A few weeks ago, on Diputación Street, in the centre of Vitoria-Gasteiz, two men threw a homeless person off the small landing outside the place where he slept. In addition to being thrown away, a metal railing was immediately placed in front of the lonja. Although the place has been empty for a long time, it is curious that the installed fence has been screwed and thus prevents the entrance of the place. Therefore, it is conceivable that the only purpose of this installation was to expel this person who lived on the street from that place where he would protect himself from the harsh winter of spending.

We are faced with the clearest example of “aggressive architecture”; this trend of urban design aims to control, limit or exclude the urban environment for homeless people. The concept is probably not very familiar to you, however, this is quite common in large cities.

In this way, we could think that this is an isolated incident and that there are not many people in Vitoria-Gasteiz who suffer this type of violence, since most of them are treated in shelters and city centers. But the truth is that in recent years there has been an increase in the number of people in street situations in our city, the means of care, both of the City Council and of the Provincial Council, are totally inadequate and have not increased in the face of the growth of extreme poverty and severe social exclusion.

Currently, around 200 people sleep on the streets of Vitoria-Gasteiz, and waiting lists for access to centers where they can spend the night both hot and without risk are saturated, even doubling their capacity.

It is paradoxical that the incident that led us to write this article happened 150 meters from the Provincial Council of Álava and about 300 meters from the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz. Both organizations have repeatedly insisted on taking responsibility for the care of these neighbors, yet they have done nothing. It seems that the only thing they find annoying is the encounter with the one who lives on the street because of their responsibility and their inhumanity.

The initiatives to deal with the current situation are so curious that, instead of putting in place all the centers necessary to care for the most vulnerable people in society, they activate a series of open days when the thermometer marks below zero. As if this were not enough, they do not attend to all the people who make the request. On the contrary, they make about 40 beds available to social workers, attend some of the applicants for three days and continue with the waiting list for the next one. In this way, every three days, users change, a real nonsense, through which politicians not only corrupt the data but also their consciences.

In the Vitoria-Gasteiz Initiative for the Right to Housing and the Fight against Social Exclusion, it is clear that there is an urgent need to put in place sufficient resources to care for the homeless. The responsibility lies with Gorka Urtaran and Lucho Royero, and we are clear that their naive and false debates are part of the strategy they share with the political party (PNV) they represent and with those in power (PSE-EE-PNV).

That is why we will launch a campaign in which we will make it clear to the politicians responsible for this situation, whose vision has been tarnished by their privileges, that we will continue to fight until we see the urgency of the current situation.

With all this, on April 7th we will be at the Social Policy Committee of the City Council, with the intention of denouncing the current situation, in addition to a meeting at 11 o’clock in the Plaza Nueva.

In Vitoria-Gasteiz the beggars are not superfluous, the excuses are superfluous.