Neighbors evicted from Ibiza’s Don Pepe: “They’ve destroyed our lives”

The living room is crammed with boxes that have not been unpacked. “I’m considering where I’m going to put everything we own because this is smaller than our house and, more importantly, it’s temporary,” Santi Ignoto says wearily as he shows the Bon Sol apartments in Platja d’en Bossa his temporary accommodation. He appears to have slept little on his first night away from the Don Pepe, his previous home. He confirms: “I was able to fall asleep halfway because yesterday [Friday] I took every sleeping pill imaginable, for nerves, for depression…” She opens the door to the house’s sole bedroom, where she, her husband, Juan Fernando López, and her twelve-year-old daughter Leyre have spent the night in three beds adjacent to one another. “The only thing that this apartment has going for it is the air conditioning. We put it on yesterday, but neither it, nor the jacket, nor the three blankets kept me warm,” she explains. sSanti was “cold in the body” due to the “nerves and stress” he experienced last Friday when he was forced to vacate his rental apartment in the Don Pepe’s block A with his family.

Following the eviction, he went to the Sant Josep Town Hall with other residents to seek explanations from Mayor Ángel Luis Guerrero. She expressed dissatisfaction with the meeting. “It was a meeting designed to squander time. The mayor claims he is doing this for our health and safety, but by evicting us from our homes, he is effectively killing us,” Santi laments. The Consistory josep offers two-month extended stays in the Bon Sol apartments, so Santi and Juan Fernando are on the lookout for a place to rent that is affordable and, ideally, close to the Algarb secondary school in Sant Jordi, where their youngest daughter attends. They have found a flat in Vila that could be their new home, but the owners will not confirm whether it is rentable until the end of January.

Christmas in the absence of his mother

Santi and Juan Fernando had saved money to visit their family in Murcia and meet their now four-year-old second grandchild. Now, the funds must be spent “on a rented house.” Santi’s greatest regret, however, is that his mother, who also lives in Murcia, will be unable to join them in Ibiza for Christmas. “This will be the first Christmas without her in my 49 years,” she says, unable to hold back the tears. Oscar Rubio and Terje Heinoja have been sharing a third-floor apartment with their son Ian in the same building. O n Friday they finished moving out. The majority of their possessions are stored in a shed, in a space reserved for Oscar at work. “We only have clothes and necessities here,” he explains. “This is a temporary fix. My flat was paid for and furnished with everything. I feel  humiliated here,” he laments as he explains that the flat in which they have been rehoused in the Bon Sol lacks a washing machine. “At the very least, I have a roof over my head, but for a week, I’ve been psychologically shattered, trapped in a loop. Fortunately, I have my wife and son to assist me,” this neighbor explains.

Óscar purchased his flat in the Don Pepe apartments in 2003 and has not paid a mortgage in ten years. “At the age of fifty, I’m forced to restart from scratch. They’ve ruined my life,” he states emphatically. He works seasonally and his partner is self-employed, and they are both aware that they will need to work long hours to afford a house in Ibiza. “Renting a two-bedroom house like the one we had costs around 1,200 euros, and that’s before any deposit or advance payments,” he says. What is obvious to him is that the money they had set aside for her son’s education must now be spent on a house. Óscar and Terje are awaiting word on the nature of the assistance promised by the institutions to the Don Pepe’s neighbors before beginning their definitive search for housing. In the face of “a rather hazy future, uncertainty” kills them. Although scar retains a glimmer of hope that justice will vindicate the Don Pepe neighbors, he has serious doubts about his ability to ever return to his flat in es Codolar.

Don Pepe’s Block B turn

He is certain that after block A is completely evicted (stairs 1 and 2 in the summer of 2020, and this Friday’s 3, 4 and 5), and declared in ruins by the Sant Josep City Council, it will be block B’s turn. “This is a genuine social drama,” he insists before outlining what, in his opinion, is the best course of action: “The neighbors are not requesting money, but rather that the City Council of Sant Josep allow us to return to our homes and grant us permission to rehab the building.” That would be the simplest course of action if there was genuine political will”. Javier Gallizia and Rosario Garca, along with their son Francisco Javier, 19, and two dogs, Daya and Firu, have been relocated to another block of the Bon Sol apartments directly across the street, where the Don Pepe’s pet-owning neighbors are located. “This is not an apartment; this is a storage room,” Javier says as he opens the apartment’s door. The kitchen, living room, and bedroom are all located in the same space. There is no washer and the refrigerator is quite small. “I have our belongings spread across three locations,” he laments after the Sant Josep Town Hall offered the neighbours a storage space two days before the eviction.