While a tide of people moves along Madrid’s Gran Vía trying to take advantage of the January sales, temperatures are falling again in the city and homeless people, many of them distributed along this central axis, continue doing their best to survive without a roof to shelter under. Although the council implements cold campaigns and specific programs during the most difficult months of the year, the numbers continue to rise, a fact that reflects a problem that goes beyond immediate assistance: a system incapable of guaranteeing access to affordable housing and lives worthy
Since 2006, Madrid City Council had been carrying out an annual nightly count of homeless people with the support of volunteers, obtaining estimated figures on a specific day. Starting in 2022, this method changed with the creation of the “Street Teams”, made up of professionals who operate in the 21 districts of the city. According to sources from the Social Policies, Families and Equality area of the Madrid City Council, the new counting system is more precise and guarantees “dignified treatment and closer intervention.”
Thanks to this daily approach, “an unprecedented level of detail” was recorded in 2023, including people in settlements and in areas such as the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport. On the other hand, members of the third sector point out that the new counting system implemented by the City Council, although it may be more precise, makes comparison with previous data difficult. All in all, it is estimated that according to the latest data published by the City Council in June in the city, 2,414 people face the harshest months of the year without a stable home.
Homelessness has also grown in the Community of Madrid as a whole: it has increased by 17% between 2012 and 2022, going from 3,532 people to more than 4,100, according to INE data.
Daniel Ferrera, from the Hogar Sí organization, confirms that his association has noticed an evident increase in people in this situation in the last decade, aggravated by factors such as job insecurity, inflation and the increase in the cost of housing.
Bosco García Camarrós, Area Director of Day Centers of the Realidades Association, remembers that The concept of homelessness is not limited to those who live on the streets: “It also encompasses situations such as temporary, unsafe or inadequate accommodation.” This expanded definition reflects a more complex reality, which includes people at risk of residential exclusion due to precarious employment or lack of access to decent housing. García recalls that in Madrid rents rarely go below 900 euros, while salaries are not enough to cover basic needs, which leads to an “increase in vulnerability and sudden homelessness.”
The arrival of winter
To face winter, the City Council reinforces resources such as the “Cold Campaign”, which provides places in shelters, warm clothing, hot meals and information on available services. It also coordinates with the General Directorate of Social Services and teams such as Madrid Calle to refer homeless people to appropriate resources. Even so, from Realidades they highlight the difficulty of reaching all people experiencing homelessness.
The City Council’s new resources include the “A Tiempo” program, focused on homeless youth between 18 and 25 years old, and the Pedro Meca center, inaugurated in September, which seeks to facilitate transitions to more stable accommodations. In addition, the council has launched an awareness campaign to make the problem visible.
The third sector associations value the efforts of the municipal authorities to allocate more resources to this issue, although they believe that there is “a long way to go” and that a determined commitment must be made to remove “each and every one of the people.” ” from the street. Furthermore, they emphasize that winter is an especially delicate period given that more than 15% of homeless people die prematurely from hypothermia.
The entities also highlight that homelessness is not only a reflection of social exclusion, but also a symptom of a structural crisis of housing and economic inequality. As long as job insecurity, lack of affordable housing and insufficient resources persist, thousands of people will continue to face the cold Madrid winter without a home to take refuge.
The profile of homeless people
In Madrid, the majority of homeless people are men: they represent approximately 80% of this group. In terms of age, the predominant range is between 46 and 55 years old, which is equivalent to 35% of homeless people, followed by those between 36 and 45 years old, with 25%. According to experts, late adulthood is a critical period of vulnerability for this group, especially in the face of loss of employment or social support networks.
Regarding distribution throughout the city, 40% of homeless people in Madrid are found in the Centro district, which makes it the area with the highest concentration of this group. This phenomenon could be attributed to the availability of assistance resources and the greater flow of people in this area, which facilitates access to donations and informal help.
#people #face #winter #Madrid #home
