The annual report of Caritas figure in 2,738 people living without a home in Tenerife, a thousand more in the last year, with a direct negative influence of the pandemic. The Cabildo receives the study Extreme residential exclusion in Tenerife in times of Covid “with concern”, according to the island president. Pedro Martín anticipates that as a first measure they will increase the contribution to alleviate this scourge by one million euros in the remainder of 2022 and next year. He announces the construction of four more centers, two in the north and two in the south, to serve these people.
This is the second study by Cáritas on homelessness in Tenerife. It covers all of 2021 and establishes that 2,738 people are in a situation of extreme residential exclusion on the Island, which is almost a thousand more than in 2020, when there were 1,784. The first study only analyzed the second semester of that year. In 42.8% of cases (1,173 people), the situation is directly due to the Covid-19 socioeconomic and health crisis. 56.25% (1,565) already had it before.
Peter Martin he was accompanied by the island councilor for Social Action, Marián Franquet; by the general secretary of Cáritas, Ricardo Iglesias, and by the entity’s Social Action coordinator, Úrsula Peñate.
Caritas multidisciplinary teams have acted on the ground with improved methods and more contacts with those affected. This partly plays into the rise of homeless people coming to the surface. Peñate, director of the work, recalls that “people in extreme residential exclusion are those who cannot access or maintain adequate and permanent accommodation.”
The pandemic has had an impact on the growth of the phenomenon in Tenerife by limiting access to services that are increasingly linked to technologies to which this part of the population did not have and does not have access.
Main data.
37.1% (1,017 people) spend the night on the street or in a public space outdoors; 8.7% (238) do so in a shelter or similar center. 420 people have also been identified, 15.3%, who live in a home that is not the usual one because they have lost it due to evictions or not being able to pay the rent. Another 15.8% (433) stay in unconventional temporary structures (cabins, shacks, caravans or caves). 8.8% (241) occupy inappropriate accommodation to live in and 5.6% (154) do so in a regime of insecure tenure.
73.9% (2,024) are men, but the number of women has increased from 21.4% in 2020 to 25.6% in 2021. The average age is 45 years for men and 35 for women. 150 minors have been registered, usually in single-parent families. There are more and more young people, since 7.8% (213) are between 18 and 25 years old. And the elderly also rise, since between 65 and 90 years old there were 81 (4.6%) in 2020 and in 2021 they rose to 154 (5.6%). Santa Cruz de Tenerife concentrates the largest number of homeless people, 953 (34.8%), followed by Arona (441); The Lagoon (422); Adeje (166); Puerto de la Cruz (134) and Granadilla (128). Two poles: Metropolitan Area and the South. Another conclusion raises the chronification of the problem since 62% have been homeless for more than a year and 32% more than three years.
77 nationalities.
Most are Spanish, but up to 77 nationalities have been identified. Behind the 57.5% of nationals –compared to 54.3% in 2020–, Moroccans (6.4%), Senegalese (4.1%), Venezuelans (4%), Italians (3.7%) and Germans (1.8&). 71.4% are Europeans, the most affected nationalities are from the EU and only 12.4% are in an irregular administrative situation. These data indicate that the proliferation of homeless people is not linked to the arrival in small boats. “Aporophobia links poverty with immigrants and it is not like that,” says Peñate.
Among the reasons they put forward to explain their situation are structural and conjunctural. Among them, unemployment and job insecurity; minimum income; lack of public aid; evictions and foreclosures; mental health and addictions.
More money.
Pedro Martín highlights the importance of having a diagnosis on homeless people, which until 2020 did not exist, Martín stresses that last year they allocated 1,632,739 euros to care for 3,812 homeless people, «however, in light of this study , we have planned a new line for one million euros more to continue attending to this reality, of which very little is usually talked about and which worries us a lot ». He emphasizes that, “although this is a fundamentally municipal competence, the Cabildo could not be alien to it.” Therefore, “we will continue working, not only on diagnosis, which is essential, but also on intervention.”
The resources.
Marián Franquet explains that the data from 2021 cannot be compared with that of 2020, since the time taken to carry out the study has doubled, from six months to one year. The conclusion is that part of the 1,000 homeless people detected in 2021 were already living in these conditions when the first report was made, but now they have come to light. “In 2020 we only knew the tip of the iceberg,” says the counselor. Franquet recalls that Cáritas, with 941,769 euros, is the entity that receives the most support from the Cabildo to curb homelessness. She values the projects in which they collaborate, such as the Mobile Street Care Unit, the Base 25 housing program, the Atarraya project and Barrios por el Empleo. The council It also has other residential resources for homeless people: Oak Floor, for convalescent homeless elderly and 6 apartments for former youth.
Increasingly.
Ricardo Iglesias, assures that «2021 has reinforced the idea that every day there are more people in dramatic exclusion that does not affect all people in the same way. Iglesias also highlights the importance of this study, “a tool with which the Cabildo and the rest of the administrations will be able to make the best strategic decisions and effectively and courageously deal with this social scourge.”
real policies.
Cáritas calls for real public policies that facilitate access to decent housing for all citizensespecially the most vulnerable groups. It proposes a series of measures. Among others, a diagnosis on the reality of housing in each territory; the halting of any eviction without the guarantee of alternative accommodation; the creation of an annually updated census; the diagnosis of people in a situation of extreme residential exclusion; specific units of the municipal social services and not hinder the registration processes. Iglesias acknowledges that “solving the violation of the right of access to decent housing is a long-term commitment.”