BarcelonaWith the aim of counting the people who sleep rough in Barcelona, almost 600 volunteers from Arrels Fundació were distributed throughout all the districts of the city last night and early morning from Wednesday to Thursday in groups of 15, with pen, paper and a map of the area they had to examine. For each person located, a cross on the map and an entry in the application that the entity has opened for that day. Although the results will not be known until a few days from now, when the possible duplications have been ironed out, no one in the organization responsible for homelessness has any doubts that the figure of 1,384 people from the last count two years ago will be exceeded. In fact, this year, the Barcelona City Council already estimates that there are 1,500, not counting those who have a roof in a reception center, social hostel or emergency hostel. “This year the data will be dramatic,” predicts José Luís, one of the volunteers.
The ARA accompanies a team of four volunteers through the Sagrera neighborhood on a night when the December thermometer is already noticeable, but not enough for the Barcelona City Council to start the winter operation, which is activated when temperatures drop below 5 degrees Celsius. Cardboard or sleeping bags are like a thin layer through which the cold and humidity penetrates the bodies of those who try to rest on the ground without any other cover. The only instruction that is given at the starting point of this particular route is not to disturb these people, nor “invade their privacy”, reports the president of Arrels, Bea Fernández. The count is a census with the triple objective of obtaining an updated picture of the phenomenon of homelessness that is increasing and spreading beyond the metropolitan area, sizing the resources that are needed and making citizens aware of the problem, Fernández explained before the start of the activity. Between 10pm and 2am, volunteers will walk and survey gardens, squares and streets.
The count comes just a few weeks after in this neighborhood of La Sagrera there was a scare in one of the informal settlements that had grown up just below the Calatrava bridge. A fire destroyed several shacks in the morning of last November 19 and the council gave the order to evacuate the entire village, leaving thirty residents without a roof. Far from disappearing, these people are looking for new places to settle and, Fernández points out that the count must also be used to know if these “movements” have caused these people to move to neighborhoods that until now had no experience of homelessness.
Covered
From the La Sagrera stop, the 15 volunteers are distributed among their assigned areas. Less than five minutes before starting the walk along a Meridiana avenue under construction, they already find the first person sleeping inside an ATM. In a few meters, they locate four more in a kind of covered commercial galleries, where there are people sleeping covered from head to toe by heavy blankets, the kind that triumphed in houses before the arrival of the light Nordics. Another man, also lonely, distracts himself by watching videos on his cell phone, ignoring the strange group standing in front of him. “I know this one,” jumps one of the volunteers when he sees a homeless person. He saw it this afternoon while he was waiting for his cell phone battery to be charged in a commercial premises. “Most are careful to leave everything clean in the morning so that neither neighbors nor merchants complain and kick them out,” the volunteers explain.
In the gardens next to the Hipercor, which are officially named Plaça de la Concordia, the surrounding bars are quite full of diners. Right in the center are three cardboard boxes, side by side, in which two men are sleeping or resting under the weight of blankets, while a third is standing a few meters away. In one corner, a supermarket cart full of belongings.
At one point on the route, the volunteers have the great doubt of whether a man sitting on a bench could be a homeless person or a neighbor smoking his last cigarette before going home. “Shall we ask him?”, he hears, but from the debate they conclude that it is better not to do so and they do not count him either. More doubts will arise. “Maybe it’s too early and there are people waiting for the streets to calm down to go to their place and rest”, they point out.
Aiko Tanaka is a combat sports journalist and general sports reporter at Archysport. A former competitive judoka who represented Japan at the Asian Games, Aiko brings firsthand athletic experience to her coverage of judo, martial arts, and Olympic sports. Beyond combat sports, Aiko covers breaking sports news, major international events, and the stories that cut across disciplines — from doping scandals to governance issues to the business side of global sport. She is passionate about elevating the profile of underrepresented sports and athletes.
