The Badalona City Council has installed about twenty concrete blocks under the C-31 highway bridge, precisely where for a few days dozens of homeless people lived in tents, most of them from the former B9 Institute. On March 24, the council led by the popular Xavier García Albiol ordered the eviction of the settlement, justifying it as a temporary measure for the need to clean and sanitize the area, which had been occupied since the end of December last year. However, he stated that once the toxic effect of the products used had passed, it would be allowed to be occupied again. Now, however, a municipal brigade has completely blocked access to the site, which is being guarded by an Urban Guard patrol, according to ACN. lived in tents for days, most of them from the former B9 Institute. On March 24, the council led by the popular Xavier García Albiol ordered the eviction of the settlement, justifying it as a temporary measure for the need to clean and sanitize the area, occupied since the end of December last year. However, he stated that once the toxic effect of the products used had passed, it would be allowed to be occupied again. Now, however, a municipal brigade has completely blocked access to the site, which is being guarded by an Urban Guard patrol, according to ACN.

A rough noise, the whisper of two voices, or a sliver of music at night, when the building is deserted, puts the neighbors on alert. The real shock comes in broad daylight, when they climb the steps from the fifth to the sixth and final floor of the staircase. There, right in front of the armored door leading to the rooftop, lies a tiny mattress boxed in and a small backpack left by the previous night's occasional residents before leaving while the building still remains silent. At night, they will return quietly, trying to go unnoticed. The scene is in a building in the Sants neighborhood of Barcelona, ​​where residents have decided in a meeting to close off the final section of the staircase with a gate. Between fear and unease, the residents of the fifth floor—who wish to remain anonymous—explain that it isn't always the same people hiding on the top floor, and they suspect that someone must have a key to the front door. In the few months this situation has lasted, there has never been any conflict. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) confirm that there are no complaints or noteworthy incidents related to these situations. In fact, beyond living on the streets in squares or tents, homelessness is basically an invisible phenomenon, and in most cases, there is coexistence. Neighbors even tend to "take care" of the people sleeping there, bringing them "hot soup or blankets." "A community is created," says Raquel Rico, a homelessness specialist with the Girona City Council and president of the Girona branch of the College of Social Educators of Catalonia (CEESC), who emphasizes the need to "humanize" homeless people. "They feel like garbage, and a simple 'Good morning!' gives them life," the expert states.

The Catalan government (Generalitat) brought the relocation process for those evicted from the former B9 high school in Badalona to a close just hours before it was due to end in 2025. They have announced the opening of a "new phase" in the emergency program implemented by the Department of Social Rights and Inclusion in collaboration with social service organizations. From now on, according to sources within the department, the Badalona City Council's social services will be responsible for monitoring and making new referrals for the approximately forty people still sleeping under the C-31 bridge. The government and the alliance of social service organizations will form a group to design comprehensive inclusion plans for those evicted from the former high school in Badalona. These plans will address their immigration status, access to the job market, training, and healthcare. According to the Department of Social Rights, "the return to Badalona of those temporarily displaced as part of the emergency operation will be encouraged so that they can develop their inclusion plans within the municipality."

Also at Christmas, the activist Carlos Sagués She's been going back and forth, visiting the dozens of people who, after being evicted from the B9 building in Badalona, ​​continue to live in squalor under the C-31 highway bridge. Much to her chagrin, Sagués is the public face of Badalona Acull, the umbrella organization for the city's social service agencies, whose volunteers dedicate countless hours, physical and emotional effort, to caring for this group. All of this is done without any public aid or subsidies. The case of the occupants of the former high school, cleared by court order earlier this month, isn't Sagués's only cause; she's been known for years for her efforts to prevent [the eviction of these people]. evictions of the residents of Sant Roc

Two separate demonstrations, one for and one against the acceptance of those evicted from the B9 high school in Badalona, clashed this Monday afternoon in front of the gates of the municipal shelter that closed almost two years ago in the Montigalà neighborhood. On one side, hundreds of activists, convened by the Socialist Housing Union, defended the humanitarian assistance provided to the group of young migrants, about ten of whom have been using the shelter since becoming homeless a week ago. Separated by a cordon of riot police from the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), some 300 people shouted racist slogans demanding that they be evicted from Can Bofí Vell and not given shelter. "Let them go back to their country," was the least offensive slogan heard from the neighborhood gathering, where families with children were seen alongside far-right individuals who accused "blacks" of being criminals and creating insecurity. "We don't want them in the neighborhood," a neighbor stated, but her husband, standing beside her, also rejected the idea of opening any other space to care for them.

