Barcelona homeless in the time of Corona

Barcelona homeless in the time of Corona

Spain’s streets are largely deserted.

As one of the world’s worst-hit countries by the new coronavirus, the government has ordered a national lockdown.


Photos and text by Emilio Morenatti


(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

In Barcelona, in the northeast of the country, sleeping figures with boxes and blankets punctuate the mostly empty city.

I am not afraid of the virus because my physical condition is very good. If I caught the virus, my body would expel it as if it were a gastroenteritis.
— Javier Redondo, 40
 

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

They are Barcelona’s homeless, and there are about 1,000 of them.

 

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Most lie on cardboard, others have mattresses or tents. They dot the narrow streets and the doorways of now-closed stores.

I used to earn enough money to eat every day, now I don’t get even one meal a day. Now I play the guitar just for me as nobody is in the street.
— Kevin, who sleep in the streets of Barcelona for the last 4 years
 

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

The bare streets accentuate their isolation.

 

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Many of the city's day centers and soup kitchens for the homeless have closed or reduced their opening hours.

 

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Shelters and social cafeterias have closed or are operating partly due to virus outbreak.

It is as if there has been a nuclear explosion and they are all sheltering in the bunker. Only us, the homeless, are left out.
— 36-year-old Gana Gutierrez, who has lived on the street for more than 8 years
 

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Many homeless in the city are left with little food, poor hygiene and nowhere to go making them extremely vulnerable not just to the virus but to other threats as well.

 

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Authorities are scrambling to get as many homeless people off the streets.

 

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

But they want to do this without cramming them into a shelter, where the spread of COVID-19 could be even greater.

I thought I had seen everything during all these years sleeping in the street, but no. This silence on the street all day scares me... more than the virus itself ...
— Riccardo, 32, who has been sleeping on the street for more than 10 years
 

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

The only noise on the city streets is made by the motorcycles of the municipal police.

 

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Those sleeping rough in Barcelona agree on one thing: begging is pointless, because there’s nobody around to give them anything.

I refuse! I am not going to be infested with the virus anywhere, I am safe here in the arcade.
— Jose, 27, has been sleeping in the street for 5 years and is convinced that the Spanish army will put all the beggars of the city in tents.
 

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)


Text from the AP News story, AP PHOTOS: Virus accentuates isolation of Spain's homeless, by Emilio Morenatti.

Photos by Emilio Morenatti

Visual artist and Digital Storyteller at The Associated Press