increase housing prices Economic burden for families with young children and 8.4% of these households are unable to pay their mortgage or rent on time, which is twice the EU average.
Some of the conclusions of the “Aquí no hay quien viva” report prepared by Save the Children are as follows: difficulties families have to pay for housing and this reveals Spain It is the third country in the European Union with the third highest percentage of households experiencing delays in rent or mortgage payments. -6.5%-, behind only Greece and Ireland and above the European average (3.2%).
Increasing housing prices Affects 4 out of 10 households with dependent sons or daughters resident and at least obliged to rent 30% of your income will be paid for housingwhich means having less budget for other needs.
Families with young children suffer the most from this overload. and indeed, according to United Nations data, it is estimated that between 70% and 80% of evictions – almost 700,000 people in Spain since 2008 – affect families with children and teenagers.
As this NGO’s director, Andrés Conde, reassured during the presentation of the report, this is “a very cumbersome and unusual figure in the EU context” and represents “the most extreme representation of residential exclusion”. 2019, The presence of children in the home is grounds for suspending the eviction.
unhealthy homes
But also, Save the Children warns that two out of ten children and adolescents – 21.4% – live in unsanitary homeshaving a leaky roof, damp walls, floors or foundations, or having bruises in window frames or floors.
The report states that 7.2% of households does not meet the minimum conditions for guaranteeing health; 2 out of 10 children live in areas with noise pollution; In Ceuta, Melilla and Catalonia, almost 1 in 10 boys and girls live in overcrowded homes, and 13.1% of underage children in Spain live in a home that does not keep their homes warm enough.
It’s a condition that “affects their physical and mental health, affecting their growth, development, school performance and safety,” says Conde.
Single mothers with dependent children
According to Save the Children, the face of a family struggling to maintain its home is the face of a single mother with dependent children.
In that sense, he recalls that there are 158,000 single-parent rental households in Spain – most of which are run by women – carrying an “often unaffordable” burden. On average, These families allocate an additional 200 euros per month. The number of people who can allocate (not counting supply materials) if we set 30% of income as the maximum payment limit for housing.
With this panorama, the NGO draws attention to the fact that a supplemental aid of up to 200 euros can alleviate the burden of housing for all. to assume, an annual budget of around 380 million euros will be required.
Save the Children recalls that among the reasons for this situation: Spain has one of the smallest stocks of social housing in EuropeAs it barely reaches 2.5% of the total, which is a quarter of the European average (9.3% of the park).
“Another one and a half million subsidized homes will be needed to meet social needs,” says Catalina Perazzo, the NGO’s Director of Social and Political Affairs. In addition, the scope of housing assistance has been “extremely narrowed”. Thus, about 310,000 of the 1.6 million families with children in poverty experienced delays in their housing payments, but only 25,000 received housing assistance in 2020.
More housing and direct assistance
To improve this situation, Save the Children calls for more funding for housing policies protecting the access of vulnerable underage families and automating direct access to housing assistance for families receiving IMV, minimum income or similar. It recommends betting on acquisition or rehabilitation to expand the public housing offer.ensure the ambiguous nature of public housing or promote alliances between the public and private sectors that benefit low-income families.
It also claims tax credits improve the energy rating of buildings and discounted VAT housing rehabilitation and to improve the coordination between the judicial system and social services.
It also emphasizes that when there are minors at risk of eviction, the vulnerability report should be mandatory rather than optional, so that it should be considered before any decisions that affect them are made.