The opposition of a handful of Badalona residents derailed the emergency plan to house 15 of the people evicted on Wednesday from the B9 Institute. The group, numbering a few dozen, blocked the entrance to the Nuestra Señora de Montserrat parish in Badalona to prevent the implementation of the plan agreed upon between social organizations and the Department of Social Rights and Inclusion to assist several particularly vulnerable young people among those evicted. But just minutes before 8 p.m. – the scheduled opening time – the protesters stood their ground, shouting "they shall not pass." Ultimately, Cáritas and the Red Cross decided to halt the initial plan and transferred some of the young sub-Saharan Africans to other shelters for the night. Finding a suitable space like the parish took four days of negotiations between the organizations and the department, who finally reached an agreement on Saturday afternoon without the involvement of the City Council. The city council remained aloof from any intention of assisting the evicted residents, and its mayor, Xavier García Albiol of the People's Party, insisted that he does not plan to allocate "a single euro" to this humanitarian cause, even though it is the competent authority.

They got up at an unusually late hour considering they are two young sub-Saharan Africans who were surviving in the former B9 Institute in Badalona, ​​which was evicted last Wednesday. Our bodies have rested for the first time in a long time.“Because it’s hard to relax on the street, and the cold keeps you from sleeping,” explains Abdu Ngom, a 30-year-old Senegalese man from the city of Saint Louis, sitting on a sofa in Ángela Valeiras’s house. Faced with “the inaction of the authorities,” this retired doctor has decided to take matters into her own hands and, as A humanitarian crisis of seeing 200 young people living in the open air has been brewing since last night. On Friday, Ngom and Serigne Babacar, another 24-year-old Senegalese man, said: "To those who tell me I'm being overly nice, I say that..." if the opposite is evil“You’ll always find me with the bonds,” Valeiras exclaims.

With a bit of luck, this Saturday will be the last night Amadou and his friends spend sleeping rough. They're drinking hot tea in front of the scattered tents that about fifty people expelled from the former B9 high school in Badalona have pitched under the C-31 highway bridge, after the local police evicted them the day before from the street where they had settled after being evicted. "We don't know what will become of us, but it's really hard," this young man laments.

Around 400,000 people in the Barcelona metropolitan area live in overcrowded conditions, in sublet rooms and shared apartments. Based on the latest FOESSA report with data from 2024, Cáritas Barcelona details that in the cities included in this diocese, Social insecurity is higher than in Catalonia as a whole and in the StateAlthough economic improvement and social assistance have halved extreme poverty (6%) compared to the data from the same study in 2018. In this diocesan region (Maresme and Barcelonès), 2.8 million people reside, and it is estimated that almost one in four live on the edge, unable to make ends meet. The situation is even worse for young people and foreigners, whose poverty and exclusion rates are 2.4 times higher than those of the general population.. Stratospheric housing prices are consuming the bulk of their income: 15% are left in severe poverty after paying rent. According to Amelia de Juan, head of the social and analysis department at Cáritas, the soaring cost of apartment rentals is causing an increase in demand for rooms, a trend that is also driving up subletting prices. Leidy Katherine Cubides and Brayan León Chacón have experienced firsthand the impossibility of finding decent housing. Arriving less than a year ago at Madrid airport on tourist visas from Colombia, it was an obstacle course from day one, and only the news of the birth of their son Emiliano in the Spanish capital brought the couple a happy respite. For the past few weeks, they have been living in an apartment in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, which they share with three other people. Cáritas covers the €700 monthly rent, as well as other basic expenses for the couple because the hours Chacón manages to find work at a cleaning company are not enough. "We need at least 2,000 euros; with less, it's impossible to survive," says Chacón, who remains confident despite the situation.

