Two previous evictions were stopped after the Cornellà city council issued reports certifying the couple’s social vulnerability . A third report was sent to court on Wednesday afternoon, a day before a new attempt to oust the couple.

The 45-year-old man, who lived with his partner, jumped out of the window after police knocked on his door on Thursday. He lived on the 10th floor. It was the third time that a judge had ordered the couple out of their apartment.

The suicide of a man who was was about to be evicted from his apartment in Cornellà de Llobregat , near Barcelona, has put the spotlight on the housing crisis once again.

“This apartment is owned by Banco Popular and the city council is considering taking legal action because we don’t understand the hurry and why this could not be postponed”

“This apartment is owned by Banco Popular and the city council is considering taking legal action because we don’t understand the hurry and why this could not be postponed,” said Montse Pérez, Cornellà’s local councilor for education and social policy. Pérez described the eviction as a “pure and simple” example of housing speculation.

The Bureau of the Third Sector (Taula del Tercer Sector), which encompasses more than 3,000 charities and social enterprises in Catalonia, says the dramatic incident in Cornellà reflects the situation of hundreds of families who can’t afford the cost of living in their homes anymore.

According to Francina Alsina, the president of the organization, the shortage of affordable public housing is only compounded by “exorbitant” prices in the renting market, as well as the impossibility of accessing empty buildings owned by banks.

Evictions due to unpaid rent

There were 2,591 evictions in Barcelona in the last year according to the General Council of the Judiciary (GCJ), and 85% of which were due to unpaid rent, according to the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH). This is a different problem to the situation half a decade ago, when the issue at hand was evictions due to unpaid mortgages.



The Catalan government is to put forth a law to extend rent contracts “at a minimum” for five years. In 2013, the Spanish legislature lowered the length of rent contracts from five to three years. According to Damià Calvet, Catalan minister of territory and sustainability, this has “put on the breaks for the continuity of people and families” in their homes, right at a moment “when prices went up.”

Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, known for her campaigning on a platform of affordable housing and her past as an activist against evictions due to mortgages, said that the "quickest" and “most efficient” formula to regulate the length of rent contracts and to avoid an “abusive rise” in rent prices is actually to “reform Spain's law on urban leasing.”