"If we could take the mattress down to the street, we would sleep better."

BarcelonaIt's been getting dark for an hour, but Nati and her neighbor Nora are reluctant to go up to the apartment they share with their husbands and children. "If we could bring the mattress down to the street, we'd sleep better," Nati says, laughing, as she yells at the children because they still have dinner. It's 10:30 at night, and a huge thermometer in a corner still reads 31°C, but they say the temperature inside the house is even worse.

The two families live in a two-bedroom apartment that was once subsidized and is now rented for 900 euros, a fortune considering their salaries. Air conditioning is an impossible luxury for family budgets, and they even think twice about turning on the fan.

In fact, the square where the two friends are talking is packed to the rafters with families enjoying the fresh air, with children who at that hour still have enough energy to run and hide among the stairs. Some people take advantage of the opportunity to talk on the phone with their family living abroad. "That's hell, hotter than there," Magdalena shouts, focusing on her cell phone screen with a sister who lives in Cuba. "Here we are poor people: foreigners and Catalans meet in the square at night because it's even hotter in these apartments than outside," she explains.

Double the energy poverty

According to the Catalan Institute of Statistics, 20% of families are unable to maintain their homes at an appropriate temperature throughout the season. sublet or in substandard housing where it is impossible to be at a comfortable temperature. Marta Clusellas, a technician from the Homeless and Housing program of the Diocese of Barcelona, ​​​​explains that they have seen an increase in request for help to purchase a ventilator.

This is the case of Sandra Sosa, who lives in a small room with her husband and two young children, for which she pays 450 euros. With the temperatures so high, she tries to keep the room cool by lowering the blinds during the middle of the day, but even this doesn't achieve a pleasant atmosphere, as there's no airflow to ventilate it.

The nights are a real ordeal because it's impossible to rest. "It's too hot, we can't sleep well," says Sosa, who during the day tries to find cool spots outside the four walls in the city's climate shelters, although she struggles with the prices. "The swimming pools are expensive, so we spend the mornings in the shade of the playgrounds, in the library, and in the Caritas multipurpose space," explains Sosa.

Checking when the fan turns on

Energy poverty affects a large proportion of the families served by Caritas. In many cases, they are even expressly prohibited from using air conditioning or heating to prevent their electricity bills from skyrocketing. Nora admits that she practically clocks how long she runs the two fans in her home. "We turn them on for just a few minutes to cool off a bit and then turn them off," she says. "That's why we're here so late, because we live in an oven," Nati concludes.