The rise of families living in rooms pushes Barcelona to review the aid system

BarcelonaThe number of people registered without a fixed address in Barcelona has shot up in recent years. From the 3,991 registered in the municipal register in 2015, the number has risen to 45,913 at the beginning of 2024. The increase has been especially pronounced in the last three years, in which the figure has almost doubled. In 2022, there were 20,000 fewer registered residents without a fixed address than now. Data that has led the City Council to consider the need to review the aid system, especially after a report commissioned by the Municipal Institute of Social Services confirmed that this is one of the reasons behind the rise in registered residents with unknown addresses.

To reach this conclusion, it must be taken into account that, beyond homeless people or those living in informal settlements, a good part of those registered without a fixed address are people or entire families who live in sublet rooms. In many cases, the owner or the person in charge of the rental contract does not allow them to register at the address because they are afraid of losing access to these benefits. The reason? That in some cases the criterion for granting them is the cohabitation unit – the sum of people who live in the same home – instead of the family unit – a group of people with family ties who live in a home – or the economic unit, which only takes into account people who live in the same home, but who share income and expenses.

The fact that – as confirmed by a recent report prepared by Cáritas and the Esade Observatory of Decent Housing – more and more vulnerable people are forced to live in a sublet room has exacerbated the problem. Despite the lack of specific data from the council, the study commissioned by the City Council maintains, based on surveys carried out by social entities, that 20.23% of people who register without a fixed address do so because they live in a house or room where they are not allowed to register, and that 7.8% do so out of "necessity"

Homogenize concepts

"The reality of residential exclusion has changed a lot in ten years, the number of families living in rooms has increased a lot in the last decade and the administrations must review our policies to adapt to reality," said the Commissioner for Social Action of the Barcelona City Council, Sònia Fuertes, who argued that it is necessary to differentiate what is a benefit.

Fuertes gave as an example the case of two families who cannot afford the cost of living alone and are forced to share a flat. "Despite living together they are not the same economic unit," she said. Therefore, she said, it is necessary to move forward to "homogenise these concepts" and for the aid and benefits to reflect the situations that families and people experience as far as possible. Fuertes explained that the Barcelona City Council will work to create a glossary that includes this terminology and has opened the door to sharing it with other administrations.

According to the report, entitled The impact of social benefits on the dynamics of the municipal register, among the almost 46,000 registered residents without a fixed address, there are 4,730 children under sixteen years of age. As for the distribution of this type of registered residents by district, the vast majority are in Ciutat Vella (11,521), followed by Sant Martí (6,407), Nou Barris (6,375) and Sants-Montjuïc (6,244). On the other hand, the districts in which there are fewer are Sarrià-Sant Gervasi (868) and Les Corts (978).