Maintaining Human Dignity at Christmas: Inside the Cáritas Homeless Program in Burgos

Everyone lives Christmas as they want or as they can. A Cáritas Burgos volunteer recognized that this year she was going to have a worse time because a homeless person, who is within the Cáritas program in Burgos, was going to spend Christmas homeless again, due to a relapse, after having managed to get out of that situation.

“We cannot reach everything nor do we have the responsibility,” explains David Polo, a social educator who has been working at Cáritas since 2008 with this program to address homelessness. «We see difficult situations, serious social exclusion, sometimes we have even seen death in the street. This may be the highest expression of human frustration, not being able to help or not being there at the right time, but I continue to surprise myself, I continue to wonder if this is possible in an advanced society, of the 21st century, democratic, where we defend the human rights. It is very complex », he explains.

And it is when the Christmas season approaches, when interest in social causes seems to increase, but this, as Polo warns, gives rise to paternalism towards homeless people. “We worry about whether they will be cold on Christmas Eve or what their Christmas meal will be like, but human rights go beyond that, they happen every day,” emphasizes this social educator from Cáritas.

David Polo, social educator at Cáritas Burgos. Aythami Pérez Miguel

More than a hostel, a home

This man who will spend Christmas homeless in Burgos will not be on the streets, neither these days nor the rest of the year. A service has been operating in Burgos for decades, managed by Cáritas, which is responsible for dignifying his situation.

Of the 40 places at the Cáritas home shelter in Burgos, between 32 and 35 are currently occupied. Between five and ten are kept free for people passing through. In addition to serving homeless people in Burgos, “a minimum number of places must be maintained so that people passing through the city have this opportunity and service.”

In addition to these places, the home shelter has the minimum requirement unit that has another eight places. To which eight more places are added in the San Vicente de Paul reception center. These are reserved for more special processes and the center is managed by the congregation of the Daughters of Charity. “We maintain a very good collaboration with them,” acknowledges this social educator. Added to all this are four other social homes: two for homeless families, another for women and one more for men.

Homeless people can leave their belongings in the rooms. Aythami Pérez Miguel

The shelter for homeless people is very different from the image we may have of a shelter, of a room with bunk beds. Now it is a modern building, with rooms with two beds and a bathroom, a common room, other rooms for breakfast. A clean space, where cleanliness is also the responsibility of the guests. There, in their rooms, they can leave their belongings, but they are also required to comply with certain rules. All this has been learned over time, the home shelter has been operating for decades.

«We have been learning and improving, we have focused on the dignity of spaces, on providing support, on attention to women and diversity. We have learned and as a result we have a hostel with good architecture, with decent rooms and other spaces where we can watch TV or read,” explains Polo.

During the day they can stay in the rooms that the shelter has or, whoever wishes, can go outside. The San Vicente de Paul shelter also welcomes these people from 9 in the morning to 9 at night. «They eat there, they have a coffee, a dinner, Wi-Fi, newspapers, a living room with sofas. They have somewhere to be and they don’t have to be on the street if they don’t want to,” says David Polo.

Common rooms of the Cáritas social home hostel in Burgos. Aythami Pérez Miguel

More than a shelter, a network

The hostel is more than a place to sleep. Within the care program for homeless people that Cáritas develops throughout the province, there are several projects to work on integration, community animation, accompanying prisoners who do not have a social network on their way out or dealing with people in chronic homelessness. through coffee-heat. “With these programs we seek to empower,” explains Polo.

And all of this works within the same network that manages the hostel. «We always work in coordination with the city council and the Daughters of Charity. “We thus try to provide the greatest coverage and the greatest comfortable spaces.” For example, people who know the circuit, which is what they call homeless people, who know how shelters work, show up at the office during reception hours, in the morning or afternoon, and They say they want to stay. In addition to the possibility of accommodation, advice and information, maintenance, food and hygiene are offered. You can also go to the hostel before 10 pm or you can access it by other means. There is the collaboration.

