correría del Casco Viejo street, in the area of the Casa Shower, closed 11 years ago. The municipal government justified in 2013 the closure of the municipal showers opened in 1948 for "an integration problem", during the mandate of Javier Maroto, but the members of EH Bildu stated that it was a "social cut" and that the site had an annual cost of 33,000 euros, according to GasteizHoy. According to municipal data, about 200 or 300 people used showers a year.

On 22 July, residents of the area tried to evict the officers of the Pamplona Municipal Police. “Herri Labanderia’s new space has been made public and the munips have appeared, in a very violent way and almost hit the neighbors with the car,” they explained from Bizi in the neighborhood. The neighbors "defended" the space and the municipal police did not manage to evict it.

No money for the washing machine

Auzo Bizi denounces that the City Hall and the entrepreneurs want to turn the Casco Viejo de Vitoria-Gasteiz into a “showcase”. "Gentrification and turistification processes lead us to leave our neighborhood: high prices of housing, intolerable noises, police presence and suffocating persecutions, privatization of public space, etc. they explained. The housing network has denounced that many residents of the area lack a washing machine or cannot afford the “big electricity costs” of their use. The Gasteiz Txiki Neighbours Association has applauded and supported the initiative.