Vitoria, Spain: family of eight evicted, six of them minors

Vitoria evicts family of eight with six minors and no rental alternative

The door of an apartment in the Sansomendi neighborhood of Vitoria-Gasteiz gave way shortly after midday. Inside were members of a family of eight, six of them minors, who had been paying their rent on time for years. The court had ruled in favor of the owner, who was seeking to recover the property. The Ertzaintza (Basque regional police) entered the apartment after the family refused to open the door, and at around one in the afternoon the father, mother and eldest son came out. Two arrests were made.

Earlier, from early morning, hundreds of people had gathered in the surrounding area, called by the Sindicato Socialista de Vivienda (Socialist Housing Union). Many had spent the night there. There were moments of tension and police acted against demonstrators on several occasions. The eviction was carried out with no confirmed housing alternative.

A year searching for a rental home without success

The core of the case is not debt. According to those close to the family, they had spent a year trying to rent another apartment and no one would rent to them. The union's spokesperson, Ixone Santa María, argued that this is a large, migrant family, and that those are the reasons they could not find housing: "They know they suffer that rental market racism," she said.

That thesis — that the rental market discriminates based on origin and number of children — is what gives the protest its meaning. It is also the most contested. Against it stands the owner's argument: he wanted to recover his property and a court ruled in his favor. The tension between property rights and the right to housing remains unresolved in practice.

Why was a family that paid its rent evicted?

Because the contract was not open-ended. The owner stated his intention to recover the property several years ago, and the courts upheld that claim. This was therefore not a case of non-payment, but of a contract ending with a court order. The distinction matters: it explains why the case does not fit the usual narrative of eviction for debt, and why the family had spent months searching for a way out that never came.

The social response: encampment, tension and two arrests

The union's call managed to bring together hundreds of people from early in the morning. The encampment set up beforehand around the building anticipated the standoff. The Ertzaintza acted against some demonstrators at several points during the operation, and the official toll of the day ended with two arrests. The eviction was completed with the door broken down.

The episode reopens a debate that goes beyond Vitoria: what happens when a family meets its payments but the contract expires and the rental market offers no alternative? The protest was not against non-payment. It was against the absence of a way out.

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In the end, the figure that stuns: eight people, six minors, a year of searching and zero rental offers. The door came down in minutes.