Breaking the cycle of poverty

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"To be able to work you have to have a roof. And have food. If you are not rested and have not eaten, you have no energy," explains Manuel, a Madrid man who does not turn 40 and who badly lived a few weeks on the street. He also says that he only slept three weeks in a park. Now he lives in a shelter. "What I want is to have a stable job. That would mean having a stable economy and a roof and table for every day. I want to: I want to live. That will be my victory," he says.
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    Breaking the cycle of poverty
    Nobody homeless
    The fish you eat and inequality

Manuel, like so many others, is condemned to survive. He repeats that he falls into homelessness and that in three days, that trip may have no return. "It depends on the time. In summer, with lighter clothes, it is less hard. But imagine in winter, with cold and ... you have it on; nothing more."
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His story speaks of the reality of poverty, a journey whose cycle is more than difficult to leave. "Day 1 without a house. Start the day, start walking, get food in a social canteen ... You walk, you walk, the night falls and you look for a place to sleep. You pretend whole and the next day, you get up and ... where do you clean yourself? In a bar? Bad: they look at you badly and you start, unintentionally, to lose hygiene and encouragement. And you are left alone, more and more alone. Then, you talk to someone and you interact more than with other people without a home and create a closed circle of friendship. And another day. And another. And another. And more isolated and you see that you have nothing, only reality, which says that you do not come out easily, "he says.

He has just finished a job as a warehouse boy and hopes to be called for the Christmas campaign. The discontinuity in the work and the precariousness continue being, next to the lack of access to housing, the main limitation so that Manuel reaches "his victory".

Miguel Ángel, 51, also from the capital, lives with a family who pays rent for a room: 250 euros per month. Now he works as a cleaner. It is almost 'mileurist', he says, but when he does not have that landline he knows how to survive with 380 euros, those of a subsidy he receives for a 60% disability; A money that counts you lose when you clean.

I bring their stories here to talk about inequality and poverty even for those who work. The two today have minimal needs met, but "poverty," underlines the United Nations, is an urgent human rights problem and is both the cause and consequence of human rights violations, as it is characterized by multiple and interconnected violations of human rights. civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. " Reducing poverty and eradicating it is therefore an obligation of all societies.

And do not go to remote sites: inequality in Spain grows, as do the number of users who come to our centers every day (dining rooms, flats and employability centers for those who suffer most). In Spain, as published in January Oxfam Intermón in its report Inequality 1, Equal Opportunities 0, "last year there were an increase of 16,500 households in which no income entered, reaching 617,000." And there, as always, those who suffer most are the segments of the most vulnerable po[CENSORED]tion: women, migrants and children.

    According to Oxfam Intermón, last year there were an increase of 16,500 households that did not enter any type of income, reaching 617,000 in Spain.

At this point again it is important to go and look for the gender perspective. Because they are more invisible, but they are still poor and exclusion is especially primed in them (with or without a home). This is demonstrated by the data published recently by the INE. They show that almost a third of women between 16 and 30 are at risk of poverty in Spain.

That is why policies that break this cycle of inequality and provide the necessary opportunities for equality are necessary. It is necessary that the work is not precarious and is a guarantee of a decent life. We need that the National Poverty Eradication Strategy be permanently on the political agenda, be provided with budgets for its development and constitute a political commitment to which social entities also join. From Luz Casanova we look for situations such as Manuel and Miguel Ángel to be reversed, through accommodation and the employment program, which accompanies access to work and training to improve opportunities.

Julia Almansa is director of the Luz Casanova Foundation, which works mainly with homeless people and women and minors victims of gender violence.