Cars become home to Spain’s pandemic victims

PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) – When social worker Javier Irure called to say he was being deported, the 65-year-old Spaniard couldn’t understand that after five decades of manual labor, he could become homeless.

“I grabbed some clothes, some books and other things, wrapped them in a sheet and said to myself, ‘I still have a roof over my head: my car’,” said Irure from the old Renault Clio compact. been hiding place for the past three months.

Irure is one of the many economic victims of the coronavirus pandemic. He managed to avoid COVID-19, but the slowdown in the labor market due to movement restrictions and social activities imposed by the Spanish government to stop the spread of the virus proved deadly to his financial stability.

Irure, who started working as a hotel bellhop at the age of 13, was working as a professional cleaning lady when the pandemic hit Spain last year and dried up his sources of income. It was not long before Irure was expelled from his rented apartment.

He tried to get help from public social services, but he relies on help from the local charity organization Ayuda Mutua.

“You feel like a pendulum” dealing with the official bureaucracy, Irure said. “Going from one window to another, from calls that never get answered to vague promises.”

The pandemic has been particularly tough on the Spanish economy due to its dependence on tourism and the service sector. The country’s left-wing government has maintained a leave program to mitigate the impact, but more than a million jobs have been wiped out.

While close-knit families have supported many citizens who might otherwise have ended up in need, locking people up at home has also put pressure on Spanish family life, as evidenced by a spike in divorce rates. The disintegration of households has left more and more people to their own devices.

Catholic relief organization Cáritas Española said earlier this month that about half a million more people, or 26% of all aid recipients, have sought help since the start of the pandemic. Since the start of the pandemic, Cáritas has opened 13 centers to help the homeless.

Like Irure, Juan Jiménez had no choice but to live in his car, a used Ford where he slept for nearly a year.

Jiménez, 60, watched his mortgage payments get out of hand and his marriage collapse after he and his wife bought a bigger house. The 620 euros ($ 740) he has received in government support in recent months went to his seven children, he said.

“I dream of having all my kids under one roof, but it’s better that I’m here,” said Jiménez. “They’ve got their lives, and I’d just be a problem.”

Jiménez and Irure move their cars from one parking lot to another on the outskirts of the northern Spanish city of Pamplona, ​​where they once had homes. They do this to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

When I wake up in the morning, I wonder, ‘What am I doing here?’ Jiménez said from his car, which is full of clothes, blankets and bags stuffed with everything he owns.

“We are invisible beings. Nobody wants to look at us. Nobody wants to know about us, ”he said. “We don’t exist.”

AP writer Joseph Wilson contributed to this report from Barcelona.

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