The hustle and bustle at Manuela's house starts early.
Her 10-year-old daughter attends school while her husband goes to the Plaza Elíptica roundabout, between the Madrid districts of Usera and Carabanchel, to get in line and try to get one of the businessmen present to give him a job as an electrician for days. .
They are Ecuadorians and have been in Spain for two years waiting to regularize their situation.
The three of them live in a room in an apartment shared with two other couples.
The 30-year-old woman, who prefers to give a fictitious name to protect her family, tries to work part-time as a cleaner to at least earn 600 euros a month between her and her husband.
When they get them, the price of their accommodation takes 80% of the money collected.
If housing expenses were deducted from income, 780,000 more minors would be in a vulnerable situation in Spain, increasing the child poverty rate from 28.9% to 38.6%, the equivalent of more than three million children.
This is revealed in the latest Unicef report
I also live here
, published last week.
The biggest fear of Belén, 44 years old and who prefers not to give her last name, is being left on the street.
She forms a single-parent family with her two children, ages five and six.
She has a degree in Hispanic Philology and has a master's degree in teaching.
“I chain temporary jobs, I spent seven months with six different contracts in a private academy,” she says.
She would love to oppose, but she doesn't have time: “I lead three lives, mine and two other people's.”
The last day she worked was January 12, since then she has not been called again, but the monthly mortgage payment continues to arrive every month.
“A year and a half ago she had to pay 700 euros, now 1,122 because it is variable,” she explains, worried, since her ex-husband does not contribute her share.
She lived in Ghana and her economic situation was stable, but after separating, she was forced to return to Madrid.
She made the investment in the house when she was not yet divorced and it was a decision made jointly with the father of her children.
Now, Belén receives aid for being a returned emigrant of 480 euros per month, but most of the bills are paid by her mother, who receives the minimum pension.
“He often loses 50 euro bills around my house,” she says, smiling, but with a sad look.
Her sisters show up to eat with five grocery bags.
“It's not good to be the eternal helper,” she laments.
Data from the INE for the second quarter of 2023 indicate a growth of 46.6% in property ownership prices since 2015, which rises to 65.3% when the residence is new.
On the other hand, households with children make up 33.5% of the total number of homes in Spain, but 59% of those that are rented.
Many parents cannot afford a mortgage.
Rental prices increased by 49.3% between 2014 and 2019 and spending on public services per household increased by 7.9%.
However, average salaries only increased by 9.1%, according to its Unicef study.
“The child poverty rate in our country is already very high, the highest in the European Union,” recalls the executive director of Unicef Spain, José María Vera.
The shortage of public housing, which represents 2.5% of the total number of households compared to the 9.3% average in the EU, leads many Spanish minors to live in very precarious situations.
More than half a million children suffer from severe deprivation at home.
21.4% of minors live with leaks or dampness and 10.6% in houses that are too dark, which places Spain in the worst position in the EU regarding this last issue.
16.7% of households with children cannot maintain an adequate temperature during winter.
The sound of water drops pouring from the Belén heater is already familiar in his house, but he can't fix it, just like the windows of the apartment, built in 1960, which are made of wood and do not have blinds.
“We are very cold in winter and very hot in summer.
We dress warmer to be at home than to go out,” she says.
She turned on the heating once when one of her children was sick and had to be helped by the Red Cross to pay the corresponding bill.
The entity has also provided her with glasses that she needed, clothes for the children, food, blankets and duvets.
The head of Children at Unicef Spain, Gabriel González-Bueno, explains that “the highest rates of delays in payments related to housing are concentrated in households with children.
The overload on housing costs is greater for those under 18 years of age, which only happens in six EU countries and places us in fourth position behind Greece, Luxembourg and Bulgaria.”
Households with the least income allocate 42% of their budget to household-related bills, according to the Foessa Foundation, and 11.5% of Spanish minors live in a house with an overload of expenses.
Delays in housing-related payments affect those families where only one adult resides much more, which in 80% of cases is a woman.
Almost one in four of these households are late with payments, compared to 7.9% of all families with children.
Spain almost doubles the EU average in invoice delays and, depending on the autonomous community, the problems are more or less serious because the expenses are different.
The Canary Islands and Balearic Islands triple the rates of Galicia, La Rioja or Cantabria.
Given this situation, cases of overcrowding in shared homes may increase.
According to Unicef, the stress of minors also lies in the coexistence between different families who share small apartments, often with only one bathroom, as is the case of Manuela's apartment.
Furthermore, the NGO warns that "the lack of privacy and space for children, and especially girls, can cause risks of violence and abuse."
Also the absence of a suitable place for study, with a minimum of tranquility, compromises the present and future school and personal development of children.
Manuela, mother of a 10-year-old girl in a vulnerable situation, with a fictitious name to protect her family, on March 5 in Madrid.Álvaro García
Manuela says that they have a good relationship with their roommates and that their daughter has a table in the living room to do her schoolwork calmly.
She receives academic reinforcement from the Red Cross.
Maylén's son, a 33-year-old Venezuelan civil engineer, also does his homework in the living room.
The two have lived in an apartment shared with four other people for a few months, when they arrived in Madrid.
Maylén has a total monthly expense of approximately 600 euros, but the room alone costs her 400. “My trick is to build a network of contacts in the neighborhood to get sporadic jobs until I regularize my situation.
I am a waitress, a cleaner, a caregiver for children and the elderly...”, she boasts a very positive attitude.
She recognizes that she has an economic cushion for a limited time and her brother, who lives in the United States, helps her as much as she can, as do Cáritas and the Red Cross.
“If families dedicate a large percentage of money to housing, a basic necessity, minors are deprived of other rights,” warns González-Bueno.
The children's NGO Educo reports that 2023 was the year in which more children had difficulty eating meat, fish, chicken or similar proteins every two days since 2004.
“The children in the school cafeteria, temporarily financed by social services and the Community of Madrid, have a varied diet, but not at home.
I try to get the proteins from another side, mixing lentils with rice,” says Belén.
“My mother is very concerned about filling our fruit bowl, we don't even see the fish and the meat we try is chicken,” she adds.
Manuela's daughter does not go to the dining room.
“She maintains a balanced diet when possible, we try to give her the best,” she explains.
Maylén's biggest concern is the nutrition of her child. She considers that in this aspect she has no shortages: “First he eats and then, if I can, I do.”
González-Bueno explains that children are at greater risk of falling into poverty, but they do not benefit from economic improvements in a context of rebound in employment.
For this reason, among numerous complaints, he calls for greater social protection and public housing, as well as the inclusion of minors in policies in this area.
He also calls for obstacle-free registration.
Residential exclusion or migration can also have effects on the physical and mental health of children.
“When we arrived in Spain, my daughter had to go to a psychologist, funded by public health, because she didn't want to go to school or do anything.
Now she is much better,” Manuela says through tears.
Belén touches the wood of the table on which she is leaning: “My children are very healthy at the moment.”
She is saddened to think that they may be aware of the situation: “I have become an expert in getting free plans in Madrid.
My son couldn't celebrate his birthday with his classmates because those who have a birthday in winter celebrate it together in a ball park that I can't afford.
They are the only ones at school who don't do seven extracurricular activities.
The other mothers already know that we are the poor family.”
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