Residents on Calle Peñón de Jolúcar in Torrenueva Costa have put up with, for six long years, squatters that have turned the house that they are illegally occupying into a rubbish dump

Neighbours living opposite say that three squatters (two men and a woman) live in the house, although the number of people squatting in the house varies, sometimes including children.

The squatters have been hoarding old mattresses, scrap metal, and trash collected off the streets and dumping it onto their patio (see photo by (MJ Arrebola).

They use the street in front like an open workshop, cutting up items with an angle grinder, making a racket, leaving a mess, including spilt oil which has ruined the newly laid street paving. Furthermore, according to the locals, the squatters run an illegal flea market.

Apart from the humans living their, owing to the insalubrious conditions in which they live, the place is alive with rats and cockroaches, say neighbours.

During these six years the squatters have tried making an illegal hook-up to the mains, causing a power outage in town and also an illegal connection to the municipal water mains, that caused a deluge. As they have no running water, they use the beach showers for the moment, but after summer they will be turned off, of course.

Lastly, all is not peacel and harmony inside because there are often loud arguments. Consequently, when that happens, neighbours keep their children indoors. According to one resident, two years ago one of their number attempted to break into a nearby house.

So what are the police doing about it? Well, apparently, the Policía Local have evicted them multiples times but within a few days each time, they move back in.

Surprisingly, locals are not calling for their eviction, but rather that social services take charge because they consider that the squatters are alcoholics and suffer from Diogenes syndrome, so all they want, they say, is a safe street and a healthy solution. As for the Town Hall, the locals say that they have offered no solution to the problem.

(News: Torrenueva Costa, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Squatters, Rubbish Tip, Unhealthy Living Conditions, Rats, Ilegal Street Market, Policía Local

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