Abdeltif Saidi arrived more than 20 years ago in Ciutat Meridiana, in Barcelona, and opened the first phone booth in the neighborhood in 2004. After 12 years and a devastating economic crisis, as happened with many other businesses, he had to close it because it was not profitable. “There came a time when people only came to make photocopies and I had to decide between paying the premises or the mortgage,” he laments. His last job was in 2019, thanks to a municipal employment program, but since then he has had to request an extension of 20 to 40 years to be able to pay the mortgage on the apartment where he lives with his wife and four children, barely 50 square meters, damp and in poor condition. “The confinement has been horrible in there; I don’t know how long I can hold out like this, “he acknowledges.
This situation of vulnerability is common for many other residents of Ciutat Meridiana, the neighborhood in the north of Nou Barris with the lowest family income in town. This periphery of the periphery of Barcelona has also been one of the areas most affected by the coronavirus during the second wave – between November 22 and December 6, it was the third neighborhood with the most positive cases, 368 for every 100,000 inhabitants, according to data from the Barcelona Public Health Agency. Despite the social emergency situation, neighborhood solidarity and community work by street-level associations have been, now more than ever, a lifeline to sustain many of the families.
Empathy, bond and not judging anyone
“In this moment of need, we are clear that we must act as we have been doing all our lives: from empathy and generating bond.” Mirta Manzetti, from the sociocultural association The indomable, has been working in Ciutat Meridiana for more than 20 years for the social integration of children, women and families at risk of exclusion. Every day he tries to solve as best he can the needs of many neighbors, who go through paperwork to look for work, face the bureaucracy to ask for public aid or know where to leave their sons and daughters so that they can take care of them for a few hours.
“Without these networks, people live their problems alone and with anguish”
“We work from the bond and to generate a network of trust. The first thing that families need is this: not to feel alone and to have a group in which they can find help as equals, without paternalism,” he says. It is the same philosophy that Vane E. Sanz, of Ubuntu, an association that works since 2008 doing recreational and educational activities for young people and families in the neighborhood.
“The pandemic has shown what we already knew: that here we have a huge digital divide, that there is more poverty than we imagined in the city, that we are very ignorant of how the administrative aid system works … That is why it is important to generate a solidarity network from love and without judging anyone, because, if not, people live their problems alone and with anguish, “he says.
Abdeltif is one of the people who selflessly helps his neighbors to manage and apply for social assistance, such as minimum income, or to carry out immigration procedures, thanks to his computer skills. Vane points out that, “at a time like this, if the parks throughout the neighborhood are under construction and public facilities such as the casal de barri do not open, many spaces are lost to generate networks and bond”.
“How is it possible that they close the files of families that have been without income for five years?”
Both Mirta and Vane also criticize the obstacles that the Administration puts up to ask for help. “I have ever gone to the social services of the City Council to ask about the case of a family and they have told me that they have already closed the file. How is it possible that they close the files of families that have been without income for five years or with girls who suffer violence ? Well, they tell you that and they stay the same, and you have to start again to explain the whole story. I consider it an institutional abuse“says Mirta, who believes that” the key is not to think for months about great strategies or to open files, but to accompany the families to see what they need and to do it with closeness and communication. “
Double-sided projects
Some residents and associations also point out the double face of the employment projects that are implemented in the neighborhood. Abdeltif explains that he was part of B-Mincome, a pilot program of the City Council with European funds to fight against poverty and inequality. “I did a six-month course and then I worked for a year helping neighbors with energy poverty issues, so they don’t get ripped off with their bills. I loved that job. But then the program ended and to hire me the companies asked me to become self-employed, and I can’t afford it. I was left with nothing, “he explains.
“These plans are bread for today and hunger for tomorrow”
“These plans are bread for today and hunger for tomorrow,” laments Vane, who believes that negotiations with companies should be promoted to guarantee stable jobs, because “if not, these formations and processes are carried out, but, when they are finished, you return to the starting point, and that does not empower and generates mistrust”.
Fight against evictions
Ruth Condori and her three minor children were evicted on October 29, 2020, shortly before the night curfew, from the apartment they had occupied for two years on Calle Rasos de Peguera, in Ciutat Meridiana. The eviction was highly publicized and caused great public outrage, after which BBVA, the owner of the property, backed down and decided to relocate the family, claiming that it did not know their situation of vulnerability.
“Every week we have between four and eight launch orders”
“They told me they would give me a social rent, but I have not signed anything yet; the City Council and the bank are still negotiating,” explains Ruth, more than a month and a half later. “I lost my job shortly after the eviction attempt and now we only have to live on my partner’s 400 uros part-time salary,” he says.
Evictions are also a sad reality that Ciutat Meridiana has faced for years, which after the 2008 crisis was known as Villadesahucio. “Every week we have between four and eight launch orders, and that has continued in recent months of confinement. It seems aberrant to me,” explains Filiberto Bravo, president of the Ciutat Meridiana Neighborhood Association.
That is why they meet every Thursday, with all the security measures, to be able to share all the cases and try to stop the evictions through the neighborhood resistance. The psychological impact of these launches is very hard for families, especially for children. “My son cried during the eviction and told me that he had behaved well and that he did not want to leave school, that he had friends there. Now he is distraught and asks me if they are going to throw us out again,” says Ruth. “That insecurity and fear that children have stays inside and does not disappear. And this is not taken into account by the police, nor by justice, nor by the governments that allow this,” Filiberto denounces.
Now that they are parties, Mirta, together with the association With Women’s Heart and the help of the Ciutat Meridiana hardware store – “they always join all of our initiatives; they are tireless,” acknowledges the activist – have devised a simple project to bring the illusion of Christmas to the neighborhood: they have painted some faces of aunt, with its barretina included, which they have placed in around twenty logs in Ciutat Meridiana, Torre Baró and Can Cuiàs, so that children can find them one by one with their mothers and fathers. A breath of joy and Christmas spirit for the children and families of a neighborhood where neighborhood solidarity is the best vaccine.
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