The housing crisis erupts in schools: 200 students could lose their homes and 1,300 are living in hostels.

BarcelonaThe case occurred two academic years ago, and they are still suffering the consequences: "It's about two girls, sisters. They were at home when their family was evicted and they saw the police vans and the judicial procession arrive, enter their house, and evict them. Two city workers took them to school. They arrived at a safe school and were taken to a worker; they didn't arrive at a safe school and were taken to a worker. When they were late, they had no home to return to." Anna Pérez, director of the Jacint Verdaguer School in the Poble-sec neighborhood of Barcelona, recounts this case, still emotional. "There's always a case that makes you jump, that makes you say enough, and for us, this was it," she continues. This year, there are 18 other students at the school in the same situation, in the midst of eviction proceedings.

More and more schools are coming forward to report cases of evictions affecting their students in the Catalan capital. These are not isolated cases: between September and April alone, the Docents 080 collective has counted more than 215 students facing eviction in Barcelona. "But there are definitely many more," Pérez explains, emphasizing, for example, that in their analysis of schools, no one has been counted yet. The Vallcarca cases, which were made public in MayIn this neighborhood alone, there are at least 13 minors enrolled in four different centers who have been waiting for their eviction for several weeks as a result of the neighborhood's redevelopment plans, which involve demolishing old (now occupied) buildings to create a new urban layout.

The City Council's own data reveals an even harsher reality, one that is counted not in the tens or hundreds, but in the thousands. An average of 3,000 people are living in so-called emergency temporary accommodation in Barcelona. The cases are repeated from school to school, and not always in the poorest neighborhoods.

Ortiz, who says that at her school they have detected that students are going through "a kind of mourning": "First they arrive with a lot of anger, helplessness, they don't understand anything, and then they become sad, because they see that the process is dragging on and not being reversed."

"We have a student who lost all his toys, and one of the things he was most worried about was where they had gone and how to get them back," says Ortiz. "They lose everything: their history, personal belongings, a computer, toys... and that can cause tremendous trauma for people who are still learning," agrees Pérez. "A mother explained to me that they don't have a desk, and that the oldest daughter does her homework in the communal laundry room; in another case, a girl doesn't want to shower in the boarding house's shared sink. These are everyday situations that greatly affect them at school, too," she notes. "We're talking about children and families with whom we've created bonds and who are learning to read and write with us. Children who feel that school is a safe place," adds Mercè Barnés, director of the Escola Montseny, which handles cases of minors affected by evictions in Vallcarca. "The school cannot be indifferent to this problem," summarizes Pérez.

No protocols

The management teams agree that they have learned to react on the fly: "We have created a joint housing committee with the AFA," explains Ortiz. "On the one hand, we try to detect cases as soon as possible to put the affected family in contact with the housing unions and social services, because that empowers them a lot and brings them calm; the student." Pérez explains that at his center they have organized an internal protocol, following the example of some schools in Salt, the first to explicitly declare themselves in the fight against evictions in Catalonia. And in Vallcarca, schools accompany families to protests.

"It is not easy for the management teams to show their face, because that sometimes singles out some schools and there are many that still prefer not to take a position," notes Albert Torrent, a member of the AFA coordinator in Vallcarca, who points out that all these cases have a direct relationship with the problems with the so-called live registration"But it's important that schools get involved, because education undoubtedly has a political and critical thinking dimension," he asserts. From the Provincial Council's AFA (Association of Adolescents of the Provincial Council), Pablo Peralta recalls that these are situations "that can now happen to anyone." "This has been going on for years, but it's only when it's reached the most vulnerable neighborhoods that we've been affected." posh people that the middle classes have begun to mobilize: for too long there has been a serious equidistance on the issue of housing," he laments.

Claims to the administration

Thus, these centers, the AFA (Association of Teachers of the Faculty of Education), and the Docents 080 collective are demanding answers from the public administration. "To begin with, we want them to welcome us and convey this concern to them," Ortiz begins. "When a student is abused, we have a protocol and we know what to do; but when the abuse is structural or institutional, there is no protocol," Pérez continues. "Rapid psychological care would also be needed," Ortiz adds.

Another problem the centers have detected is that many evicted families end up in boarding houses far from their neighborhoods, even in other municipalities. "At the very least, they should be relocated nearby, so they don't lose their connection to the school," they demand.

In this regard, the Barcelona Education Consortium claims to be "in contact" with the Docents 080 platform to guide "actions that could be carried out." They also point out that the education system "has established mechanisms to promote local schooling in the event of unforeseen situations." This means that if the evicted family requests a change of school to facilitate reconciliation, they try to study the case individually. However, the problem is that—as the directors point out—most evicted families also want to avoid a change of school and, ultimately, even greater stress for their children.