More than a million Catalans suffer residential exclusion in Catalonia and half of them are children. A number that could exceed two million, according to some approximations. The data is extracted from Incocat 14 reportpresented this morning by the Federation of Catalan Social Action Entities (ECAS) which focuses exclusively on housing and residential exclusion. These figures directly contradict those provided by the Ministry of Social Rights, which reduces the problem to 60,000 people affected. “We need public policies that are aware of the seriousness of the problemso that they can respond to this emergency, solve it and leave no one behind, otherwise they will always be insufficient”, claimed Ferran Busquets, poverty spokesperson for ECAS at the presentation of the study.
“It’s a housing problem, it’s structural, For too many years, no measures have been taken to solve it.so the situation is becoming more difficult,” complained Míriam Feu, head of the social reality observatory of Càritas, at the press conference. At the very least, the impossibility of accessing a roof over the vulnerable families exploded in all its harshness with the wave of evictions caused by the financial crisis of 2008. But the drama of the situation has reached unsuspected limits, as demonstrated by the case of Anamelba Alvarado, a woman born in Peru who arrived in Barcelona three years ago hoping for a salary that would finance treatment for her sick parents in Latin America. She is now occupying a flat with a woman and her two children in Barcelona.
Stop eating to pay for a roof
With luck, she and her husband manage to scrape together 500 euros a month. She working as a domestic cleaner and he in reforms. “We work for hours and without a contract, all in black because we don’t have papers”, Explain. A year ago they paid 350 euros a month to live in a room in a flat which, later, turned out to be busy. How does a couple live with 150 euros a month? “stopping eating” respond without hesitation. “Before I had lunch at noon, now I don’t. We had milk with bread for breakfast and had pasta with tuna for dinner.what social entities give us,” he continues. About a year ago, when they were evicted from the room, he decided to occupy a flat owned by the Santander bank, together with a single mother with two children. “We never thought of doing this, but it is impossible for us to rent a house: they ask you for salaries of 2,000 euros and also we are not legalized in Spain,” says the woman.
Anamelba’s case can be considered insecure housing, since she is under threat of eviction. The bank has already denounced them, but she begs for a social rent. Like her, it is estimated that in Catalonia there are 915,000 people in the same situation according to the report presented today, a figure that has tripled in less than four years. Then there are the people who live in inadequate houses, piled up in abandoned flats, shacks, warehouses or offices. Are 1.3 million people. To these figures must be added the 18,000 people who sleep on the street, in pensions or municipal shelters. If all the data presented today is added up, residential exclusion in Catalonia exceeds two million affected, although social entities warn that some cases may be duplicated, as is the case of Anamelba, who went from living in a room in a crowded apartment, to do it in a house on the verge of eviction.
These data collide with those presented by the ‘Govern’ just a month ago. The counselor did it Violant Cervera, which for the first time established an economic report to address the situation of the homeless. The Ministry amade that in 2021 it allocated 140.57 million in aid to maintain housing and is waiting for the State to decide the allocations of European funds. “The problem is that the measures that are taken are totally insufficient, there are hundreds of people that they do not reach,” insisted Busquets.
Access to other rights
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“Decent housing is a fundamental right. Without it, it is impossible to access the rest of the basic rights such as physical and mental health and access to decent work,” he lamented. Silvia Laporta, head of gender at the Prohabitatge foundation. A case that also affects the Peruvian, since they barely have resources to finance medication you need for a kidney infection, let alone the medical treatment for a broken ankle or ‘polio’, the chronic disease that affects him.
The NGOs warn that they are overwhelmed by the need they detect. 97% of people served by an entity cannot afford a ceiling, and more than half of the cases, 54%, are left unattended due to the collapse of the third sector. “We give them financial aid so that they can pay for a room, but we can’t take it anymore, we can’t take on this whole situation,” Feu assured. That is why Anamelba decided to occupy a house, supported by the Grup d’Habitatge dels Tres Turons, because neither the administrations nor the social entities have been able to offer her a roof over her head. “Please, someone help us, we have good intentions and a lot of will to be able to pay rent. It’s human,” he prays.