Of course without personal knowledge of the people involved difficult to comment. is it because of the current situation that these people live like this or did they live like this before the crisis?

That's exactly it.

They were homeless and starving 10 years ago in the middle of the boom. It just didn't get reported in the media.

As I've said before, people are more willing to talk about dire situations in the current climate.

Here in the Canaries, the majority of people getting help from Carítas are single, young males.

The ones I know such as las Albarizas has always been bad, actually got more notorious during the boom when their extended families moved in. The local health centre has to have security guards on all the time.

Photo of the place and an old article here

http://www.diariosur.es/20081218/mar...-20081218.html

Yes Jacky having a Spanish neighbour growing the odd cannabis plant is one thin large scale heroin supply is another not exactly what I would want as neighbours!! I learned long ago take noting on face value

Firstly, nobody in Spain is starving

Secondly, people are confusing a few different issues in this thread

1. Many, although not all, of Spanish gypsies are not integrated in Spanish society , nor do they want to be. Some even choose to live in the chabolas rather than flats as it fits in with their way of life. My OH knew some gypsies near where she grew up who were given a flat by the council and promptly lit in a bonfire in the middle of it. A few years later they were back living in some new chabolas. Gitanos make up about 1% of the population in Spain and so are pretty sizable, everyone has stories about them. I myself are very jealous of them, well, jealous of their flamenco guitar skills anyway

2. There are very few Spaniards who are not gypsies living in Chavolas. There may be other nationalities e.g. there is a massive Romanian gypsy camp on the outskirts of Madrid. These are the guys who steal all the copper

3. The people who are hurting now are those who had a high mortgage and have lost their job or got reduced income because of the crisis. 2 million more people are out of work compared to 5 years ago. Many of these will have lost their house or be about to lose it. One in five Spanish mortgages are currently behind in payment

4. The gypsies and foreigners who used to scrape a living working on the land etc now have less money because the other Spaniards who have lost their jobs have taken work from them

There will be a mountain of other issues that I am completely ignorant about, but just to say that the explanation is never simple

Still waiting for your solution cman.

Post 33. I wrote it especially for you!

I have quite a few gypsy families as neighbours, who have lived here all their lives, and most are very decent families and make good neighbours - unlike this latest brood who have taken over the empty house. They are very proud of their gitano heritage, and I have no problem with that at all. I always believe in taking people as I find them.

I must say, even the squatters aren't violent or abusive so I suppose they could be worse, but I just wish they would have more consideration for those who live around them. As for not being starving, far from it! There appears no shortage of money for beer, cigarettes or dope. Every member of the family has their own mobile phone, even the children. They also have a car - which I don't! As none of this particular family has ever been seen to do a stroke of work (which isn't true of many of the other gitano families around, quite a few have full time jobs and a lot of the ones who don't do things like labouring work when they get the chance) so how they support themselves is anybody's guess.

One such family I can just about cope with, but my biggest fear is that they will encourage others like themselves to leave the chabolas and take over other empty houses, of which there is no shortage.

I suppose the thorny question of where and how to house people who choose a way of life that is very different to that of the majority raises many of the same issues that apply with the so-called travelling community in the UK (who don't actually ever seem to travel anywhere), and that certainly creates plenty of tension between different communities.

"Families cannot be without somewhere to stay. Luckily there are actually very few cases like this in Spain nowadays. Look at the archives from the 60s and 70s and you will see that almost every Spanish city had shacks on the outskirts where people lived who had come from the countryside

However, with all the bank repossessions this problem is going to get worse

I would take blocks of flats from bankrupted property developers (there are 10,000s around) and convert them into social housing. Wouldn't cost too much

Ditto, houses that failed to sell at auction when repossessed

And then I'd convert empty warehouses on the edge of the towns into giant food banks

That's how big the problem could get in the South of Spain. Fingers crossed that it won't


So, take blocks of apartments and empty warehouses and stock with free food and rehouse folk? That's it, your solution? Written for me

Spain doesn't have a pot to pee in but can magically take over property and fund refurbishment, stock up on food, then hand over to the hundreds of thousand of homeless folk in Spain

Whats the food like on your planet Thats your answer

Brilliant Keep your day job and don't go into politics

There is no progress without investment - and the investment needed here is tiny compared to building a new motorway, airport or TVE train line.

Oh and Spain are being leaned on from the EU about their deficit but their debt is actually much less than the UKs. They have the money to help the least fortunate in society as it really doesnt cost much at all

Actually, he'd be a natural in EU politics. Probably become stinking rich at it.

i am not going into the rights and wrongs about taking/using/living in other peoples private property.

But if I was in the postion of having no home or shelter from my family,I would squat in an empty house, rather than let them sleep on the streets.

have to agree, especially after seeing the cardboard cities in central London.

the problem is that the "haves" don't want to give up what they have got and the "havenots" just havent got anything.

when people can downsize to put a family of 4's belongings in a supermarket trolley and still keep a smile on your face and a clean shirt then maybe people will understand.

but its ok, its Spain - sun, sea and sangria no poverty in my huge villa

But that's called desperation and we'd all do things if we were desperate that we wouldn't otherwise. That is why it is a foolish government that allows its population to become desperate. The most dangerous people are those with nothing to lose.

and recently in one or two places they have managed to prove that by making the ultimate sacrifice in the hope their children and grandchildren will have a better life without having to live in an oppressive regime