Families evicted as Spain debt pain hits home

Grim-faced and flanked by riot cops, two bailiffs arrive on Consuelo Lozano's doorstep in Madrid to evict the latest victim of Spain's burst property bubble. Police shove away a crowd of her friends and neighbours, dragging off several by the arms and legs. The 60-strong crowd yell obscenities at the police as they pinned back by a line of riot shields. "Shame! Injustice! Banks are robbers!" A 40-year-old unemployed cleaning lady, Consuelo is the last of her family to quit their first-floor flat in Torrejon de Ardoz, a largely immigrant suburb in northern Madrid. She had already sent her two sons and daughter back to her native Ecuador with her husband to spare them the trauma of eviction, before authorities forced her too to leave on foot on a cold November morning. But she cannot walk away from her 200,000-euro mountain of debt. "This has destroyed my family. The bank has taken the house. It's theirs now, I'm not going to fight for it," Consuelo tells the crowd, holding back tears. "But they're trying to reclaim double the value of the house. I told them I cannot pay this. I have nowhere to go. They said go to a shelter," she added. Like many immigrants in Spain, Consuelo's husband Jaime found work as a builder during a construction boom of 1998-2008 and was persuaded in 2006 he could buy his home with an easily obtained mortgage -- more than 220,000 euros ($270,000). And like many of the five million people now unemployed in the country, he was left jobless after the speculation-driven bubble burst, leaving him deep in arrears. Outside Consuelo's door, until he is shoved away by police, is Chema Ruiz, the bespectacled spokesman for the Platform for those Affected by Mortgages (PAH), a volunteer network that supports people facing eviction and confronts the bailiffs. "We are going to talk to them and try to convince them that an injustice is being committed and that they cannot leave these people in the street because they have nowhere to go," Ruiz said. Joining other grassroots groups, PAH has held numerous peaceful blockades at evictions in recent months, pushing for changes to the law to protect homeowners it says are victims of exploitative bank lending. It demands a moratorium on evictions, a law to protect mortgage holders from disproportionate hikes in repayment rates, and the creation of a public stock of affordable social housing. Protestors, publicising their actions via Twitter and other online platforms, say they have helped to postpone evictions in some cases, including two in the Madrid area in late October. But the PAH estimates that 300 families are still being evicted every day across Spain. The evictees are front-line casualties of an economic crisis that brought Spain from strong growth a decade ago to widespread hardship. Spain's unemployment rate has reached 21.5 percent, the highest in the industrialised world, and spending cuts are already affecting healthcare and education services in some regions. The conservative Popular Party that swept to victory under its leader Mariano Rajoy in last Sunday's general election has warned that in order to control Spain's deficit, more deep cuts are on the way. "It's all the fault of the banks," said dreadlocked protestor Nicolas San Martin, 29, unhurt after being peeled away from Consuelo's doorstep by police and pushed back into the crowd. "It's going to get worse with Rajoy." Across the street at number seven, Luis Mendes, a 40-year-old immigrant from Guinea Bissau, awaits a visit from the bailiffs the following morning. Like Consuelo's husband, he grabbed an easy bank loan to buy his home 10 years ago while he worked as a builder, only to find himself jobless and owing the bank nearly 140,000 euros. "I want to negotiate with them. The mortgage is increasing. I don't have the money to pay it," he said. "If they throw me out, I can't stay in the street. In this weather it's not possible. It's getting cold," added Mendes, dressed in a thin jacket and woolly hat. "I don't know what I'll do." PAH says two other families also face imminent eviction in this very street. The protestors vow they will be there again to try and prevent it. "You, you," they bellow in the crowd, addressing their fellow citizens. "This could happen to you!"