Mothers saved from ending up on the streets: "Having an apartment gives you the strength to start over."

Sant Adrià de BesòsVerónica López was evicted from the apartment where she lived with two children—one of them under eleven—and, although she earns a salary, she found it impossible to find another decent place to live due to prohibitive market prices. For a few months, she was homeless, while her two children stayed with their grandmother temporarily. This situation lasted until Badalona's social services suggested she join Vesta, a pilot project launched in 2021 by a combination of third-sector entities, Besòs city councils, the Generalitat (Catalan government), and the Barcelona Provincial Council. This project sought, precisely, to prevent single mothers, who have a history of gender-based violence behind them, from becoming single mothers.

Aside from this public-social collaboration on a metropolitan scale, the plan's novelty is that it not only helps women find emotional and physical stability and security, but also provides support ranging from legal and psychological support to job integration. "Vesta saved my life. It made me get out of bed again because having an apartment gave me hope and the strength to start over," explains López.

Three years after the program began,The Metropolis Institute has made a qualitative assessment of what it has meant for the twenty women and their children (60 people in total) to have an entire network of professionals who supplement their own networks. She has managed to rebuild her life with her three young children in one of the project's apartments, provided by social organizations and paid for by the family's contribution (between 10 and 30%, depending on income), public subsidies, or those of the project itself. "We're all very relaxed, and you can consider starting courses without working," the most veteran of the group, and has already entered a second phase, in which social support is relaxed and reserved only for emergencies.

An opportunity

Having an apartment is the cornerstone of Vesta, a game-changer for providing structure to the family. From there, the work begins to help these women enter the labor market, although the lack of family members often makes this difficult due to problems balancing work and school schedules. "We see it as a great opportunity because a single woman with children has a very difficult time working," insists Enilda Pérez, mother of a six-year-old daughter who lives with her in Sant Adrià de Besòs and five other children who have stayed behind in Honduras.

Like the other participants, she has been given an individual integration plan by the Formació i Treball Foundation and is receiving intensive follow-up by two social workers from San Juan de Dios-Social Services who, using the healthcare industry as an example, act as family doctors to prevent these vulnerable mothers from having to enter social services through the door. In fact, one of the study's conclusions is that families are reducing their visits not only to regular social services but also to health services.

After three years of pilot testing, it won't be until a few weeks before the participating entities and institutions (including Cáritas and the Mambré Foundation) will discuss whether it will continue and even whether to expand the number of members and financial contributions to serve families. According to the plan's economic calculations, Vesta is much cheaper than conventional solutions. of hostels and social emergency hotels where families who lose their homes are often accommodated.