No beds left an hour from the bridge where those expelled from B9 sleep: criticism of the cold weather operation in Badalona

Barcelona"There was nothing. What you'd find in a sports hall. I don't know if they expected people to sleep lying on the basketball court." Carles Sagués, spokesperson for Badalona Acoge, criticizes the meager resources the city deployed Sunday night to provide shelter for the homeless as temperatures dropped. The City Council opened the doors of the La Colina pavilion, but there were no beds or blankets, the activist explains. There was also no option to use the showers, nor were residents allowed to bring their own sleeping mats or bags "due to the possibility of contagion," the council argued, according to Sagués. The group of activists who visited the space even felt uneasy—"we almost didn't dare," Sagués admits—about informing the people still living in a settlement under a bridge on the C-31 highway, approximately an hour's walk from the La Colina pavilion, about this option. since they were evicted from the old B9 school More than two weeks ago.

Ultimately, no one saw the pavilion as a good alternative to tents or sleeping under a blanket in the open, and no one spent the night under the baskets. Contrary to what the activists claim, municipal sources assure that there was food and drink available on the Hill and confirm that no one wanted to sleep there last night. Representatives from Social Services, Civil Protection, and the Municipal Police were present during the night. The pavilion will be open again tonight and next, and from now on, Red Cross members hired by the city council will also be in charge of the facility. Beds will be available for those who wish to stay there, the City Council clarified in response to questions from ARA.

Supiera also criticizes the fact that accommodation in the pavilion was limited to 15 places despite the lack of beds. "If it's for sleeping on the floor, the pavilion could fit 300," he quips. However, he notes that aside from the people evicted from B9, the last count of homelessness in Badalona was around one hundred people.

This Monday, the opposition groups in Badalona issued a joint statement criticizing the fact that the winter relief operation "has not existed" because the city council has not provided homeless people with "beds, mattresses, blankets, showers, or any accommodation resources." The PSC, ERC, Badalona en Comú Podem, and Guanyem Badalona see the council's "inaction" as yet another example of Mayor Xavier García Albiol's policies, noting that he had already ordered the closure of the Can Bofí Vell shelter and that he has "abandoned any social and housing policy that provides solutions."

No extra places in Barcelona

Meanwhile, social organizations have received no word that any additional resources have been activated in the Catalan capital to assist people experiencing homelessness in light of the recent drop in temperatures. Bea Fernández, director of the Arrels Foundation, acknowledges that since Monday morning they had been expecting the city council to announce the opening of more shelter spaces, anticipating that Operation Cold in the city—in its preventative phase since early December—would be raised to the alert level. When the alert phase is reached, Fernández explains, the city council temporarily opens new shelter spaces for the duration of the cold spell. "I don't know what's happening that they haven't informed us about these spaces; I understand they should be available. We've all seen that there has been snowfall at very low elevations today," she laments. For now, lacking any information on whether these spaces will be opened, Fernández regrets that Arrels cannot advise those inquiring about where to go. Their office is open until 6:30, and until then they will share any information they have with users. In fact, they explain, when these emergency shelters open, it is usually accompanied by a patrol from the Guardia Urbana (municipal police) focused on locating people sleeping on the streets and inviting them to go to these spaces. However, this January 5th, they believe it may be more difficult than usual to find these people: "Today is a complicated day because there's a parade and there will be a lot of people in the streets. If the shelters open today, I think it will be difficult to locate people on the streets."

For its part, when questioned by ARA, the city council simply reiterated that the preventative phase of Operation Cold has been activated in the city since December 2nd, as it is every winter, and that it is up to the teams responsible for the emergency and social services to assess whether additional resources are needed or if a change of phase is necessary.. In this phase, the Emergency Night Shelter (CANE) is open, with 100 beds available for overnight stays (74 for men and 26 for women). Since it opened in December until this past weekend, it has assisted approximately 370 people.

The next level after the preventative phase is the pre-alert phase, which is activated when the weather forecast predicts temperatures will reach 0°C across the city in a widespread manner, or when the Municipal Emergency Action Plan for Snow and Ice has been activated at the alert level. However, this phase can also be activated at the discretion of the teams due to an accumulation of adverse weather conditions associated with a general drop in temperature, without necessarily reaching zero degrees, such as strong winds or rain.