Tens of thousands of Spaniards protest housing crunch and high rents in Barcelona

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Tens of thousands of Spaniards marched in downtown Barcelona on Saturday to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in the popular tourist destination.

Protesters cut off traffic on main avenues in the city center, holding up homemade signs in Spanish reading “Fewer apartments for investing and more homes for living" and “The people without homes uphold their rights.”

The lack of affordable housing has become one of the leading concerns for the southern European Union country, mirroring the housing crunch across many parts of the world, including the United States.

Organizers said that over 170,000 had turned out, while Barcelona’s police said they estimated some 22,000 marched.

Either way, the throngs of people clogging the streets recalled the massive separatist rallies at the height of the previous decade’s Catalan independence movement. Now, social concerns led by housing have displaced political crusades.

That is because the average rent for Spain has doubled in last 10 years. The price per square meter has risen from 7.2 euros ($7.5) in 2014 to 13 euros this year, according to the popular online real estate website Idealista. The growth is even more acute in cities like Barcelona and Madrid. Incomes meanwhile have failed to keep up, especially for younger people in a country with chronically high unemployment.

Protester Samuel Saintot said he is “frustrated and scared” after being told by the owners of the apartment he has rented for the past 15 years in Barcelona’s city center that he must vacate the premises. He suspects that the owners want him out so they can renovate it and boost the price.

“Even looking in a 20- or 30-kilometer radius outside town, I can’t even find anything within the price range I can afford,” he told The Associated Press. “And I consider myself a very fortunate person, because I earn a decent salary. And even in my case, I may be forced to leave town.”

A report by the Bank of Spain indicates that nearly 40% of Spaniards who rent dedicate an average of 40% of their income to paying rents and utilities, compared to the European Union average of 27% of renters who do so.

“We are talking about a housing emergency. It means people having many difficulties both in accessing and staying in their homes,” said Ignasi Martí, professor for Esade business school and head of its Dignified Housing Observatory.

The rise in rents is causing significant pain in Spain, where traditionally people seek to own their homes.

Rental prices have also been driven up by short-term renters including tourists. Many migrants to Spain are also disproportionately hit by the high rents because they often do not have enough savings.

Spain is near the bottom end of OECD countries with under 2% of all housing available being public housing for rent. The OECD average is 7%. Spain is far behind France, with 14%, Britain with 16%, and the Netherlands with 34%.

“I think it’s impossible to make prices fall to what they were a few years back. It makes me cry,” said protester Laia Pizjuán. “It's so upsetting. I know so many people who are in a bad situation. I have relatives living together in crowded apartments because they can’t afford to live on their own.”

Carme Arcarazo, spokesperson for Barcelona’s Tenants Union which helped organize the protest, said that renters should consider a “rent strike” and cease paying their monthly rents in a mass protest movement.

“I think we the tenants have understood that this depends on us. That we can’t keep asking and making demands to the authorities and waiting for an answer. We must take the reins of the situation,” Arcarazo told the AP. “So, if they (the owners) won’t lower the rent, then we will force them to do it."

The Barcelona protest came a month after tens of thousands rallied against high rents in Madrid.

The rising discontent over housing is putting pressure on Spain’s governing Socialist party, which leads a coalition on the national level and is in charge of Catalonia’s regional government and Barcelona’s city hall.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez presided over what the government termed a “housing summit” including government officials and real estate developers last month. But the Barcelona’s Tenants Union boycotted the event, saying it was like calling a summit for curing cancer and inviting tobacco companies to participate.

The leading government measure has been a rent cap mechanism that the central government has offered to regional authorities based on a price index established by the housing ministry. Rent controls can be applied to areas deemed to be “highly stressed” by high rental prices. Catalonia was the first region to apply those caps, which are in place in downtown Barcelona.

Many locals blame the million of tourists who visit Barcelona, and the rest of Spain, each year for the high prices. Barcelona’s town hall has pledged to completely eliminate the city’s 10,000 so called “tourist apartments,” or dwellings with permits for short-term rents, by 2028.

Demonstrators light flares while marching in a protest against the exorbitant rise in the price of renting an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Demonstrators light flares while march in a protest against the exorbitant rise in the price of renting an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Demonstrators march to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Demonstrators march to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Oscar, 6, holds a sign reading in Catalan "I want to live here" as they protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Demonstrators march to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Demonstrators march to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Demonstrators march to protest the skyrocketing cost of renting an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

WINDSOR, Calif. (AP) — The U.S. was reeling from snow and rain on Saturday with a second round of bad weather threatening to disrupt holiday travel ahead of Thanksgiving. California braced for more precipitation while still grappling with flooding and small landslides from a previous storm, and thousands in the Pacific Northwest remained without power after multiple days in the dark.

