During 2024, we supported 3,218 homeless people and made 7,268 visits to people living on the streets, a 6.7% increase compared to the previous year. Regarding support to healthcare, mental health, and addiction services, we increased support by 21.3% compared to the previous year. In total, we supported 404 people to the healthcare network. We […]
On Tuesday, November 12, we will hold a remembrance event for the homeless individuals who have passed away over the past year. Since 2016, we have remembered the 580 homeless people who died in the city of Barcelona and whom we supported through Arrels and other organizations. Living on the streets shortens a person’s life; […]
81% of people living on the streets in the city of Barcelona state that they did not receive any type of social care in the first month they spent on the street. Thus, the people who have been living on the streets for the least amount of time are the most neglected by social, public […]
Defending housing as a human right and helping people to have and maintain a home of their own. These are the basic objectives of the Housing First model, which saw its beginnings in a programme to remediate homelessness created in the 1990s in New York. Since then, the model has been adopted in different parts […]
Last 24 April, Arrels organized the symposium “Housing First in Catalonia: Moving the Model Forwards” at Barcelona’s , bringing together Housing First specialists from different parts of the world and showcasing the EU-cofinanced Erasmus+ project Adapting Housing First – Innovating Housing Staff, whose remit is to identify how the Housing First model is being implemented […]
During 2023, we reached out to 3,290 homeless people. This is the highest figure we’ve seen in all our years of service and it highlights the need for our city to organize more resources and activate better prevention strategies. More than 2,700 people came to our day centre to look for shelter, protection and basic […]
We ended 2022 having assisted 3,066 homeless people, 22% more people than in 2021, almost the same number prior to the pandemic. Our street team visited 963 rough sleepers and we secured stable housing for 268 people. Download Arrels’ 2022 report here (pdf). […]
Almost 70% of people who live on the street in Barcelona don’t have hope of moving into an accommodation anytime soon and four out of every ten don’t have anyone to count on. The more time someone spends living on the street, the worse their situation, and possibilities of leaving it, become. Only 46% of […]
Almost 70% of people who live on the street in Barcelona have no hope of moving into an accommodation anytime soon and four out of every ten don’t have anyone to count on. The more time someone spends living on the street, the worse their situation, and possibilities of leaving it, become. 19% say that […]
2020 forced us to work from the emergency for the first time and, during 2021, we have returned to our usual way of accompanying people, with more intensity. In total, we attended 2,129 people. We have expanded the street team and started to visit the people who live on the street in all the districts […]
The number of people who have been living on the streets in Barcelona for two or more years has risen from 33% to 47% between 2019 and 2021. The figure is concerning because it indicates a worsening of their situation and because 4 out of 10 them are not receiving social care. We collect it […]
This morning we presented in the Parliament of Catalonia a bill to address homelessness that will respond to the situation of people living on the street, staying overnight in shelters or living in temporary facilities. This proposed law must guarantee their right to have a decent residential space and is a pioneer law in Europe […]
This report provides details of the homeless people in Barcelona through the data obtained during the Connections Week Survey organised by Arrels Foundation from 2016 to 2019. During these four years, 1,439 rough sleepers have answered the survey, with the collaboration of more than 1,600 volunteers. Moreover, this analysis is complemented by testimonies of former […]
We are looking for amateur and professional artists who would like to create an art piece, with a social and positive perspective, to help us transform the image of people sleeping on the streets. The aim of this initiative is to create an international art collection that will be exhibited and published in various European […]
Between 2016 and 2019 we have been going out onto the streets of Barcelona in order to interview those living there – to find out more about their health situation, whether they have been assaulted, what kind of social care they are receiving and their vulnerability level, among others. As a result, we are publishing […]
Gemma Gassó and Bob Walker are two of the Arrels’ outreach team case workers. They go around Barcelona visiting the people who have lived on the streets for a long time and try to earn their trust, an essential step to improve their situation and to offer them helpful places they can go to. They […]
