EL CARMEL. TWENTY YEARS OF STRUGGLE FOR REACCOMMODATION IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
Centre social del carmel i associació de veïns del carmel
El Carmel Social Centre and Neighbourhood Association of El Carmel
The shantytown of El Carmel was the most highly organised of all the
shantytowns during the reaccommodations. This circumstance delayed the
process, since the inhabitants wanted to be reaccommodated in the selfsame
neighbourhood. At the end of the 1960s, a group of inhabitants and shantydwellers
created El Carmel Social Centre to condemn and find a solution to the
deterioration of the neighbourhood and the neglect of the Public Administration.
In 1972 the Social Centre came to be called the Neighbourhood Association of El
Carmel, working to improve the living conditions in the shanties and to obtain
reaccommodation in the neighbourhood.
Award of the keys to homes to shanty-dwellers. Barcelona, late 1960’s. Photo Pavía. National Archive of Catalonia.
National Solidarity and the Press collection (press of the National Movement)
In the democratic period, the Neighbourhood Association of El Carmel achieved
its goal: the City Council approved the construction of the Raimon Casellas flats
on the same site where the shanties of El Santo had stood. In 1984 the Municipal
Institution of Housing delivered 161 flats to be distributed among the inhabitants
of the three nuclei. The rest of the population was reaccommodated in 1990 in the
Can Carreras housing promotion, adjacent to the Ramón Albó “Cheap Houses”.
|
