Francisca, 74, faces eviction after property is reclaimed: ‘I can’t put into words how I feel’

In 1992, she was living in La Florida, a neighbourhood situated in Trapiche Norte, in the area where the bus station is located today. It was home to more than 50 families, most of whom lived in houses built in a ravine, whilst the rest lived in shacks. La Florida was one of those places that former mayor Jesús Gil set his sights on as part of his plans to ‘clean up’ marginalised areas, and the settlement disappeared.

Gil was in charge at the time, but he wasn’t the one who spoke to the residents: "They expropriated our land; the people - including those living in the shacks - were given homes in El Ángel [the neighbourhood of San Pedro Alcántara where social housing was built] and elsewhere, but they didn’t give me one because they said there weren’t any more, though Julián Muñoz told me they’d give me one,” Francisca said.

Francisca did not live in a shack, but in “a two-storey house with two bathrooms”, which she had moved into from the room where she had been living in Marbella after buying it - “with great sacrifice” and “in front of a notary” - in 1990 for 1,800,000 pesetas (the equivalent of 10,818.21 euros, although at the time the national minimum wage stood at 300.57 euros a month).

Needless to say, she was never granted social housing, but Gil did not leave her in the lurch. He gave her a house in the Divina Pastora neighbourhood and, in 2002, the council rehoused her in Las Terrazas de Marina Marbella, near La Bajadilla port.

“Julián Muñoz handed me the keys; I can’t read or write and I thought it was a council flat that they were giving me because of the expropriation,” she said. But that wasn’t the case. In reality, it was nothing more than a "temporary assignment", although she was able to continue living there until 2014.

And that year, it was back to square one. The town hall, then run by the Partido Popular, did not leave her out on the street either. She was rehoused in a house on Calle Príncipe de Vergara – the very same property now facing an eviction order. The council never paid rent for that house, simply because it was believed to be municipal property.

The property was used as social housing, but in reality it was never registered in the land registry in the council’s name, and now the company that owns it has come forward; it is this company that has brought legal proceedings in a court in Marbella to force Francisca to leave the property. When asked how this could have been possible, there’s always a saying in Marbella to sum it up: "That’s just how things were with Gil."

So far, “the Gil business” has led Francisca, first, to lose her home and now to face eviction at the age of 74 whilst living on a non-contributory pension. “How do I feel? I can barely eat, I’m on medication… This has left me feeling completely overwhelmed because finding myself in this situation at my age is really hard to bear. I can’t put into words how I feel,” she explained.

The council insists it will not leave her in the lurch. “We are exploring every possible avenue to find a solution and are confident that the woman will be able to stay in that house if that is what she wants,” municipal sources explained.

The council is in talks with the company to reach a solution and has also approached the court to prevent the eviction, as has Francisca’s new solicitor, who has applied for interim measures to prevent this Marbella resident from having to leave the house at 11.30 am on the 28th. Meanwhile, the campaign group ‘Un Techo por Derecho’ has called for a rally next Friday at 7pm in Parque Alameda under the slogan '¡Francisca se queda!' - ‘Francisca stays!’