Homelessness spreads to the periphery

BarcelonaHe leaves the tent, which by midday must already be an oven inside. “No problems, no police,” he says, looking from side to side. From the dozen tents in this corner of the ronda del Litoral, between L'Hospitalet and Barcelona, no one peeks out when they hear a strange voice. At the door of each one, there are trainers and pool flip-flops that reveal that the owners have preferred to remain oblivious to what is happening outside and avoid problems. They are afraid that making themselves visible will force them to move again. This group has settled in a vacant lot between roads, having come from evictions at the airport, the Ciutadella, and the Zona Franca. “They are looking for the periphery,” illustrate those from the organizations, who point out that they opt to go more unnoticed by the police and also by the neighbors.

construction and the pressure of the city councils for construction and the pressure from city councils to clear vacant lots or abandoned buildings causes the disappearance of shelters for those who could not afford decent housing. Amics del Quart Món know this situation well, and many of the families they assist, who lived in warehouses in Poblenou and Verneda, have moved to Vallès. The director of this organization, David Espinós, explains that in order to continue with the scrap metal business, they have to look for lots in industrial estates, next to rivers. One of the families they accompany has moved to a new settlement, and every day they take their underage children to school in the Sant Martí district of Barcelona, where they are enrolled. Scrap metal – Espinós illustrates – “needs large spaces like warehouses,” which is why they are not a group that primarily seeks an apartment or old commercial premises.

housing exclusion, a new concept to refer to povertyhousing exclusion, a new concept to refer to poverty.

The profile also changes, and it's no longer just vagrants, but a rejuvenated population, young migrants who haven't been able to find an opportunity to regularize their situation, people with mental disorders, but homelessness affects even permanent workers. In addition, there are more and more women, who often flee from male violence. “Normally it's gradual. First they lose their flat, then the room, a friend hosts them at their place, they go to a temporary reception service, and if they haven't recovered, they end up on the street,” points out Bea Fernández, director of Arrels Foundation, a benchmark entity for homelessness.

Ciutat Vella is no longer the district with the most homeless population

On another scale, the same happens in metropolitan and second-ring municipalities. The city of Barcelona invests 51 million euros in addressing homelessness, but during this municipal term, it is applying restrictions in the municipal register for those without a fixed address that have made it cease to be a pole of attraction for homeless people, points out social educator Judit Franco, head of the Espai Obert project at La Vinya de l'Hospitalet. How many people have left Barcelona? It is not known, but it is detected that because the capital is stricter, there are more displacements to other less crowded places, although it is also true that with fewer services.

Municipal social services have also suffered an increase in users (social exclusion, dependency, immigration, etc.) and staff have to dedicate a lot of time to bureaucracy. “We stop the bleeding more than we do prevention because we can't,” warn social workers. Without help or social networks, falling into poverty is synonymous with chronic exclusion that is very difficult to overcome.

The desire to go "unnoticed"

Every Monday and Thursday night, groups of Red Cross volunteers go out into the streets of Cornellà de Llobregat to look for homeless people. In the car, they carry food, water, juices, fruit, even wipes for intimate hygiene, socks, and clothes. They have 15 people under their care, most of whom they have known for a long time, although there are always new ones. Tonight they are looking for a young man they saw last week in some gardens who was crying because he felt pressured by the Local Police not to settle there permanently. Today he is not here. For each attention, they send communication to the municipal services, but they rarely get a response on what follow-up is done, explains Luis García, head of the volunteers.

In three hours they visit the usual places where people spend the night. “Good evening! What do you need?” the volunteers ask. There are people who started out alone on the street, but growing insecurity has made them seek to group together to take care of each other, and thus rows of tents have appeared in park corners, in areas away from services, and along the 14 kilometers of the Litoral promenade. García indicates that they spend the day wandering around the city or neighboring towns and that in the evening they lay out their cardboard in places slightly removed from public view, but not too much, in a balance of being visible yet invisible.

On the route, volunteers find a couple in their thirties from Honduras and Peru. Theirs is a love story on the street born out of the need to protect themselves, after losing the room where they lived because they couldn't afford it. They wait for the volunteers before leaving, loaded with bags and a tent that has been gifted to them, towards the orchard area, next to the Llobregatt. The man is registered in L'Hospitalet and can access the showers and the social dining room, where he gets his ration and shares it with his girlfriend, who is not registered because the owner of the apartment never gave her permission. In the darkness of the night, they try to go "unnoticed" so as not to attract the attention of groups of young people who sometimes look for trouble. It is at this moment that the woman takes the opportunity to wash herself.

at least 6,724 people live on the streets or in settlements in Cataloniaat least 6,724 people live on the streets or in settlements in Catalonia. The figure is, with all certainty, a minimum because there are three municipalities that did not respond and often many of these populations are not on the radar of social services, they are not allowed to register, or the calculation is difficult due to high mobility and changes in sleeping places. Furthermore, one of the major deficits of the data is that other categories of homelessness (Ethos) are not taken into account, such as those living in shared rooms, occupied flats, substandard housing, or those at risk of eviction.

An urgent law that is stalled

The Commissioner for Social Services of Barcelona City Council, Sonia Fuertes, demands that "the Generalitat, whether it likes it or not," assume "global leadership" in homelessness policies because the magnitude of the problem overwhelms the municipal scope of competence and that service planning be done according to the number of inhabitants. The draft law on homelessness, debated in Parliament since the previous legislature and resulting from pressure from organizations, provides for municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants to be equipped with daytime resources, shelters, or lockers, but does not mention housing. According to data collected by the ombudswoman, 46% of municipalities do not have a soup kitchen and 28% do not offer showers.

The fact that housing is not included is "a mistake" for Fuertes, who advocates for cross-cutting actions with Health, Housing, and Social Rights, and for the population register to be a faithful record of who resides in the municipality. For years, the city council has complained that Barcelona has attended to people "to whom their municipalities have not responded," and regrets that Barcelona "has led alone" in this field with "a plurality of responses" and an offer of diverse and specialized services.

To prevent those who provide services from attracting unregistered residents, Fuertes points out that the Generalitat has the weapon of financing to pressure municipalities to assume responsibilities. This is an idea shared with the head of Arrels, who regrets that municipal omission goes unpunished. This tool is known as ficha 48, through which the Department of Social Rights transfers economic allocations to the Consells comarcals and municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants that have previously requested it for the operation of services and resources, and if, after the deadline, the plan has not been executed, the money must be returned. Of the 110 basic social service areas into which Catalonia is divided (these include localities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, comarcal councils, and inter-municipal entities), 40 have requested this specific allocation for homelessness, and at present, liquidations are being carried out to determine the degree of compliance, explains Anna Vila, Director General of Social Services and Inclusion. Between 2021 and 2026, the Generalitat has awarded 83 million euros through this channel, in addition to almost 32 million more for entities.

Awaiting the law, which will be born without an economic memory, the Generalitat has extended the framework for addressing homelessness and is preparing a new one that will include funding for daytime care and for the hiring of street educators to follow up and build a connection with the homeless population, advances Vila, who insists that the Government "is involved in the fight against homelessness" and has the will to "give and seek more resources" for the town councils.