Cáritas Diocesana de Tenerife has warned this Tuesday of the chronification suffered by people in a situation of severe residential exclusion, or homelessness, despite the fact that in 2022 the number of affected people decreased by 17% on the island to 2,261, compared to 2,738 in those that were known in the previous year.
In a press conference at the Tenerife Town Hall to present the report on homelessness, the general secretary of Cáritas in Tenerife, Ricardo Iglesias, highlighted that despite the apparent decrease, the reality is that the majority of people in this situation continue to do so. being and without an institutional response and adequate support.
“It is a situation that comes from a long time ago. There is a group of people in a situation of severe exclusion that has continued over the years without there being an adequate response from the administrations,” the representative of the NGO has elaborated.
By municipalities, it is Santa Cruz de Tenerife that accounts for 39.14% of the total, with 885 registered homeless people, a figure that is explained by being one of the few municipalities that has a residential resource for people in this situation.
It is followed by San Cristóbal de La Laguna, which accounts for 14.64% of the cases (331); Arona, with 13.31% (301 cases); Adeje, 6.5% (147 cases); and Puerto de la Cruz, with 113 cases.
Of the total number of people experiencing homelessness, around 21% have been homeless for more than ten years, 11.3% for between three and five years, almost 40% for one to three years, and 15.8% for seven to twelve months. and 39.1% from zero to six months.
homeless women
During his speech, Ricardo Iglesias warned about the double or triple vulnerabilities that women face in extreme residential exclusion, and which are just over 25% of cases, a figure slightly higher than in 2021.

“There is an increase in the profile of women who not only suffer exclusion linked to social precariousness but also gender discrimination, especially if they are foreigners. Their exposure to situations of violence or sexual violence is double and other risk contexts appear, such as sexual exploitation or trafficking,” the Cáritas representative has elaborated.
In this sense, he regretted that the care systems that exist on the island are usually focused on caring for single men or are mixed resources, and he has assured that there is a specific lack in this issue.
“Many women do not want to go to mixed care resources so as not to have to live with men in a context where they fear experiencing and suffering from violent experiences. They take stock and prefer not to go and look for other alternatives,” Iglesias highlighted.
In the Cáritas report, which has been presented by the coordinator of the Street Care Units (UMAC) project, José Antonio Díez, it is specified that about 0.5% of homeless people belong to the trans group, especially they are women.
Almost half have mental health problems
Cáritas has also alluded to the problems with people’s mental health care and, in general, 44% of homeless people have chronic and diagnosed health problems.
Furthermore, of that total, 23.8% had a diagnosis of several diseases at the same time.
The most common problems are mental health, with a prevalence of 25.3%.
Regarding homeless people with mental health difficulties, they have warned of the difficulties and shortcomings of this group in accessing health care, despite the fact that they require a social and professional support network that provides them with the treatments they need “and that many times “They don’t lend themselves.”
They have also warned that 20.6% have a certified disability, in most cases above 50% and that, “therefore the administration knows the difficulties of these people in their daily lives.”
The data from the study also indicate that the number of people of foreign origin who are homeless has decreased and that the majority of people, more than 68%, are nationals or Europeans, while only 11.9% are homeless people. irregular.
The Minister of Social Action of the Tenerife Cabildo, Águeda Fumero, has announced that during the first quarter of 2024 the Cabildo will launch the first strategy for homeless people and has admitted that the solution “is not easy”, although it exists “ “will of the municipalities” to face the problem.
He has also pointed out that the lack of access to affordable housing is a reality that affects families and ultimately also affects homeless people, as does the lack of access to employment.
2021, the year in which the numbers skyrocketed
In 2021, Cáritas identified 2,738 people in a situation of extreme residential exclusion on the island of Tenerife. They were almost a thousand more than the 1,784 registered in the second half of 2020, which was the first time that this field work commissioned by the Tenerife Cabildo was carried out.
Cáritas then explained that the figure increased in part due to the ability of the teams that worked on the ground to identify extreme situations, with more contact with people excluded from the right to decent housing and with more coordination with the administrations. Also, the COVID pandemic contributed to skyrocketing the numbers, since it limited access to administrative, social and health services increasingly linked to technologies to which a large part of the population does not have easy access, according to the study by Caritas published then.
Of those 2,738 excluded people, a large part, up to 37%, lived directly outdoors, but also in shelters or night lodging centers (8.7%), where places have less and less turnover because those who use them do not find alternative residences.
At that time, Santa Cruz was, as now, the municipality with the highest number of homeless people. It was followed by Arona, which is now in third place, and then La Laguna, which in 2022 rose to second place.