From 2008 to 2012, courts in Spain issued 455,000 eviction orders. Around 60 percent of these were carried out (CGPJ, 2012). The Spanish legal system means that those who default on a mortgage must continue to pay the mortgage, despite banks taking over the property. Evictions mean that the victims not only lose housing, they must pay the outstanding mortgage. Spain is estimated to have as much as 2 million empty houses, many of them owned by banks.
As a result of foreclosures, affectees gathered together to form the PAH (Association of Mortgage Affectees) in 2009. The PAH campaign has started taking over empty buildings to offer housing to evicted families. The aim of the campaign is to pressure the Spanish Government and banks to offer social housing. I will discuss the reasons families choose to participate in the campaign, the strategies used and the response of Spanish politicians.
