Ali, David, Zora and their partner They are real people, even though they do not want to show their faces, or appear graphically in this report, and they look at the journalist with suspicion. They are all foreigners and do not have close social support networks. But they don’t live on the street either, but in substandard housing. there in coast of silence with his wife, as well as Zora and her partner, who inhabit a squat. David, however, does it in an abandoned place in the Palm-Mar.
They see each other and greet each other when entering and leaving. “Until the next day”, says goodbye to Zora, who comes from the Netherlands and has lived in Tenerife for more than 20 years. She is pregnant. She raises friendly hand with two bananas.
Those who are like them see them, but when they go out into the street, those who wander through the area look at the ground, straight ahead or at infinity, as if they were not aware that they are there. The reality is that the “invisibles”, for some time now, wash their clothes in the friar. A minimum of normality for their lives.
All this thanks to the day center that the Red Cross and the Insular Institute of Social and Socio-Health Care (IASS)of the Cabildo, which allows users to have breakfast, use one of the three washers and three dryers one day a week each, shower and be cared for, either by the social worker, by the psychologist or both.
Vehicle for healthcare
All this in the municipality of the South region, where there are more people living on the streets or in homes that do not meet the minimum conditions. Up to 440, according to data from Cáritas Diocesana. Behind are Adeje (162) and Granadilla de Abona (128).
The provincial coordinator of the Red Cross, Rubén González, explains that the vehicle that is at the doors of the center, which is open until 8:00 p.m., is to bring those who need it closer to receiving health care.
The lack of housing and transportation not only creates distance from the rest of society, but also discriminates in access to basic rights.
They are all part of that 20% of inhabitants of the South who do not have a home, despite having a job. Ali, with two months in Tenerife and a bad Spanish, although a good French, had it in Los Cristianos. Zora lost it with the pregnancy and her partner due to COVID. David, of Italian origin and four years on the island, does not talk about that.
“I have water on the premises, but I don’t have a washing machine. That’s why I have to come here.” “And how do you do it, by bus?” “No, in the car.” He has a vehicle, but no resources for maintenance or gasoline.
Ali, however, arrives from Costa del Silencio on foot. Tired, when he is asked about it, he is more than blunt: “Children like that? Thank God we don’t have children.” And point.