Marta Maynou is in charge of Arrels Fundació’s Host programme, an initiative formed by our street team —which goes out across Barcelona to visit people who have been living out on the streets the longest— and who use the Day Centre, the place to go for essential services such as showers, clothes, and a storage […]
Doctor Daniel Roca is a general practitioner at the Centre d’Atenció Primària Drassanes and the Centre d’Atenció Sociosanitària-Sala Baluard, in the neighbourhood of El Raval. He goes further than just prescribing medication – always ensuring he gives all people a comprehensive medical check-up in order to avoid any health issues. He thinks the system should […]
Her alias is Úrsula Alonso. She has lived on the streets for more than eight years, in different periods of time because she has gone to therapeutic communities, rehabilitation centres, a night shelter and a low-threshold shelter, among others. She likes to draw, read newspapers and go to the library. She claims that the services […]
Juan Verdón succeeded in getting off of the streets after living there for 15 years, a process that, he assures us, is tough and hard to go through for most. All the insults and sneers hurt him, but he also does remember all the kind people that helped him in Poblenou, the neighbourhood he got […]
Davide Andreoli lived on the streets for more than eight years. He is grateful to have a house where he can feel safer, but he explains that the fear does not go away and that getting used to a new life is hard. He believes that one month of sleeping on the street is enough […]
The number of homeless people that we help at Arrels has been increasing recently. Back in 2019, we helped 2,592 people; 10% more than in 2018. The reason? In the city of Barcelona, the numbers go up every year: around 1,200 people are still sleeping rough. Last year, more than a thousand people visited our […]
Volunteers, workers and former homeless people attended in Arrels have all joined forces with other social entities from Hungary, Slovakia, and Germany who work with homeless people as part of an Erasmus+ project designed to promote sensitization and participation. We’ll tell you all about it! Since a few months ago, we are part of a […]
This postcard is not of the Christmas nativity scene. It is in fact an awareness campaign starring people who live or have lived on the streets of Barcelona. Although Christmas is over, winter isn’t. We have to look beyond the thermometer and work towards the common goal of all people having the right to affordable […]
The numbers of people living on the streets of Europe’s major cities have increased significantly. Only in Norway and Finland has street homelessness reduced, or even ended. Through the European End Street Homelessness Campaign, World Habitat is working with an increasing number of European cities to end street homelessness by helping them adopt new ideas […]
Arrels Foundation is one of the oldest homeless service organisations in Barcelona, and is one of the main promoters of Housing First in Catalonia. The programme was launched in 2015 and one year later, Arrels Foundation evaluated programme fidelity for the first time using the selfassessment approach (Stefancic et al., 2013) and one-to-one structured interviews […]
Are you tired of always seeing the same summer photos? So are we. That’s why we keep repeating that 1,200 people live on the street in Barcelona and that these images should change. We started a campaign on Instagram that lays out the rights of the homeless that are being violated. In Barcelona, about 1,200 […]
Do you want to show your friends another side of Barcelona? Do you want to see the city from a different perspective? We invite you to walk alongside a person who has lived on the street and learn their story. The goal is to take a different tour of the usual touristic routes while discovering […]
Since 2015, FEANTSA and the Fondation Abbé Pierre have released a yearly Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe. These annual reports look at the latest Eurostat data (EU-SILC) and assess EU countries’ capacity to adequately house their populations. The 2020 deadline is approaching for the European Union’s cohesion policy, yet it’s objective – the fight […]
The Y-Foundation, one of the key national developers of the Housing First principle in Finland, has published a handbook A Home of Your Own – Housing First and ending Homelessness in Finland to describe in detail why Finland has become the only EU country where homelessness is on the decline. It also gives voice to […]
Joaquín and Carlos collaborated on the production of the guide Living on the street in Barcelona that we just published at Arrels, and that is made for people who live in the street. Joaquín and Carlos have been through this experience and, with three others, have provided a series of practical tips that do not appear […]
