Maika Granados tried up to three times for a social rental for the ground floor of the Florida neighborhood in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, where she has lived for years with her three children and husband. There was no way for the vulture fund that owned the property or the municipal social services, who had signed "all the vulnerability reports in the world" for her, to heed her pleas. Family income made it impossible to access an apartment on the open market, not even in this neighborhood with a very degraded housing stock: rents already exceed 1,000 euros, and a room, 700.

Data on the impoverishment of Catalans worsens statistic after statistic, with women, children, and immigrants falling deepest into the pit of social vulnerability. The latest demonstration that macroeconomic recovery has not reached people's pockets comes from the recent report published by ECAS (Catalan Entities for Social Action), which highlights that the social exclusion rate is worsening and now affects nearly one in four people, far above the European average.

Five people living on the streets have died in Badalona this year. According to the Badalona Acull platform, which confirmed the information to ARA, the latest victim was a homeless man. Badalona DailyA 60-year-old man, a resident of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, was found dead on February 15th inside the car where he had been living in the Puigfred neighborhood. According to the platform, which brings together a dozen social organizations in Badalona, ​​the man had been living in a vehicle since December, parked at number 51 Otger Street, in the Puigfred neighborhood, near the Santa Coloma municipal boundary. The only information the city council, led by Mayor Xavier García Albiol, has provided about the case is that he lived in the neighborhood and that there was a restraining order against him from a woman residing in the city. This latest death brings the total to six, including Raúl, Luis, Jordi, and a fourth man who was also living on the streets but has not yet been identified. Just three days ago, the residents of Badalona remembered them in a tribute ceremony in the Plaza de la Vila, where they also took the opportunity to demand the reopening of the municipal shelter. Can Bofí Vell, which closed in April in 2024, leaving the 45 people who were staying there homeless and the city without any emergency residential services. Since then, six homeless people have died in Badalona.

They were in their first year of secondary school and third year of primary school when a series of personal and emotional problems translated into difficulties at school. Jana and Àlex are two siblings from the Bon Pastor neighborhood of Barcelona who, six years ago, realized they needed daily support to focus on their studies. This help, as their mother, Sonia, explains, came in the form of therapy.

As if it were a race against time, social entities set themselves the goal that the Three families evicted in Badalona Three mothers and four children, living in a dilapidated building, were left without a place to stay after the Santa Coloma de Gramanet City Council stopped paying for their Christmas accommodation on Tuesday. The group left the hostel at 11 a.m. on Tuesday with the few belongings they had managed to salvage from their home the day they were evicted from the building on Calderón de la Barca Street in the La Salut neighborhood. At that time, the three women and their children had been told by the municipal government that they could no longer stay at the hostel because the emergency aid was only for three weeks, after which the council would not cover any further expenses. The women's desperation was palpable: "We don't know where we'll spend the night, we need a place to sleep, and we can't be on the street with the children," they lamented.

A second homeless person died this week in Badalona, ​​this time in a park. Until now, their death had not been publicly reported, and it occurred the day before the death of another homeless person, Jordi, which the city council led by Xavier García Albiol did announce on its social media. Since the beginning of the year, Four people sleeping on the street have lost their lives in the cityThe Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) report that they located the body of a homeless person on Tuesday morning in the Morera petanque field. Badalona Acull (a shelter for people living on the streets) did not know him and had not worked with him, although the organization asks: "How many deaths on the streets go unreported?" They ask this question after the death was not initially made public. The organization points out that "the streets kill," as they are a hostile environment where it is easy to get sick and difficult to receive care. This is all compounded by the mental health problems that come with living in such conditions. Municipal sources state that they were unaware of the transfer until this Thursday. They add that the city council had not been monitoring his case, but the same sources do specify that he was a Ukrainian man with a criminal record. "This has never happened before."

"Four homeless people have never died in two months before," lamented Badalona Acull. On Wednesday, the body of Jordi, a local man known for his work as a butcher, was also found in a park. Deputy Mayor Eva Guillen explained that he was known to social services and a support plan had been initiated, including social assistance and weekly visits. She stated that he had also been offered temporary accommodation, which he had declined. Badalona Acull added that there are currently no resources in Badalona to accommodate the homeless, despite offers from the City Council. "There is neither a shelter nor an emergency center, essential things in a city of 200,000 inhabitants," they lamented.The Can Bofí Vell hostel, which was closed by the Albiol government in 2024It was the epicenter of a series of altercations in late December, fueled by the mayor himself, as several expelled students from the former B9 high school wanted to take refuge there because they had no residential alternative.

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A homeless man died Tuesday morning in a square in Badalona. His name was Jordi, and he was 52 years old. He was known in the city, as he had run a butcher shop a few years ago. But the business failed, and for the past few months he had been sleeping on the streets. Witnesses found him lifeless on a bench in Elisa Reverter Square, located in a part of Badalona that practically borders Montgat. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) confirmed that the body showed no signs of violence, and everything points to a natural death.

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It's the first morning of Ramadan, and about thirty young Algerians are more worried about what will happen tomorrow, Thursday, when they'll be evicted again to clean the space than about how they'll spend the hours until they break their religious fast. They are among the 175 people who were evicted last week. evicted from a vacant lot on 2nd Street in the Free Trade Zone which, according to the Barcelona City Council, was infested with rats. The group then dispersed through streets and other areas of the industrial park, the Ronda Litoral ring road, and Montjuïc mountain, far from residential buildings. On Tuesday, officers from the Guardia Urbana (Barcelona's municipal police) informed them that a cleaning crew would arrive on Thursday at 7:00 a.m. to remove anything they hadn't collected. They would only be allowed to set up their tent encampment again after 8:00 p.m. and would have to leave by 8:00 a.m.

