Mallorca homelessness tally reaches 2,495 people

On Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands, a count on 30 September identifies 2,495 people without a secure home. Some sleep in vehicles or abandoned buildings rather than on the street. Across the islands, the first count of homelessness and insecure housing finds 3,152 people, according to the Balearic Social Observatory at the University of the Balearic Islands and EAPN Baleares.

Not everyone is sleeping on the street

The count puts roughly half of those identified on Mallorca on the street and the other half in vehicles or buildings. Across the Balearic Islands, 1,095 people slept on mattresses, in tents or in shacks; 1,477 lived in vehicles or abandoned buildings, and 580 stayed in hostels or other accommodation for people without a home.

For the count, 404 people searched streets, beaches, industrial estates, vacant plots and car parks in 11 municipalities across Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza. Teams found families with children in settlements or vehicles at 22 locations. Some of the total is estimated: when vehicles or shacks were closed, researchers used the average number of occupants observed in similar places.

A job does not always mean a home

Volunteers interviewed 346 people that night. Of those, 45% had paid work. Among people living in cars or abandoned buildings, 55% worked, and four in ten of those workers had an employment contract. Another 72% of interviewees had lost their home after they were already living in the Balearic Islands.

The count has limits. Project coordinator David Abril says it does not include people in overcrowded flats or rooms, or those at risk of eviction.

Topics: Social affairs · Palma · Alcúdia · Calvià · Inca · Llucmajor · Manacor

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com