The night of June 12, during the census of homeless people, we located almost 1,200 people sleeping on the street in Barcelona and 347 wanted to speak to us. We now have the preliminary results and after four annual censuses, we’ve started to see trends. Health problems and the feeling of insecurity are worsened. The […]
In 2015, the British organization World Habitat put in place a cmpaign to strengthen, in different European cities, the goal #nobodysleepinginthestreet. Since then, 13 cities have been added, including Barcelona. The results of the first three years ofthe campaign indicate that 344 homeless people have found permanent housing and there are new actions and resources […]
Tonight, we hit the streets of Barcelona to talk with the people who sleep rough and learn their level of vulnerability. The provisional data tells us that 339 people wanted to share their story with us, and a total of 1,195 people were found sleeping on the street. Beyond these figures, there are numerous situations, heartbreaks […]
In 2018, we assisted 2,368 people, some 24% more than in the previous year. We assisted more than a thousand of these people for the first time, and more than 1,900 used the Open Centre’s basic services and guidance. The street team visited 528 people who slept on the street and we secured accommodations for […]
Every day at Arrels, we attend to around five to seven people who live on the street and don’t know where to go to ask for help and whom we try to advise about the resources available in the city. We created a practical guide that compiles more than 70 resources that people can Access directly […]
Every day at Arrels, we attend to around five to seven people who live on the street and don’t know where to go to ask for help and whom we try to advise about the resources available in the city. We created a practical guide that compiles more than 70 resources that people can Access directly […]
In 2018, we assisted 2,368 people, some 24% more than in the previous year. We assisted more than a thousand of these people for the first time, and more than 1,900 used the Open Centre’s basic services and guidance. The street team visited 528 people who slept on the street and we secured accommodations for […]
The Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project Erasmus+ ‘Training for Housing Support Workers’ in short “TrainHouse” united organizations working with homeless people in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Spain and the United Kingdom. The project aimed to develop training materials to be used by professional staff, peer support workers and volunteers in supporting homeless people on their […]
The Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project Erasmus+ ‘Training for Housing Support Workers’ in short “TrainHouse” united organizations working with homeless people in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Spain and the United Kingdom. The project aimed to develop training materials to be used by professional staff, peer support workers and volunteers in supporting homeless people on their […]
The Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project Erasmus+ ‘Training for Housing Support Workers’ in short “TrainHouse” united organizations working with homeless people in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Spain and the United Kingdom. The project aimed to develop training materials to be used by professional staff, peer support workers and volunteers in supporting homeless people on their […]
The number of assisted people at Arrels has increased again. In 2018, we assisted 2,341 people, a 23% more than in 2017 and a 72% more than five years ago. Most of these people have come to us looking for basic services and asking for orientation. There are a lot of challenges because the number […]
Imagine that your life is held by threads that hold you. A thread can mean your health, your education, your family, your job… And suddenly, a thread breaks but nothing happens because the other ones hold you. Time passes by and the situation doesn’t get better; and other thread breaks and the web is more […]
A thousand of people live on the street in Barcelona. With the arrival of the cold weather, the City Council opens 75 places until March and intends to open 325 more places at some special days, when the temperature is below 0ºC. The measure still sticks to the thermometer and doesn’t give answer to most […]
Individual benches, concrete balls, spikes on the floor, inclined sills, bars… are some of hostile architecture that we find in big cities and suppose a right violation for homeless people. From Arrels, we claim for inclusive cities and residential solutions so nobody has to sleep on the street and we invite you to make visible […]
How many people sleep on the street in Catalonia? Why is it important to know? And how can we know? What needs do people on the street have? At Arrels, we are committed to making periodic counts and talking to people who sleep on the street to learn more about their situation. With this information […]