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On Monday afternoon, knowing what would happen early the next morning, several people packed up their tents and set them up a few meters away before the "temporary" eviction of the 175 people living in squalid conditions in the encampment located on number 2 Street in the Zona Franca, the largest in Barcelona, ​​could be carried out. The City Council and the Zona Franca Consortium justify the action as a hygiene measure, following the detection of a rat infestation, which jeopardizes the health of the residents themselves and the safety of nearby businesses. Therefore, once the residents were evicted, the area was sprayed with various chemicals, and they were warned that they would not be allowed to return for a few days.

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"A man who slept on the street died here yesterday. No one will claim him. 'Just another one,' the newspapers will say tomorrow. A man died here yesterday, and I'll never know his name. It doesn't matter, because he could have brought yours and mine. He died of cold, hunger, or perhaps sadness." The writing is stuck to the ground, right under the bench where Eusebio used to spend hours sitting. This Tuesday, the 57-year-old man was found dead. He was sitting. "He'd been sitting there for too long," Ahmed says, still shaken. He's known him for four years, from the streets. "He was quiet, he hadn't had an easy life," he repeats. He came from Serbia and had been homeless for years. Arrels Fundació had known him since 2021. He died during the coldest night in years in Barcelona. "I run so I don't freeze," Ahmed says.

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Under the C-31 bridge there are more questions than answersThe only certainty this Wednesday, Christmas Eve, is that dozens of those evicted from the former B9 high school in Badalona remain without relocation assistance from the Red Cross and the Department of Social Rights. Essentially, they are asking for more information to assess whether it's worth leaving their lives in this remote location for temporary shelter, even if only for two months. "Yesterday, everyone was rushing to get people onto the buses, but without explaining how or where, without giving these young people any information," one complains. Victoria Columba, from Regularization NowFor him, the plans "have arrived late, are poorly done, and are insufficient" to address the needs of all those affected.

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After a week outdoors and facing the tension and Tension among a small part of the residents of Badalona Contrary to the lack of support for those evicted from the B9 building, the Department of Social Rights has signed an agreement with various organizations to provide shelter for those who, since Saturday, have been camped under the C-31 bridge and in the ten or so that had occupied the former municipal shelter of Can Bufí Vell, which has been closed for almost two years. The agreement guarantees accommodation for the next two months in different locations throughout Catalonia and also means abandoning the plan to house them at the Parish of Our Lady of Montserrat, the space that could not be opened on Sunday due to a blockade by a few dozen residents. "In the end, the minority won," sources from the third sector told ARA. Without the possibility of using the parish, all parties involved have been working to find new residential spaces and, finally, with the consensus of those affected and the mediation of the ombudsperson for grievances, Esther Giménez-Salinas, the operation to try to house the more than one hundred of the 400 people from Badalona began this Tuesday. Thus, the regional government has already emptied the municipal shelter and transferred those who had occupied it to various towns to escape the cold. It has also deployed a team with municipal social services and the Red Cross to rehouse those currently under the bridge in the Sant Roc neighborhood. The total number of people included is currently unknown as a count is still underway.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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He eviction of the 400 surviving people The incident at the former B9 high school in Badalona has highlighted the lack of public services capable of providing a quick and urgent response to homelessness, a crisis that affects at least 7,000 people across CataloniaAccording to a survey of metropolitan municipalities and towns with more than 20,000 inhabitants, published by the ombudsman, there are approximately 400 settlements providing shelter to more than 2,600 people. Since 2022, Parliament has been processing the proposed law on homelessness, championed by Antoni Milian i Massana, Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Barcelona, with the support of five major social organizations.

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They hold their hands to the fire and rub them together, seeking warmth. Conversations about football help pass the time. Tents are unfurled and piled up in rows. There are about 50 in the square opposite the former B9 high school in Badalona, ​​the building evicted on Wednesday. Its 400 occupants no longer live there, and about a hundred are barely surviving on the street across the way. Samba Niang was listening to music, smiling, shortly after the eviction. Now, as if suddenly aware of everything, her face has changed. She says she was cold the first night she slept outdoors. She fears she won't find a tent; she says they are very precious and that people fight to get one. "And I'm incapable of fighting," she laments.

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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.

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Catalonia has recovered some of its labor market momentum after the pandemic, but there is a worrying group of 1.4 million workers for whom employment does not free them from living trapped in poverty and without opportunities for social mobility.Job insecurity is the new normal "For a segment of society," according to Cáritas, in a report on exclusion and social development prepared with the FOESSA Foundation based on interviews with 140,000 households across the country and across all socioeconomic backgrounds. The study concludes that the overall improvement in macroeconomic indicators is not reflected in daily life. Many family members are employed, and even those fortunate enough to access social benefits struggle to make ends meet. In this dramatic equation of an active labor market and increased social vulnerability, it is important to consider that salary increases do not offset rising prices (the CPI). The difficulties faced by undocumented immigrants in finding work also contribute to this. Furthermore, exorbitant housing prices force families into precarious living conditions. sublet rooms or to allocate more than half of the income to pay rent or mortgages to avoid becoming homeless.

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