Approximately three years ago, in October 2023, the Port Authority of Pasaia convened a meeting with the residents of Escalerillas. The purpose was to inform them about a project to construct train tracks using public money to benefit the private company Algeposa, which necessitated the demolition of the house known as Escalerillas.
The occupants included five residents with lifelong rental contracts and others who were children of deceased owners. The first five were offered a small compensation, while the rest were asked to vacate their homes. All of this was for the sake of a train line.
They did not care that women over eighty years old found themselves defenseless, vulnerable, afraid of losing what had been their home, their life for sixty years.
During this time, they have had to confront and fight against the Board of Directors of the Port of Pasaia, ETS, Algeposa, and the Pasaia City Council. The residents did not make it easy for them, fighting alongside the housing union to defend their rights. On Wednesday, April 15, they handed over the keys to their homes, with a mix of sadness, sorrow, and anger, as they felt it was not a freely made decision but an imposition.
From now on, the residents will begin a new life in new residences, which they will gradually transform into their new homes. Although now dispersed, the neighbors of Escalerillas will continue to meet to remember what the Escalerillas house meant to them: dreams, families, childhood, neighbors, games, shared experiences… almost a lifetime, all for a train.