Quan anem al teatre, visitem una exposició, comprem un moble, agafem un llibre de la biblioteca o anem al cinema busquem obrir la nostra ment, emocionar-nos, transformar-nos. Imagineu, a més, trobar el missatge #ningúdormintalcarrer? L’art, el disseny i la creativitat són grans aliats i des d’Arrels ho volem aprofitar. […]
L’any 2015, les Nacions Unides van marcar una sèrie d’objectius per lluitar contra la pobresa. La Unió Europea ha assumit el repte i, entre els temes que ha posat sobre la taula, destaca l’accés a l’habitatge digne i la problemàtica del sensellarisme. La xarxa europea Feantsa insta a fer polítiques efectives per complir els objectius fixats abans de l’any 2030. […]
The 5th of June, Arrels organized the third Barcelona Connections Week focused on learning more about the people who sleep on the streets, framed in The European End Street Homelessness Campaign led by World Habitat. We spoke with 315 people and we knew that 71% of them were suffering a situation of high or medium […]
La noche del 5 al 6 de junio salimos por las calles de Barcelona para entrevistar a las personas que duermen en la calle. Hablamos con 315 personas y los primeros resultados indican que el 71% de las personas sufren una situación de vulnerabilidad elevada o media. El 59,8% hace un año o más que duermen en la calle, el 41% dicen tener problemas de salud física y un 46% afirman no haber sido atendidas por ningún trabajador/a social ni similar durante los últimos 6 meses. […]
En 2017 hemos atendido a 1.913 personas, un 50% más que hace cinco años, y 673 de ellas han sido atendidas por primera vez. Los equipos de calle han visitado a 428 personas que viven en la calle y hemos ofrecido alojamiento a 248. También hemos organizado un censo de personas que duermen en la calle en Barcelona y hemos abierto dos nuevos recursos de alojamiento de baja exigencia. […]
Terrassa, Barcelona, Badalona, Sant Adrià de Besòs i Santa Coloma de Gramenet han realitzat recomptes de persones sense llar aquesta setmana. Les dades se sumen a les ja recollides en anys anteriors a Girona, Tarragona, Lleida, Mataró i Reus. A Catalunya no tenim xifres actualitzades per dimensionar el sensellarisme però sabem que almenys 1.301 persones dormen al carrer en aquests deu municipis. […]
In 2017, Arrels has helped more than 1,912 people, a similar number to the previous year and which amounts to a 50% increase in five years. The amount of people who use the basic services that we offer has also increased. The main difficulty that we have come up against is finding stable and affordable accommodation that will allow more people to stop sleeping on the street. […]
The image says a lot about people but what is really behind it? People who have lived in the street are the protagonists of these images that challenge prejudices to make our mission possible: #nobodysleepingonthestreet. Duration: 02:02 Year: 2017 Actors: Paco, Valerio, Salvador, Martí and Manel Music: Luz De Sol de Christopher Slaski (PRS) Go […]
Flat Zero is a low-threshold night shelter that offers a secure and welcoming space for ten people. Since February we have provided 170 nights of accommodation to some thirty people known to us at Arrels. They are people who have been living on the streets for a long time, who are in highly vulnerable situations, and who have been unable to find a place in any other resource. Flat Zero is able to open its doors every day thanks to a team of concierges and some 25 volunteers. One of these people is Paula Huguet, who we interviewed here. […]
The information we obtained from the interviews with people sleeping on the streets in Barcelona should be used to review and improve resources, challenge policies and procedures that already exist and to promote new, useful courses of action aimed at addressing the realities of people who are sleeping on the street. At Arrels we have already started our work and have prepared a series of proposals in the context of the city. […]
How are people living in the streets of Barcelona vulnerable? What health problems do they have? Are they exposed to violence? And what does the citizens think of the problem of homelessness? To all these questions, wants to answer the document ‘The vulnerability of people living in the streets of Barcelona’. […]
Most of the people who read this have a key near them, that if forgotten somewhere would generate discomfort. We cannot imagine what it means to end the day and not have this key that opens the door to our home and our personal or family intimacy. This daily action is an unreachable challenge for over 941 people who sleep every night on the street of Barcelona. But the option of having a key is possible if we add an indispensable ingredient: the citizen’s will. […]
The Zero Flat is a low demand resource with capacity for 10 people located in the Raval district of Barcelona. The objective is to offer night-time accommodation to people known to Arrels who have long lived in the street and who do not adapt to any other resource Duration: 02.10 Year: 2017 Created by Taula […]
