“If we are like this now, imagine what it’ll be like in a few years”

Various reasons have been offered to explain why a plan for social housing and integration of gypsy families flopped, including an unwillingness on behalf of the Roma people to adapt to regular society. Whatever the reasons, Son Banya became permanent, a ramshackle and improvised place obscuring the illicit riches of the drugs trade. About the only things to be said in its favour are that residents long ceased to be classified among the ranks of the homeless and that there is a semblance of ordered urbanisation.

In July last year, attention was drawn to the shanty under the motorway bridge that passes over the Sa Riera Park. It was belated attention for a settlement that had been in existence for some ten years. The number of people registered as living there by the authorities is currently around twenty, to which can be added another ten on land next to the cemetery. Social services at Palma Town Hall admit the number is greater - at least fifty. The disparity highlights the fact that there can never be absolute certainty as to how many people are in a given place for any length of time.

It’s reckoned there are 37 settlements of some form or another in Palma. These cover a wide area from Son Roca and Secar de la Real in the city’s northwest, through more central areas and out to the airport, Can Pastilla and Arenal. Between them, town hall social services and the Council of Mallorca’s institute of social affairs (IMAS) attempt to keep tabs on the numbers of people. But whatever figures these bodies come up with, the police believe it would be necessary to add at least another 50%, such are the comings and goings.

Last summer it was estimated there were some 1,100 homeless people in the capital. The fact is, though, that is difficult to know for sure. One centre is the old prison, a place exposed in June 2023 as being like living in a rubbish dump. People of different nationalities were in desperate poverty. They were Spanish, Paraguayan, Venezuelan, British, Bulgarian, Latvian. There is no neat national or ethnic profile for classifying the homeless of the third decade of the 21st century, unlike the situation in the 1960s.

At the prison it’s no easier to get an accurate picture than anywhere else. An official list suggests there are “approximately sixty or seventy people”; note the “approximately”. However, the police are aware of 98 but believe there could at times be as many as 250. That sort of number just further exacerbates an already deplorable environment. The town hall is going to demolish abandoned buildings that once housed prison officials. Then what? There is already migration to a nearby park, which could be set for expansion. Eliminate one problem and another is created.

The circumstances of the homeless vary greatly, even if some are linked by a common theme, that of having moved to Mallorca in search of employment. This can explain the diversity of nationalities and a profile that is well removed from an image of the mentally disturbed down and out. People fell on hard times. They could never have expected to have found themselves in such a situation. One of the homeless who was living at the airport said just this. He was ashamed by what had happened to him.

Another example of homelessness in Palma that was highlighted last summer concerned a settlement of people in the Nou Llevant district, where developers are undertaking or planning luxury homes. There were some fifteen tents. It was said that all the people there had jobs. Marga Plaza, coordinator of the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) social emergency unit, explained that these were people affected by ‘residential exclusion’. While Palma had long had its homeless who were socially excluded, this was a more recent and growing profile. “People affected by residential exclusion are the segment that has grown the most recently. Those affected have jobs, but the difficulty they have is access to housing, due to its rising cost or the difficulties in meeting increasingly demanding requirements from owners.”
Plaza expressed her concern for the long-term impact on people who had found themselves having, for example, to live in a tent. Although they had jobs, getting back into the swing of a normal life could potentially be difficult, the longer they were on the streets. “If there is no prevention, cases become chronic. If housing prices continue to remain as they are, many more people will have difficulty finding housing.” Residential exclusion was on the rise, and Marga Plaza was of the view that 40% of the homeless are now people native to the Balearics.

A further example of this relates to many of the people who have had to resort to living in motorhomes. They have jobs, but they can’t afford rents. Necessity has driven them to the style of life they now have. But if Marga Plaza is correct, might their mentality be influenced by the time they spend living like this? Moreover, if a solution were to actually be offered - specific areas provided for them and their vehicles - might these become permanent enclaves that ultimately suffer social failure akin to what happened at Son Banya? A risk might be posed from undesirable elements that move in. Mafias or clans have a habit of finding targets to exploit. It has already been noted that motorhomes being lived in have attracted the interest of squatters. And where there are squatters, there are also very often organised gangs.

The 37 settlements in Palma are said to be three times the number that existed a few years ago, the pandemic having been a factor in their increase as well as the cost of housing. A source from the town hall’s social services has observed: “If we are like this now, imagine what it’ll be like in a few years.” But a problem is that no one is fully aware of what “we are like now”, which in itself may prevent meaningful action by the various authorities.

In early January, there was a report that was unusual in that it didn’t concern Palma. In Inca there were two shanties. The town hall insisted these were squatters. Its own police force believed otherwise, thus indicating that shanties don’t have to be confined to the capital. This report also referred to the number of homeless people in Mallorca. Bearing in mind that the estimate for Palma last summer was 1,100, a figure of 443 in 2022 was either well short of the mark or alarming. And the 443 were Palma, including Playa de Palma. It came from a census carried out by the Cruz Roja and the IMAS, a census that doesn’t appear to take account of the rest of the island.

We are blind if away from Palma we are unaware of cases. In Alcudia there have been cases for years. New ones appear now and then. There was someone living in a beat-up old caravan by the fire station; the caravan went last weekend. Someone was living in a Peugeot for a couple of months. You see motorhomes parked up here or there. Social services will doubtless get to know about these cases, but where is there any coordinated overview of the problem on an island-wide basis? There isn’t. Imagine what it’ll be like in a few years.