Among the Shadows - Co'Report

Among The Shadows According to the Labour Force Survey, more than 50.000 people have lost their jobs in the Canary Islands from 2010 to 2012.

With a lack of resources to face all expenses, only essential goods can be afforded by families, so the mortgage payment is delayed one month after the other.

More than 24 evictions a day are conducted in the Archipelago. Many of them condemn families to be rehoused in relatives and friends places, or municipal shelters and center for minors.

Some homeless decide to build their small shack to keep some privacy and liberty. In spite of the harsh conditions of the shelter, they are thankful for having its services and use it for their personal hygiene.

Data from 2010 indicate that 117.627 houses were empty in the Canary Islands. Currently it is estimated to be more than 200.000.

Article 47 ofthe Constitution establishes the right ofevery Spanish citizen to decent and adequate housing.

by Sheila Torres

photography AndrĂŠs GutiĂŠrrez

ince its recent economic troubles, Spain has experienced one of its worst stages in history due to the cutbacks in the educational system, public healthcare, social services, retirement and unemployment benefits and so many more important subjects in society.

In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Tenerife, one ofthe Canary Islands, is one of the most tourist places in Europe. The Island receives the visit of thousands oftourists every year. Most of them spend their holiday times on delightful places on the volcanic island enjoying the nice weather and all comfort that luxurious hotels near the beach can offer.

There is a whole different side of the Island where a group of people fight everyday for a better situation. These people have seen everything crumbling around them. Their jobs. Their houses. Their life. One day they found themselves with no choices and decide to build a small shack in an isolated area of Santa Cruz, the capital of the Island. The number of homeless in the city, and in the whole country has suffered a substantial increase in the last couple of years. The reason as known is the economic situation.

In their small shacks they have neither electricity nor running water.

Their ceilings are made of wood and plastic and the furniture consists of different pieces from their previous houses or from charitable collections.

Many curtains cover the walls making the rooms warmer and more welcoming.

The image of the area surrounding Pancho Camurria, where the shaks are settled, has changed so much. The increase of homeless number is disheartening. In 2010 there were less than ten shacks and in the end of 2012 they were about thirty. The place keeps its advertising billboards and a dark sky which does not seem to be the same one that covers the shining Canaries.

For some of them, each day has the same rhythm: they wake up in their shack early in the morning, have a bath in the municipal shelter and they go out trying to find a job somewhere.

Some others help parking cars in different areas of the city-centre or sell some second-hand articles in a yard sale on weekends. All of them earn some money from drivers or from selling the items they get from collections or neighbours. They all assume it is even more difficult for them to find a job due to the prejudices society has about the homeless.

'There’s no job. How could you get your head above? With no job, you can’t rear your head’, claims Eleuterio (Yeyo), who lives with his wife, Mar, in this austere area. Yeyo was born in Santa Cruz and worked for twenty one years to different companies in the Island. One day he decided to start his own business and set up an electronics shop. Things were worse than he expected and didn’t succeed.

After one year the debt increased and he had to close his shop. He lost everything and still have a big unpaid debt.

The situation is getting worse with the number of evictions in the country, which are more than 500 a day! Since unemployment is so high, only essential goods can be afforded by families, so the mortgage payment is delayed one month after the other.

This leads to several evictions by the banks which keep the houses and, as it is known, in Spain, the evicted persons still keep the debt.

For these people, who live in the other side of the coin of these ‘Fortunate Isles’, travel guides are quite far from their reality. The most devastating fact, as they say, is the certainty that the situation is going to be even more precarious than it is.