Spain government criticized over housing crisis

A Spanish citizen movement has accused the conservative government in Madrid of failing to tackle the housing eviction crisis, as the number of people being removed from their homes continues to rise.

The Mortgage Victims’ Platform (PAH) made the accusation on Sunday, saying the measures imposed by the ruling People’s Party led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy have had no positive impacts on the crisis and have instead worsened the situation.

The PAH called for a number of measures, including a halt in evictions and the creation of a social rent pool.

In addition, the group called for the penalization of financial entities and big owners that are holding empty houses despite the housing crisis.

The comments come as official figures by the country’s Judicial Power General Council earlier this week showed that, in the third quarter of this year, 13,341 evictions took place, up 7.3 percent compared to the same period in 2013.

Of those who were evicted between July and September, 43.3 percent were forced out of their homes due to falling behind on mortgage payments, and 51.3 percent for unpaid rent and the remaining 5.2 percent for other reasons.

Spain has been struggling to deal with its worst economic crisis since the Second World War. In recent years, Rajoy’s government has increased taxes, frozen public salaries and limited spending on services such as education and healthcare.

Lack of jobs and the deepest austerity measures in more than 30 years have pushed the average household income in Spain down 10 percent since 2008.

A recent report showed that one in four Spaniards, or 11.7 million, are living in poverty, of which 77 percent are jobless and 61 percent are struggling to have a place to live.