One thousand euros per person per month: the bill Barcelona pays for housing 3,000 vulnerable people in pensions.

BarcelonaIt's almost three years since Marimar's family (a false name, like the rest of the witnesses in the report) has been living from one social services pension to another. They've lived with their three minor children and her husband since they were evicted from the room they had sublet from a married couple who were friends. Like them, Barcelona City Council's social services accommodate some 3,000 vulnerable people in tourist establishments. of which 1,300 are creatures. In principle, a maximum stay of six months is established, but the reality of the users and the housing market in the city makes it impossible to meet these deadlines.

Marimar speaks out in the street in the Gothic Quarter because a private security guard prohibits anyone outside the hostel from entering. Although she wants to report the situation she's living in, she also doesn't want to be identified and labeled as "troublesome" for speaking out about the situation inside. She even fears she might be kicked out of a room where the five family members live in beds fitted together like puzzle pieces. On her phone, she accumulates a catalog of photographs of beetles descending the walls of the room or running over the sheets. She was promised a thorough fumigation of the space where she lives, which has been reduced to the placement of traps.

She describes the dirt, poor hygiene, lack of space, noise, and tension in the living arrangements of the dozen families who are staying out of sheer necessity, along with the noise made by the tourists upstairs. She also explains that there is no stove, and that a company delivers prepared meals every day with "little variety, no fruit or fish." In a room that serves as a kitchen, families struggle to find a chair to eat and leave some food on one of the shelves in the refrigerator. For peace of mind, the children have breakfast in their rooms, sitting on the bed.

Evictions from apartments and the expulsion of sub-tenants, skyrocketing housing prices, and the weight of the tourist market have forced the City Council to make increasingly intensive use of these temporary accommodation units (ATU). Almost all of the city's low-category boarding houses are reserved for social services. And this means a multi-million euro budget allocation: in 2025, the city council is allocating 38 million euros to contracting the 3,000 beds in private tourist establishments. This is the same amount as the previous year, and 11 million more than in 2022, when it invested 27 million to finance 2,300 beds. The numbers add up to an average of 12,600 euros per person per year, or 1,000 euros per month per person.

Sharing a bed with a teenage child

Adela has also accumulated six years of work alternating with boarding houses that are "unhealthy, overcrowded, and lacking security for the women and children who live there." In some establishments, families, women with children, or single women must live alongside single men. She knows thousands of stories from other fellow activists within the Gràcia Housing Group who have no alternative to a shelter if they don't want to end up on the streets.

After years of hard work, she suffers severe pain and fibromyalgia, but perhaps what hurts her most is that her son—now a teenager—has spent more than half his life in precarious conditions, hiding his situation from school and friends. "I can't tell him when we'll stop living like this and have our own space," she laments. They both share "a large bed" in a room without a desk or table where the boy can spread out his books or use his computer. "It's a miserable existence, a situation that wears down anyone's mental and physical health," she reflects.

If the figure of 12,600 euros per person per year is multiplied by each member of a family of five like Marimar's, it can be calculated that, with the 5,000 euros per month paid by social services, they could live in a luxury apartment or even one with a seasonal contract. "It's not that someone is doing business and getting rich, but to provide an emergency response, we need the hostels, and to manage it, we do so within the law on contracting public services," responds Montserrat Rovira, director of Territorial and Community Social Action and head of the Department of Social Urgent Care and Emergencies at the Municipal Institute of Social Services.

The tourism company BCD Travel handles the bulk of the multi-million-dollar municipal contract and is responsible for finding vacant spaces in hostels, inns, guesthouses, and apartments. Rovira admits that the model is not efficient, effective, or cheap when assessed in terms of cost and benefits. Therefore, he says the city council is working to "rationalize" a model that is questioned by users, social workers, and the Barcelona Ombudsman, as it sets a six-month limit for staying in an ATU (apartment housing unit). This, for now, is impossible to comply with if we want to provide a decent and stable solution for these people.

Sandra's family was the victim of a scam and paid €800 in rent for two months to fraudulent landlords. She was evicted from her home with her husband and two children, and, unable to find another rental within their income, they only had the option of a guesthouse in the Raval neighborhood. They told her it would be for 15 days and then they would move to a bridge apartment within a social housing complex. But months later, he's still waiting. According to City Hall data, 65% of people in an ATU stay for more than six months, a third have been there for between one and two years, and 15% for between two and three. Rovira assures that "there's no waiting list," although he admits that the turnover isn't as rapid as possible.

Sandra had a bad night because of the beetles in her room and also complains about the establishment's shortcomings, sometimes without hot water, with insecurity and frequent break-ins. "There's no security, and when you complain to the staff, they tell you you should be grateful to live here," she laments while her young son cries because he doesn't want to go back to his room. "He doesn't want to be there either, and since we've been here, he's become more aggressive and gets along worse," she says. She adds: "With the money the City Council pays, we could find ten apartments." A fellow hostel member, also with two young children, goes for a walk to get some fresh air from the "fireflies and mushrooms" in her room. She's afraid to complain, let alone file a complaint.

Criticism from the staff

Social workers denounce the City Council's emphasis on "economic considerations" with the new protocol, which, since last summer, has limited families' stays in the ATUs to six months because there are no alternatives. According to them, the restrictions "blame the people being served for their situation by suggesting they are not making good use of resources." Vanesa Sáez, a CGT representative, affirms that these regulations cause "stress" to families because they are "constantly under suspicion," as they must undergo "an assessment every two months" to verify whether they are still vulnerable and entitled to accommodation. "They are forced to live with constant threat, with uncertainty," and concludes that the City Council is exercising "institutional abuse."

Barcelona's Ombudsman, David Bondia, is concerned that "a tour operator is in charge of managing social housing," and is finalizing a report with proposals that he will present next month. He adds that the solution requires a response from social services, Housing, and the Economy, and that a metropolitan vision is necessary because the same problem exists on a smaller scale in other cities. "It's unacceptable that so many millions are spent providing accommodation and not on preventing evictions or helping people find decent housing," he reflects.

Rovira responds that the City Council "as an administration cannot guarantee a private individual" to secure a rental and that "aid will be prioritized to prevent evictions, covering the debt so people can maintain their homes." Last year, 15,000 grants were awarded worth €7.1 million.

Complaints about social workers and pensions have even reached the Ombudsman, but Bondia admits that there is an "underreporting" due to the vulnerability of users. He says that discontent over the service's deficiencies "are not isolated cases." In contrast, the City Council maintains that only 2.3% of users file complaints and that almost all incidents are resolved. In fact, it asserts that users rate the service 8 out of 10. This score contrasts with the ratings some establishments receive from tourists staying there. "They don't even believe it," says Marimar, who had three meals delivered to the hostel in the morning and couldn't heat them up.