Catalan municipalities have issued a plea for help, urging the Generalitat (Catalan government) not to abandon them in assisting people experiencing homelessness. While there is no official census quantifying homelessness, it is clearly a widespread phenomenon. It already surpasses the metropolitan area and extends to small towns throughout the country. Local councils agree that, currently, the problem lacks sufficient financial resources.

In the last two years, the number of people sleeping on the streets of Barcelona has increased. has grown by 43%The 600 volunteers from Arrels Fundació who last week made a The count across the city has tallied 1,982 people who spent the night sleeping rough on cardboard or mattresses in a square, under a doorway, or in a corner of a garden. The figure is "a minimum," admits the organization's director, Bea Fernández, since it doesn't include residents in closed settlements, occupied warehouses, or those staying at the winter shelter, which has 100 beds. In addition, 63 people were located around the terminals at El Prat Airport. "Only the people we saw were included, not those we didn't see," said Fernández, who called for "more coordination" between administrations and departments to provide better assistance. Beyond the data, which reaffirms that homelessness is a growing crisis, Fernández emphasized that only the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district shows a reduction in the number of homeless people identified. In the other districts, there are considerable increases, such as in Sants-Montjuïc, where 489 people sleep on the streets, 134% more than in the December 2024 count. This district now has the highest number of people experiencing homelessness, followed by Eixample, with 389 people (29% more than two years ago). The new development in the distribution is that Ciutat Vella is no longer the district with the highest concentration of people living on the streets, although it is not immune to the general increase: 372 people now compared to 337 counted two years ago. Sant Martí has also seen a considerable increase of 70%: 335 people are living on the streets. According to Fernández, this new human geography of homelessness "is not accidental," since it is partly explained by the evictions of settlements that have taken place since the summer, forcing those who were living there to move to "less central" areas of the city. Thus, Arrels has found people sleeping in neighborhoods they had never seen before. This relocation is not without its consequences; as the director of Arrels pointed out, it causes "overstress" for those affected, exacerbating physical or psychological illnesses and creating emotional distress associated with the loss of ties to the community, neighbors, and familiar food and resources.

With the aim of counting the number of people sleeping rough in Barcelona, ​​more than 600 volunteers from Arrels Fundació were deployed across all the city's districts on Wednesday night in groups of 15, equipped with pens, paper, and a map of their assigned area. For each person located, they marked a cross on the map and recorded an entry in the app the organization created for that day. Although the results won't be available for a few days, once any duplications have been eliminated, no one at the leading organization for homelessness relief is doubtful that they will have reached a significant number of people. will exceed the figure of 1,384 people from the last count, two years ago. In fact, this year, the Barcelona City Council estimates that there are 1,500, not counting those who have a roof over their heads in a shelter, social hostel or emergency shelter"This year the data will be dramatic," predicts José Luis, one of the volunteers.

Loss of housing is the main cause of homelessness. Up to 62% of people living on the streets, in substandard housing, or in social hostels have ended up there due to a lack of access to decent housing, ahead of those who have become homeless due to unemployment, addiction, or other circumstances. These are figures presented this Monday by the group of researchers convened by the Committee of Experts for Social Transformation and Innovation (CETIS) to analyze a situation that is "changing, diverse, dynamic, and often invisible," in the words of the group's spokesperson, UPF economist Libertad González. Half of these people (32%) say they found themselves on the street after being evicted, 16% because they were forced out of their apartment when their rental contract expired, and the remaining 14% because their family could no longer afford the rising cost of housing. Compared to Spain as a whole, Catalonia's figures are almost double, a situation explained by high housing prices, especially in large cities. Beyond housing, job loss is another trigger that leads to being unable to find decent housing. Specifically, 27% of those surveyed cited this cause, a percentage—in this case, identical to that of Spain. Other reasons include problems caused by alcohol, drugs, or gambling (13%), having suffered gender-based violence (6%), hospitalization, or starting over in a new country (around 16%). In the snapshot provided by these figures, the Minister of Social Rights and Inclusion, Mònica Martínez Bravo, highlighted that 46% of homeless people are Spanish citizens or citizens of another European Union country. "The equation between homelessness and immigration is broken," he stressed, while also assuring that, although the fight against this crisis falls to the municipalities, "the Generalitat wants to support local authorities to improve their approach."

