The impact of residential insecurity on families
The socioeconomic crisis that we experienced during 2008 and 2009 and the subsequent recessions have had consequences and have generated scars in our society that we still carry today and that have especially affected the most vulnerable social strata, but also our social and family fabric.
The structural housing problem makes it difficult to access a fundamental right such as the right to decent housing for all people . In this context, the impact on families in poverty, especially single-parent families, has been very strong. As data from the General Council of the Judiciary shows, a quarter of evictions in the entire Spanish State are carried out in Catalonia , and in the first quarter of the year they accounted for 24.9% of evictions in the entire country. Of these, almost 80% occur due to non-payment of rent, and 17.9% due to mortgage foreclosures (General Council of the Judiciary, 2024). Regarding the price of rents, in the city of Barcelona the average is 1,087.23 euros (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2025).
Residential insecurity
Families with dependent children and adolescents who live in inadequate or unsafe housing are in a situation of homelessness, according to the classification of the European Typology of Homelessness and Housing Exclusion (ETHOS) (Feantsa, sf).
The poverty risk rate in Catalonia is 23% in two-parent families and 42% in single-parent families (Idescat, 2024), usually headed by women who are in a vulnerable situation, which translates into social, economic and gender inequalities that intersect between them. In addition, there are often situations of sexist violence that have forced them to leave the family home and start itineraries marked by residential precariousness and severe exclusion. This difficulty in accessing safe housing means that in some cases, despite being in a situation of risk, the woman has to return to the family home because she has no other option for herself or her children.
Although there are small advances, public policies remain weak and often do not sufficiently address the specific needs of these families and these women. Residential exclusion and gender-based violence are interdependent phenomena and cross the life paths of these women, mothers of families, especially with regard to sexist violence, which marks their residential paths and contributes to making their situation and that of their children more vulnerable (Institut Metròpoli, 2023). On the other hand, the fact that these women are the only ones responsible for caring for their children limits their employment opportunities and access to decent housing.
But what are the consequences in terms of mental and physical health for families who find themselves in this life situation? And in the community? What are the consequences for the children of these families in the short, medium and long term?
Social inequalities are what most affect people's health
The trauma of experiencing an eviction
Some of the families we support from Sant Joan de Déu Serveis Socials Barcelona have been forcibly evicted from what was their home until then. According to the report Impacts of the housing crisis on the lives of children and adolescents (Institut d'infancia i adolescència, 2022), there is a physical, mental and emotional impact on children and adolescents who have gone through these processes, which translates into:
- Fear.
- Depression.
- State of anxiety.
- Feeling of unprotection.
- Loneliness.
- Distrust.
- Shame.
- Sleep disorder.
- Frustration.
- Disorientation.
- Tiredness.
Regarding family units, the impact results in serious problems of coexistence, violence , emotional stress, screaming and anxiety, among other aspects.
Eviction and home loss processes modify and worsen physical and mental health and cause devastating consequences for families.
On the other hand, the impact generated by the loss of a home, as well as the insecurity and emotional experience it entails, can have suicide as one of the most serious consequences (Jiménez et al., 2020). Eviction and home loss processes modify and worsen physical and mental health and cause behavioral changes and devastating consequences in families.
Living with uncertainty and the constant threat that sooner or later you will be evicted generates fear, helplessness, insecurity, suffering and depression . These are some of the consequences of the trauma of an eviction, which affects the psycho-emotional stability of families and children (Soriano, 2025). Furthermore, according to the General Council of Psychology of Spain, exposure to trauma can triple the risk of having a mental health disorder (Infocop, 2023).
Approaching the phenomenon of homelessness
First-person experience
From the experience of accompanying families who are in a situation of residential exclusion, we have been able to understand the impact and trauma that living in a situation of eviction and residential insecurity generates for them .
A mother, for example, told us that on the day they were evicted, she forced her youngest daughter, who was a minor, to go to school earlier so that she wouldn't witness the situation, and since her older daughter was also a minor, she stayed with her, holding her, symbolically and literally, to prevent her from fainting. She also told us that a lot of police arrived, but that she was not a criminal, that she had never had any problems with the law, that she was a good person and a good neighbor; she didn't understand why they were criminalizing her poverty . In that case, her neighbors came out to support them and try to stop a machine that crushes people's dignity by expelling them from your house, from your home, from your space of shelter and warmth, from the place where you feel safe and protected with your family; but also of your neighborhood, of the parks where your children have started walking, of the educational community of which you are a part through the neighborhood school and high school, of the network of solidarity and care that you have woven over the twenty years that you have lived with the entire neighborhood.
Being expelled from your house, your home, your space of refuge, the place where you feel safe and protected with your family causes significant trauma with consequences for mental health.
The impact on family members begins precisely with the uprooting and expulsion from their community ; with the dismemberment and breaking of bonds; with the deprivation of their identity and family identity; with the breaking of the network of care, support and mutual aid, which is what sustains our lives as human beings. An impact that, ultimately, brings many families to the periphery of our society, reifying them on the margins. Precisely, the film En los márgenes, by director, screenwriter and actor Juan Diego Botto, makes an excellent portrait of this social reality in all its rawness.
Elisa
Ínsula and Vesta: two housing-based family care programs
At Sant Joan de Déu Serveis Socials Barcelona , aware of the realities of the most impoverished households, such as single-parent families with dependent children, and of the new challenges that arise, we have committed to joining forces, mobilizing resources and generating alliances with other entities to guarantee the residential stability of families. In this context, and considering access to housing as a right, the Ínsula and Vesta programs were born, with the aim of offering a stable residential solution as the first step towards social recovery and autonomy for families.
Insula Program
Launched six years ago, Ínsula is a transformative program aimed at mostly single-parent families and people in a situation of residential exclusion. It was born as a strategic governance alliance with Càritas Diocesana de Barcelona, Fundació Mambré and Fundació Formació i Treball, with the aim of offering a comprehensive response to highly vulnerable people in a context of socio-economic and housing crisis. In this program, housing is the basis of social support focused on people and families, which encompasses personal and family recovery processes through emotional support, psychological care, legal advice and training and job insertion itineraries. This approach demonstrates that it is possible to generate real opportunities for social recovery and promote the rights of people in a situation of residential exclusion, if we work from the expertise and coordination between entities.
Sant Joan de Déu Serveis Socials Barcelona offers families in a situation of residential exclusion housing as a first step towards social recovery and autonomy.
Vesta Program
On the other hand, we have also launched the Vesta program, which in four years has consolidated itself as an innovative and transformative response, focused on single-parent families with dependent children . Driven by the City Councils of Sant Adrià de Besòs, Montcada i Reixac, Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Badalona, and with the support of the Consorci del Besòs and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, Vesta replicates the alliance model with the same entities as Ínsula, taking advantage of the experience of this first program.
In both programs , social support is carried out focused on the needs of families and an intervention with a gender perspective and intersectional approach , where people actively participate in their work plan, to achieve social and family recovery, establish a future project and access housing.
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