They are not the Starks, but at Caritas they know very well that winter is coming. And it’s going to be hard. The good season is a mirage and they are preparing for the harshness of the coming winter months. “It is true that this summer there has been a lot of work and our employment services have run out of people to turn to when companies called us, but we know that inflation, the war and, above all, the rental situation have meant that people who used to save to spend a relatively quiet winter have not been able to do so“, says Gustavo Gómez, coordinator of Caritas Diocesana in the huge hall of the new temporary low-demand center of Sa Joveria, inaugurated yesterday. With an intense smell of pre-campaign, the numerous politicians tour the facilities, chat in a circle and enjoy the snacks.
A complicated winter
The family networks, which were the salvation in the 2008 crisis “have been exhausted,” continues Gómez, who predicts a “hard” and “complicated” winter. The island councilor for Social Welfare, Carolina Escandell, points out that the 56 places in the provisional center have been calculated using as a reference the 50 to 60 people who spent the night in the Sa Blanca Dona pavilion during the confinement. “More places would be needed,” says Gómez, who recognizes how difficult it is to know how many homeless people there are on the island. “They are a floating population and we are not only talking about people who are living on a bench or under a tree, but those who are in substandard housing, such as fifteen people crammed into a room or where they do not have minimum water or heating services,” says the coordinator, visibly happy for the implementation of the desired resource, which will allow more than fifty people not only to have “four walls and a roof”, but “to have something to call home this winter, even if it is a shared room, something they really feels like their own and from which they can alleviate their needs.
Image gallery: the new temporary hostel in Ibiza | Vicent Marí
Looking south
Rooms that when full, will be shared by eight people. Each one has four bunk beds “with a corner to leave their personal belongings”, explains Pepe Torres, architect of the technical services of the Consell de Ibiza, who explains after the speeches on the porch and the protocolary unveiling of the plaque, the details of the facilities during the guided tour. A visit that begins with part of the professionals who will run the center, fully dressed in blue (almost all are women) and straight in front of the main counter, greeting the numerous authorities.
No need for Torres to explain that the rooms and the living room face south. The light streaming into the farthest corner makes it clear. The north side is for everything else: the changing rooms, the toilets, the laundry, the service rooms… The objective, he explains, was to achieve a comfortable, comforting, warm space, but at the same time tough and battle-hardened, resistant. Like an institute,” Torres compares, trying to make himself heard over the chattering authorities, who comment on absolutely everything.
From how beautiful they find the gray walls of the changing rooms, where they notice that a mirror is missing “it would have to be made of plastic,” to how comfortable the sofas in the quietest part of the lounge, an open-plan area, where there are also dining tables and a small room with ovens, microwaves and trays for food. The architect highlights the pleasant temperature of the rooms, through whose windows the sun shines in. He explains that the building does not consume much electricity. The heating in winter and air conditioning will have to be turned on sparingly.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.