The day after the fire that caused two minor injuries, the Guardia Urbana deployed a special operation on Wednesday morning to evacuate the shantytown settlements located under the Calatrava bridge In Barcelona, ​​next to the Sagrera construction site. The settlement is located on the corner of Bac de Roda and Huelva streets. Several officers—who are coordinating the operation—have been deployed to the scene, along with vans from the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), fire trucks from the Barcelona Fire Department, personnel from the Social Emergency and Urgent Care Center (CUESB), and cleaning services from the Barcelona City Council. Around fifty people live in squalid conditions in this area, according to data from the Sant Andreu housing union. Municipal sources confirmed on Tuesday that there are also minors among these families. The operation took place a day after the fire and was prompted, as is often the case, by a Fire Department report concluding that there is a "very serious risk" to the people living there and that action must be taken "urgently."

A remembrance for Mouad, Evgenio, Josep Maria, and Brigitte. These are some of the names of the 69 homeless people who have died in the last year in Barcelona, and whom social organizations honored with a moving ceremony in front of the cathedral, as they do every year around All Saints' Day. More than 600 homeless people—who lived on the streets, in boarding houses, or in other social services, all forms of homelessness—have died in the city of Barcelona since 2016.

Not everyone who is entitled to social benefits receives them. Some don't even apply for them because they either don't know they're entitled to them or don't even apply for them. This is a phenomenon known as non-take-up or coverage gap, leaving thousands of vulnerable people without protection. It is estimated that in Catalonia, 79% of families with children who could receive the childhood supplement do not; 18% of people who meet the requirements for the guaranteed citizen income do not benefit, and 66% of potential users of the minimum living income (IMV) do not either.

Barcelona's public ombudsman proposes that the tourism sector help improve the municipal model for emergency temporary accommodation. In a report presented this Tuesday, David Bondia advocates for a "paradigm shift" in a system that, he claims, has proven "ineffective" in meeting the goal of hostels and guesthouses as a temporary and emergency resource for vulnerable people who are evicted to spend a few months before returning to housing.

One in three children live in poor families. It is for these 470,000 children that the Generalitat (Catalan government) is proposing to reform the current benefits system to increase the number of families receiving aid to cover 44% of the child population. The goal is to reduce the child poverty rate, "at least" to bring Catalonia in line with the European Union average, according to the president of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, during the presentation this Monday of a plan that formulated a year ago by the executive chaired by Pere Aragonès. For this year, the Government will allocate approximately 700 million euros.

Badalona still has no municipal shelter for homeless people, a year after the mayor, Xavier García Albiol, promised to open a new center to replace the one in Can Bofí Vell, closed by a municipal order that left 45 users homeless who spent the night. The Popular Party leader then justified dismantling the service in order to redesign it and pledged to create 26 new places and a development of 24 social housing units. However, the Badalona Acull organization denounces the city council's "lack of political will" in response to ARA's questions.

Finally, the Government and the city councils of El Prat and Barcelona are finalizing an agreement to address the An estimated 160 people spend the night in the airport terminals each night. Barcelona. The three administrations plan to sign a contract, to be renewed annually, in which the Catalan government commits to providing half a million euros to cover the basic needs and social support of these individuals. In fact, this involves returning to the special plan for homelessness that began in 2011, but was halted at the end of 2023 when the previous agreement expired and was not renewed for political reasons. El Prat Airport (El Prat) is urging a date to sign the text so that it can be "formalized as soon as possible."