Authorities in Sant Adrià del Besòs have faced days of unrest as they move to clear 58 public flats on the Rambla in the La Mina neighborhood. The flats were occupied nearly a decade ago. The Consorcio de la Mina is leading the operation, which involves a impressive police presence and is set to continue through the end of the year. Originally intended for residents displaced from the deteriorating Venus building, the flats had stood empty for years before being occupied en masse.
The situation escalated last week when police began removing families from the first group of apartments. Authorities tried to secure the vacated properties by sealing entrances and deploying security, but two cleared flats were reoccupied within days. One was taken over by the same family that had just been evicted. Information from local reports, some families say they have nowhere else to go and plan to return each time they are removed.
On Thursday, three families with children were evicted amid heightened tensions and confrontations between residents and riot police. The following Monday, two of those flats were reoccupied, while authorities cleared four more apartments. Further evictions are scheduled for the coming week, with dozens more households expected to be affected before the end of the year.
The Consorcio de la Mina, which brings together Barcelona and Sant Adrià, as well as Badalona and the Generalitat, faces a complex challenge. Many current occupants are considered vulnerable, and their removal has drawn support from neighbors and local housing organizations. The public flats are part of a long-delayed plan to rehouse residents from the Venus building, a 244-unit block whose demolition has been discussed for more than two decades but has never gone ahead.
La Mina, a neighborhood marked by low incomes and persistent social problems, has struggled with drug trafficking and recent outbreaks of violence, including shootings. Local authorities have repeatedly called for urgent intervention, arguing that the problem exceeds the capacity of a city with fewer than 40,000 residents. The latest change plan for the area, presented by the regional government in late 2025, aims to complete the relocation and redevelopment by 2028. The current evictions form the first phase of that effort.
Public housing in Spain is managed at both municipal and regional levels, with long waiting lists and frequent disputes over allocation. The Venus building in La Mina has become a symbol of stalled urban renewal. The ongoing evictions expose the difficulty of meeting residents’ social needs and legal requirements while maintaining public order in some of Catalonia’s most deprived neighborhoods.
