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Unfinished houses in Spain/AFP

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Families occupy unfinished homes in Spain

The measure also imposes fines between 1,000 and 9,000 euros ($1,300 and $12,000) on banks and real estate firms that hold on to empty homes which are fit to live, in a bid to increase the pool of affordable housing.

It came too late for Juana and her neighbours, who say they are now waiting for the authorities to tell them whether they can stay in the unfinished houses.

A few doors down from Juana, Toni Garcia, 23, sits on a chair outside the house she has occupied. Her three-month baby lies in her lap, dressed only in a nappy in the choking heat, sucking milk from a bottle.

Nearby, neighbours fill buckets from a great plastic barrel water with which to wash or make coffee, using food and kitchen supplies donated by charities.

“We had to come here because we had no other choice,” says Toni, who used to work as a farm labourer in the region’s rich olive groves. “I don’t mind sleeping on a park bench, but I don’t want that for my children. I at least want them to have a roof over them.”

Brought on by a building boom going bust, the crisis has made many homeless while also, ironically, leaving countless near finished properties ripe for squatting.

There are at least 700,000 empty homes in Andalucia, according to the regional government.

“We were paying 225 euros a month, which is the cheapest rent you can find. But since I’m not earning and neither is my partner, they were going to throw us out” of our previous home, says Toni.

“We saw all the doors open here and realised there was no one in the houses. These houses were just going to fall to pieces,” she says. “So we moved in.”

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Her neighbour Jose Manuel Rodriguez, 34, stands frowning in the bare hallway of the house he has occupied with his partner and his 11-year-old daughter.

He used to work in the strawberry fields that cover much of the surrounding Huelva area, but work has dried up.

“We entered here without causing any damage, quite the opposite,” he says.

“We called the police and the town hall, telling them that we are here. We said all we want is to negotiate a dignified solution, a home either in this house or another,” he adds.

“Let the town hall or the regional government, or whoever this place belongs to, get a move on and find a solution to this social problem.”

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