In January 2014, we decided to launch the Housing First model in Arrels Foundation. To achieve this, we changed our ways of working, and the way we trained professionals and the volunteering team. At the same time, we had to merge our teams. […]
The handwriting of Ana Maria and Stere have been turned into fonts and added to the 9 already on Homelessfonts, a project which transforms the calligraphy of people who have lived on the street into fonts that individuals or businesses can purchase and use in their projects. Moreover, the website now includes the possibility of trying and previewing the fonts. […]
Arrels is launching The Fucking Gif, a gif to go viral on the web in order to raise awareness about the reality of people who live in the street and give a clear message: if we all collaborate, we can break the cycle of poverty. The objective is to reach citizens of Barcelona and specifically the people from other countries that live in the city and want to get involved in a local cause. […]
Throughout our day, we decide what we will do, how we will spend our free time, if we will spend time with our parents, or our neighbors, if we will dedicate our time to social or cultural activities… In a nutshell, we participate. In the homelessness field, there is still a long way to go. For homeless people, who decides? Do you consider your opinion when managing the resources used or when developing policy? […]
This video talks of luxury, house, mansion, friends, cars, travel, first class, happiness, premium, car insurance, don’t worry, there’s no mistake in the text, read on, mobiles, handbags, love, friendship, exclusive, enjoy, dresses, clothes… […]
Last year, we attended 1.600 homeless people, 17% more people than in 2013; 665 were attended for the first time. We visited 611 people who are living on the street and we offered nearly 95.000 meals and a dignified place to have a shower to 466 people. 48% of the 2014 budget was devoted to housing and in total we offered housing to 231 people. […]
In Barcelona, around 900 people sleep on the street and many have been doing so for a long time. The street teams of Arrels go visit them to know what they need and to be by their side. Last year they were in touch with 611 people. […]
The role of the Arrels Board is to support the Director in the day to day running of the organization. Before, it was made up of the Director, workers and volunteers. From January 2015, we are happy to report that we have two new members who can represent the voice of the homeless. […]
At the Arrels Foundation we offer the possibility of designing your cards through our project Homelessfonts.org while contributing with a donation that helps us continue to work to make possible our hope that #nobodysleepingonthestreet. Here’s how! […]
Bill Davis is the spokesperson of Monotype, a leading company in the sector of fonts distribution. He has been in Barcelona these days, in the Conferència anual de Tipografia-ATypl, where he has presented the agreement made with Arrels Fundació aimed to make public the project HomelessFonts and to make people aware of the reality of homeless people through fonts. We talked to him about his vision of the project. […]
International typeface provider Monotype will distribute and give to know five typefaces of five homeless people, in the marc of the Project HomelessFonts.org. The cooperation agreement between Monotype and Arrels Foundation will be presented on the International Conference of Typografy -ATypI, that currently takes place in Barcelona. […]
Arrels Foundation Annual Report 2013. We lacked 80.000 euros to guarantee housing and provide more showers. Will you help us? […]
The Arrels foundation, in partnership with the advertising agency The Cyranos McCann, presents Homelessfonts.org, the first website to let you
buy fonts created by homeless people. This initiative aims to bring some
dignity to the life of homeless people and raise awareness of this issue,
which affects more and more people. […]
Angel lived in the street for many years and now he tells his experience to secondary school students in a different and unusual way: taking them to visit the neighbourhood he used to live in. The initiative is contained within the project “Passejant Junts”. Agnès Marquès, board member of Arrels, relates a guided visit with Angel in the text below. […]
José Ornelas runs the Association for the Study and the Psycho-Social Integration that attends people with mental illnesses in Portugal. One of his projects is Casas Primeiro, which offers homeless people with mental illnesses the opportunity to move from the streets into permanent apartments. Ornelas wonders why this doesn’t happen in Barcelona. […]
Arrels joins the Mobile World Congress that is being held in Barcelona these days, introducing a cardboard model including the application “Nobody sleeping on the street” also in Catalan and Spanish version, to show that there are 900 people sleeping on Barcelona streets and to encourage not only Congress attendees but everybody to give financial support. […]
In 2012, Arrels has attended 1.287 people. The majority of them have been living on the street for a long time. […]
