"In theory, it's an obligation for city councils, but, as we've seen in Badalona, ​​some choose not to." Political scientist Alba Lanau, professor and researcher at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), laments that in practice, local administrations can get away with failing to fulfill their obligations to assist the homeless. The law establishes the minimum standards that the administration must guarantee, but there are hardly any precedents of non-compliance that have reached the courts. Added to this is the difficulty for people in extremely vulnerable situations to want to—and be able to—initiate legal proceedings, and voices from specialized social organizations admit that the lack of resources has also ultimately weighed heavily in dismissing legal action whenever it has been considered.

The news of the day is the meeting between the Spanish president, Sánchez, and the leader of Esquerra, Junqueras.

The housing crisis has its darkest face in homelessness. Ignoring it is not a solution. Letting them die of cold is a disgrace. This is what we, as a society, are doing.

Arrels' count is stark. In just two years, almost 600 more people are sleeping on the streets of Barcelona. The total is now 1,982, and as the organization's director, Bea Fernández, admitted, this is a conservative estimate, as it only includes what volunteers were able to observe during the last count. This 43% increase in homelessness compared to two years ago doesn't surprise anyone, because we all see how more and more people are sleeping however they can on mattresses or cardboard boxes in the street. It's a true social emergency that cannot be ignored. As a society, we have a problem if we don't take action to provide some kind of solution for this transient population that can't find a place to spend the night. And while the circumstances of homelessness are very diverse, what is clear is that the housing crisis has dramatic consequences for a large part of the most vulnerable population. A few days ago, a study promoted by the Committee of Experts for Social Transformation and Innovation (CETIS) was published, clearly demonstrating this relationship. Sixty-two percent of people living on the streets, in substandard housing, or in social hostels arrived there because they lost their homes, either because they couldn't afford the rent or because they were evicted. This is far more than the number who arrived because they lost their jobs—in fact, some homeless people do have jobs, but they don't bother to rent even a room—or due to addiction or other circumstances. The profile of the homeless is changing, and in addition to the well-known circumstances—addictions, mental illness, or others—there are now those who simply have nowhere to live because the market has forced them out. The organization also highlights that the fact that there have been several mass evictions in settlements where many people lived has contributed to increasing the number of people dispersed throughout the city, which could also explain, perhaps, the increase in people simply pitching tents wherever they can.

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.

"When I tell my life, most people don't know what to say. They just stay silent," explains Ricardo Torres (Madrid, 1987), a player for the Spanish national team for the homeless. He has just returned from Oslo (Norway), host of the twentieth edition of the Homeless World Cup. The tournament is held annually with the challenge of changing lives and offering hope and second chances through football. Of working for social inclusion and visibility, and against stigmas and prejudices.

While speaking, she is talking, despite having one of the fans strategically placed near the Arrels Foundation hall in Barcelona's Raval district, trying to cool down the heatwave. Luana Monteiro answers the survey questions that the leading homeless organization has prepared to understand the problems faced by the thousand or so people who survive on the city's streets. Like the majority of this group, (six out of ten)Monteiro didn't know what it was like to be left out in the cold until she arrived from Lisbon to Barcelona. She says she was fleeing a society's incomprehension of people like her who were different. As soon as she could, Monteiro changed the word to a song, like the one she composed in memory of her. Sonia Rescalvo, a trans woman like her, murdered in Ciutadella Park three decades ago.I never go to shelters, I prefer the street because I was raped there and they don't let me in with my dogs either," he says.

This weekend we explained to ARA the problems with the management of public housing in Barcelona, now that the goal is for rapid growth and the preservation of public ownership. This is one facet of the housing crisis we are experiencing. But there are others, of course. And among them, one of the most extreme is the one that affects the most vulnerable segment of society. If the City Council has a problem with its public housing stock—both when allocating housing and maintaining the properties—it also has a problem with the need to house underprivileged people evicted from their homes and forced to live on the streets. Furthermore, the capital often attracts metropolitan citizens who cannot find support in their municipalities.

They will care for the 160 people sleeping at El Prat Airport.The Generalitat (Generalitat) and the city councils of El Prat and Barcelona are providing money and social support. This is good news, but the phenomenon is exploding. Every night, Barcelona is a vast open-air dormitory. Tents are set up near the Ciutadella fence. On Wednesday, as we were coming down from the Montjuïc stadium, people were already preparing for the bed on the mountainside. In the Eixample, any entrance to a facade, a shop door, or a garage door, any space under a balcony, is often a dormitory protected by a fence taken from the street and marked "Barcelona City Hall." It's even the home where dozens of people spend the day stretched out on a sleeping bag or a mattress as filthy as a fox, passing the hours, perhaps hoping no one will take their place, especially if there's a fountain nearby or the sun hits them in winter. Some haven't left the same streets for years, and you often see them huddled together, still as a statue in the first corner they find, their eyes closed, as if they've lost all contact with the outside world, despite being surrounded by millions of people.

A judge in Badalona is investigating the mayor of the municipality, the popular Xavier García Albiol, for having revealed during a plenary session medical data of a homeless man who had been treated at the Municipal Hospital and who, days later, had ended up dying. In a court order advanced by Eldiario.es and to which the ARA has had access, the judge considers that there are "clear indications" of a crime of discovery and disclosure of secrets by Albiol, after admitting to processing a complaint filed against him by the former mayor and councilor of Badalona Dolors Sabater (Guanyem).

Today marks one month since he was sworn in as President of the United States, and Donald Trump has turned the world upside down. In yesterday's episode, and with his usual repertoire of lies, Trump said that the war in Ukraine was started by Ukraine, as if Putin had not invaded his neighbor, and He called Zelensky a dictatorTrump's embrace of Putin, America's embrace of Russia, has never been so blatant and so shameful. That's why I say that Trump has turned the world upside down.

At least 1,231 people live on the street in Barcelona. This is the count made by Arrels Foundation on June 15, combing the city street by street with 522 volunteers who surveyed 354 homeless people. The organisation says it is a "minimum figure", because they may not have detected them all, although it nevertheless means a 15.7% increase compared to the number of people they detected a year ago. But with a more retrospective look, the data is even more frightening: in 2008 there were 658 people living on the street, according to Arrels, that is, the number of homeless people in Barcelona has grown by 87% in 14 years: it has almost doubled. "More and more people are forced to live on the streets," Arrels says, which calls for more welfare services and more public policies to address homelessness