Estudiantes de UEE convocan huelga en Cáceres el 4 de abril por alquiler abusivo
The students of Cáceres have requested a strike for April 4th in order to demand from the Mayor of Cacereño, Rafael Mateos, and the President of the Extremadura Council, María Guardiola, to respect the housing law by declaring Cáceres as a voltage area in the city due to the «absolutely unsustainable situation of rents,» according to educational education.
The city’s rents are around 770 euros, with individual rooms averaging 280 euros, depending on some rental agencies. The student organization considers the situation «critical» because, with these prices, it not only prevents a generation from developing their life project freely but also poses a threat to the viability of the campus.
«It is urgent to take action,» said Ángel Andreo, a student representative at the Cacereño faculty on campus, noting that Extremadura has the lowest emancipation rate in Spain, with only 13.5% of young people in the region living outside the family home, and these prices do not help this situation.
According to Andreo, the UEE’s own rector, Pedro Fernández, acknowledged that there was a «very serious problem with affordable prices for students,» so he publicly committed to measures with the mayor, but «we are in April without any vision solutions,» says the spokesman. «What scholarship can we get if our landlord behaves like this?» asks Paula Robles, a student at the veterinary school.
Therefore, the central demand of the strike is the declaration of Cáceres as a voltage area. «We constantly face intolerable abuses by the landlords of this city. They usually include the rent, garbage fee, property tax, community or real estate taxes, but they also enter our apartments when we are in class without permission or charge 30% from one semester to another,» said Andreo.
The Educational Assembly of Cáceres supports the April 5th strike organized by the housing movement in cities like Madrid, Seville, Valencia, and the rest of Spain, warning that «the problem here is greater» because the income per capita in Cáceres is 1,160 euros per month, according to NEI.
«Cáceres is already, de facto, one of the most tense areas in the country, based on the parameters and indicators of the housing law. The rental bubble has burst, and prices have increased by 17% in the last year. The rental market has completely detached from the real economy of students and families in Cáceres,» they say.
This situation is recognized by all, except for politicians who, as always, delay action. «All that is needed is for Rafael Mateos to take action for the whole city. Of course, the market must intervene. While the Bank of Spain defends itself, as it did in the pandemic with masks and antigen tests and the way it did with gas prices through the Iberian exception.»
As they affirm, the voltage area works because rental prices have already decreased by 6% in the 140 municipalities that declared it. «It is a useful, necessary, and good measure. No matter how much some may dislike the housing law, it does not give them the right to disregard it,» they conclude from the platform to stop abusive rental practices in the Cáceres district.
FUENTE