The reception is carried out online in Burgos. Aythami Pérez Miguel

In Burgos there is a social emergency service, when the CEAS and Social Services close, Burgos has this service coordinated with the Local Police. These accompany people who need it or who are on the street to the shelter, or the resource that is deemed necessary.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, they kept more places free for people passing through, but Polo recognizes that, currently, “there are fewer places because the profile is changing and we are already talking about a structural change.” It has been seen that traditional and temporary pedestrianism has decreased. The profile has become that of people who need greater support in all aspects.

Autonomy, minimal demands, but respect

Ending homelessness is easy. «You can suffer a stressful situation, not have an adequate social network, not have the skills or internal capabilities developed. All of this hits home and translates into experiencing social exclusion until reaching homelessness,” explains David Polo. People referred from the social services of Burgos, such as the CEAS or Sacyl social workers, can also come to the social home shelter.

Burgos is a very cold city, Christmas is also coming, delicate dates, but the increase in people is not excessively noticeable in the occupancy of the hostel, as confirmed by this social educator. The cold keeps some people passing through Burgos. Those who are in a chronic situation and who are on the streets in summer also remain on the streets in Burgos in winter. «For that we opened the minimum requirement unit. It is not to provide coverage for people passing through. The minimum requirement unit is oriented towards chronic situations, rooted in the city, that we know and treat,” explains Polo.

Spaces and facilities of the minimum requirement unit. Aythami Pérez Miguel

The Cáritas shelter service allows the autonomy of the person, it is a care service far from paternalism and guardianship. They offer assistance to meet the needs of life. «The shelter in itself is of minimum requirement and the unit of minimum requirement can be presupposed by the name. But there are immovable demands: respect for oneself and others. Here they can come with symptoms of consumption, but the consumption has to be left out. They can come with symptoms of consumption because they are not at the moment to be able to change, due to the degree of illness, due to poor internal capabilities, due to the lack of help… and it is better that they are here,” explains Polo.

In addition, there may be people who do not want to go to the shelter, “there are also those who verbalize one thing to you and do another. This inconsistency is determined by complex factors. Addictions is the most significant, above all we see what dual pathology is: mental illness along with an addiction. Yes, there may be people who are reluctant about the hostel, but you have to understand that, you should not opt ​​for simplistic comments. It is more complex than that and must be a permanent offer. That’s what the coffee-heat or the minimum requirement unit is for. There are people who have not wanted to come for five years and in the sixth year they have undergone a change. I don’t want to paint everything pretty either because there are people who don’t get to that point and end up dying in the street, of course,” Polo says.

The minimum requirement unit, with capacity for eight people, has had about seven since it opened. “We combine very well the right to human freedom with the conditions that that freedom may have,” she says.

Feelings at Christmas

On these dates, more of family gatherings, more sentimental, different positions can be seen among the users of the shelter. Some go through them ignoring them, but in others there are more psychological, personal factors. For people with depressive or consumption problems, these dates disturb them and upset them. “Like everyone, they can experience happiness, the desire to be with their family or the opposite, an aversion to this environment and frustrations or depressive desires,” explains David Polo.

Therefore, as there may be more conflicts on these dates, the shelter workers try to find balance and address these situations at certain times, provide emotional support, and make possible what is closest to a family. But, in addition, Cáritas encourages these homeless people to participate in the community. “In the dining room on Christmas or New Year’s Eve we try to generate that feeling like that of any family, but we also allow the desired solitude,” says David Polo.

The team is made up of three social educators and the night monitors. In the minimum requirement unit there are also monitors covering the six months that it remains open from May to November.

The responsibility for social shelters lies with the municipal entities. In this case, the City Council has an agreement with Cáritas, which has been managing it for decades. “Now we must continue fighting for the rights of these people and for the public administration to also make time and space possible for the people we accompany here,” asks this social educator.

2023-12-25 08:30:34
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