A winter storm warning in California's Sierra Nevada on Saturday was in effect through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service's Sacramento office, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 55 mph (88 kph). Total snowfall of roughly 4 feet (1.2 meters) was forecast, with the heaviest accumulations coming Monday and Tuesday.

Forecasters said the Midwest and Great Lakes regions will see rain and snow Monday, and the East Coast will be the most impacted on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

A low pressure system will bring rain to the Southeast early Thursday before heading to the Northeast, where areas from Boston to New York could see rain and strong winds. Parts of northern New Hampshire, northern Maine and the Adirondacks could get snow. If the system tracks further inland, the forecast would call for less snow for the mountains and more rain.

The storm on the West Coast arrived in the Pacific Northwest earlier this week, killing two people and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands, mostly in the Seattle area, before its strong winds moved through Northern California. The system roared ashore on the West Coast on Tuesday as a “ bomb cyclone,” which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly. It unleashed fierce winds that toppled trees onto roads, vehicles and homes.

Santa Rosa, California, saw its wettest three-day period on record with about 12.5 inches (32 centimeters) of rain falling by Friday evening, according to the National Weather Service in the Bay Area. On Saturday vineyards in Windsor, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) to the north, were flooded.

Dominick Conti, a 19-year-old volunteer firefighter, and a friend drove around the Santa Rosa area Friday helping people whose vehicles were swamped. With his 2006 Dodge Ram pickup truck and a set of ropes, they were able to rescue the driver of a sedan that stalled out in water, a truck stuck in a giant mudhole and a farmer stranded on a dirt road.

As of Saturday morning, some 85,000 people in the Seattle area were still without electricity after this season’s strongest atmospheric river — a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows over land. Crews worked to clear streets of downed lines, branches and other debris, while cities opened warming centers so people heading into their fourth day without power could get warm food and plug in their cellphones and other devices.

Katie Skipper’s home in North Bend, about 30 miles east of Seattle in the foothills of the Cascades, has been without power since Tuesday after howling winds rattled the roof and toppled trees onto power lines. The home was not damaged, but days of no electricity and cold showers were beginning to weigh on her.

“I have to tend a fire to keep it warm. I have to make sure the generator is running,” she said. “It's also tiring to be in the dark all the time.”

Another storm brought rain to New York and New Jersey, where rare wildfires have raged in recent weeks, and heavy snow to northeastern Pennsylvania. Parts of West Virginia were under a blizzard warning through Saturday morning, with up to 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow and high winds making travel treacherous.

Despite the mess, the precipitation was expected to help ease drought conditions after an exceptionally dry fall.

“It’s not going to be a drought buster, but it’s definitely going to help when all this melts,” said Bryan Greenblatt, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Binghamton, New York.

Heavy snow fell in northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Pocono Mountains. Higher elevations reported up to 17 inches (43 centimeters), with lesser accumulations in valley cities like Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Less than 80,000 customers in 10 counties lost power, and the state transportation department imposed speed restrictions on some highways.

Parts of West Virginia also experienced their first significant snowfall of the season Friday and overnight Saturday, with up to 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) in the higher elevations of the Allegheny Mountains. Some areas were under a blizzard warning.

The precipitation helped put a dent in the state’s worst drought in at least two decades. It also was a boost for West Virginia ski resorts preparing to open their slopes in the weeks ahead.

Rodriguez reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Hallie Golden in Seattle; Janie Har in San Francisco; Manuel Valdes in Issaquah, Washington; Sarah Brumfield in Washington, D.C.; Michael Rubinkam in Pennsylvania; John Raby in West Virginia; Lea Skene in Baltimore; Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles; and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed.

A man looks at a tree that fell on power lines during a major storm in Issaquah, Wash., on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Valdes)

Firefighter Eugene Stipanov walks through floodwaters while responding to a rescue call in unincorporated Sonoma County, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A person uses an umbrella while crossing a street in the Meatpacking District neighborhood of Manhattan, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

People wait in line to enter the Whitney Museum of American Art, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Property off River Road floods as the Russian River overflows in Sonoma County, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Wohler Road off River Road is closed off as the Russian River floods in Sonoma County, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Craig Latham checks out the flooding at Johnson's Beach in Guerneville, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Firefighters walk through floodwaters while responding to a rescue call in unincorporated Sonoma County, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)