In Pamplona, 50 to 100 people live and sleep on the street, under bridges or in dirty cellars, surrounded by filth and rats, which cause diseases such as scabies. Display of Navarre government and of Pamplona City Council The solution to this serious problem is woefully inadequate.
there is family hit the road with minors in their care. We are in that position with two of them. The Pamplona City Council at first provided accommodation in a hotel and food in the municipal dining room for 13 days until she entered the reception program of the Migration Policy Department. The other was kept in a hotel for 38 days, paid for by the city council for 26 days and by immigration policies for 12 days, with maintenance paid for by the municipal kitchen, until he could be found by the Red Cross. Was not admitted to the reception program managed by Those who do not have minors in charge live on the street.
The Social Rights Department of the Government of Navarra has recognized several times the need to provide space for families with dependent minors living on the streets, and also the need for a new shelter to increase space for homeless people since the shelter. The city council has only 50 seats, which can be expanded to 58. Furthermore, on 14 March, the ombudsman urged the government and the city council to adopt measures to guarantee the housing and maintenance of homeless people with the endowment of adequate resources and places. , What has the government done in the last Legislature to enable these resources? Only temporarily, by agreement with the city council, the Jesús y María municipal shelter was enabled for pilgrims from 5 January to 31 March due to the cold wave. Nothing else.
It is imperative to provide a place for the homeless, where they can be provided with immediate housing and food. But immediately after this, it is necessary to start a journey of social inclusion and professional training, which they often lack, so that they can find jobs while receiving guaranteed income to cover the most basic needs: housing, food, clothing and Shoes. And this is where the city council’s social services fail, arbitrarily and discriminatoryly, unreasonably delaying inclusion processes considering that homeless people are not habitual residents and that they are 4, 5 and even that are not registered till lapse of 6 months. And only later they request guaranteed income, which takes another 3 months to provide. How can a homeless person survive for a period of 7 to 9 months if he is not provided with room, food and guaranteed income? begging, stealing? This is unfair, and very unwise, because we are building a time bomb.
Offering guaranteed income doesn’t make the problems go away. Given the state of the real estate market and the meager public housing stock to rent at affordable prices, in the best of cases, a person who receives guaranteed income You can rent a room without a contract, without receipts or registers, in an opaque, unannounced market whose existence is known to both the Government of Navarra and the Pamplona City Council.
And this is where a new problem arises: people who receive guaranteed income must reside at the same address where they are registered and report a change of address, otherwise they risk losing income. If, despite having no contract or receipt, they report a change of address and inspection action is taken, they face sudden eviction. a difficult dilemma.
We know of many cases in which Social Rights Department The Navara government has terminated the rent of some people for not living at the address where they are registered, knowing the reality of the opaque room rental market and forgetting that the rules have to be interpreted and applied according to social reality The time in which they are to be implemented. Extinction means not being able to pay the rent for a room and returning to street conditions, an abrupt interruption of the inclusion itinerary. The same situation happens when the rent payment gets suspended for 2 or 3 months during the renewal process for those below 25 years of age. In these circumstances, a responsible declaration for the change of address and a prudent inspection action that does not expose the affected person to blatant eviction and does not hinder the rent during its renewal process should be accepted.
While some social organizations make every effort to help these people out of the street situation, the Pamplona City Council and the Government of Navarra are determined to keep them or put them back on the street.
Let’s hope that the new government and new city council will address and solve this serious problem in a more effective and homeless-friendly way.
*from Elkarri Laguntza-Mutual Support Association
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