People Seek Stability Amid Housing Crisis as Caritas Huesca Marks Homelessness Awareness Day

Enrique knows what it means to lose almost everything and start again without a network that supports him. The economic crisis of 2008 left him unemployed, and problems with the mortgage and the separation of his wife eventually placed him on the street. He spent between seven and nine years sleeping in different places until he managed to rent a room in Granada, where he stayed another eight or nine years. The advanced age of the woman who rented it and his decision to leave the lease have returned him to the weather. “I have been in the street for a month,” he explains.

He now receives 600 euros per month, an amount insufficient to access a room in Huesca in the current market. The prices he finds range between 500 and 600 euros, not counting the rest of the daily expenses. “I don’t even have to have a coffee, it doesn’t reach me,” he says.

The history of Fausto Méndez, a Venezuelan who arrived in Spain eight months ago, shows another face of the same precariousness. In his country, he worked as an independent teacher and merchant; here, the lack of documentation, the difficulty of finding employment, and the cost of housing have conditioned his life project. He arrived alone, left his family in his country, and, despite his willingness to get ahead, has not yet found a stability that allows him to live without depending on the help of others.

His first reception was the hostel, where he found hot food and a place to sleep. Later, the accompaniment of Caritas has allowed him to stay in a shared room, although the situation is far from simple. On the four-bedroom floor they have come to live together seven people and currently reside six. Fausto shares a room with another person and both pay 450 euros. Neither one has a job.

The lack of alternatives has even led him to sleep on the street. When he has obtained casual jobs in the countryside, income has not been enough to meet his needs either. “People often take advantage of the immigrant,” he says, before nuancing that not everyone acts like this.

The testimonies of Enrique and Fausto have given a human dimension to the event organized by Caritas Huesca on the occasion of the Day of the Homeless, which will be commemorated on Sunday, October 25, under the slogan “A home, a place to belong to.” The campaign claims housing as something more than a roof: a space of security and stability from which to recover autonomy, build a life project, and feel part of a community. For the fourth consecutive year, the initiative has had the participation of people who have lived or live in precarious conditions.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Spanish)