Tent set up in front of a bank in Spain: 'Welcome to my home - Mortgage Victims'. Photo posted on Facebook by

'Afectados por la hipoteca'.

Firstly, we try mediating with the bank and going through official lines. But the authorities are drifting further out of touch with the reality for ordinary people, so this approach doesn't always work. So the family will receive notification that they will be kicked out in a few days time.We have thousands of people on our databases. Some contacts are other people who have been in a similar situation, others are concerned citizens who do not even know the person. Many neighbours also come because they may have being living in the same street for years. We set up Facebook events, use Twitter, we also contact local action networks. On each of the actions about 200 people show up, waving banners and making a lot of noise. Enough people gather to prevent the officials coming in. The protests are in same non-violent spirit as the ‘Indignado’ demonstrations; we don’t want conflict and the authorities simply turn around and leave. At least 50 evictions have been disrupted this way and the families are always grateful when the cavalry arrives.However, there are so many of these evictions, we have nowhere near the capacity to react to them all. We are thinking about retaking the homes in the next stage of protest. It is crazy that 700,000 properties are being left to crumble having never been lived in when families are forced into the streets.At first, back in 2009 when we set up as an advisory organisation, it was mainly immigrants who came to us. They were the first to be affected by the collapse of the construction industry and other jobs with precarious contracts. They also do not necessarily have the family support networks that native Spaniards have. I know countless immigrants have left been forced to leave because Spain turned out not to be the Eldorado they expected. Now, probably 70-80% of the people who come to us are Spanish-born. People tell us of their embarrassment of not being able to defend their property, but this movement and the high profile of these actions is taking out some of the stigma of evictions. There is a sense of solidarity among the people to wrestle against the authorities, who are very clumsily handling the crisis.