Living on the street, the peak of loneliness

Barcelona"A person living on the street in Barcelona is exposed all day, surrounded by people, but no one sees them. It is the peak of loneliness," explains Núria Martínez, director of the Hort de la Vila center for homeless people, in the Sarrià neighborhood. In Catalonia, there have never been as many people sleeping on the streets as there are now: according to the Government, there are about 8,000, more than half of whom are in the country's capital. Working but being unable to pay rent and having to sleep outdoors is a growing reality, as the increase in precariousness means that there are more and more people who cannot even afford to pay for a room despite earning a salary. With this scenario, it is becoming increasingly complex to ensure they reintegrate socially and regain their autonomy, and experts warn that networks of affection and support are needed to allow them to break free from the unwanted loneliness they suffer, in addition to ending the lack of accessible housing and bureaucratic obstacles.

For social educator Jordi Rull, who works at Sant Joan de Déu Serveis Socials with young migrants who have been in a homeless situation, the key step for reintegration is that "they feel seen and recognized," after having suffered the loneliness of not having a roof over their heads. The entity coordinates two apartments in Barcelona with eleven places for young people, and the Hort de la Vila center has 116 places contracted with the Municipal Institute of Social Services (IMSS) of the Barcelona City Council for a more varied age profile. Even so, the Minister of Social Rights, Raúl Moreno, admitted in an interview with ARA that more emergency accommodation resources are needed for these people, but he added that the housing crisis also has repercussions on the social emergency housing that can be put into operation.

This is an added difficulty to the recovery of their autonomy, explains Martínez. These are people who have been left without networks –family, friendship, and romantic relationships have broken down–, they have lost their jobs, they do not have good health... "It is a web of loneliness," and it is necessary to rebuild the networks again to leave the street behind, says the expert. However, she warns that once these networks have been re-established and they have managed to find a job and have built new personal relationships, which in many cases is "as exhausting as climbing a very high mountain," they find themselves "in front of the precipice" of finding an apartment. "We have young people who have risked their lives at sea in a small boat or hidden in the undercarriage of a truck. If they had the base of material goods covered, such as a roof or money to support themselves, they could gradually build a life, despite the administrative obstacles that slow everything down. But it is not like that," adds Rull.

An "hourglass"

In the two apartments where this social educator works, young people between 18 and 30 years old who have lived on the street are sheltered. The goal is for the users to make an autonomous transition to the private rental market. Currently, there are nine boys and two girls, most of whom are Moroccan, although there is also one from Kenya and one from Honduras. Practically all of them arrived as minors and were under the guardianship of the State, many of them coming from Ceuta, Melilla, and the south of the Peninsula, from where they traveled to Barcelona when they reached the age of majority. Their situation of helplessness often leads them to live in squatted apartments, consume narcotic substances, and even commit crimes when they are on the street. In these apartments, work is done to leave this stage behind and restore bonds.

However, even though there has never been so much investment to combat homelessness –or at least announced by the Generalitat–, there have never been so many people sleeping on the streets of Barcelona. Martínez laments that this creates added pressure on professionals and the people in reception, as they have to carry out processes in a time frame that is unrealistic: "The reception times do not adjust to reality." The management of stays –with an average duration of one year– is like an "hourglass," which starts running when the person enters the center. This is due to waiting lists: every week there are a dozen people waiting to gain access. To redirect the situation, Martínez calls for structural public policies, the mandatory compliance with the right to municipal registration in all Catalan town halls to give visibility to the problem, and the effective deployment of the homelessness law, stalled in Parliament.