For the past two months, Raima has been showering at his school. He has breakfast in the staff room and wears clothes from the lost and found. For the past two months, Raima and his family have been living on the streets. Using a fictional name, a teacher shares the real story of one of her students, a stark illustration of a crisis unfolding in Barcelona’s classrooms.
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However, this is not an isolated case. In Barcelona, four out of every ten people affected by an eviction are children. This year alone, 1,331 families have been evicted in the city. Now, a group of educators is taking action. The collective, Docents080, has launched a comprehensive guide to help schools address the profound impact of the housing crisis on their pupils.
The Guide for Educational Centres on the Right to Housing aims to establish a protocol for schools to support students and families, transforming what is often a hidden, individual struggle into a collective responsibility.
A Crisis Spilling into the Classroom
Last year, an analysis by Docents080 across 46 Barcelona schools revealed 215 students had been evicted. Alarmingly, 85% of these institutions had pupils forced to move, and 13% had students who were homeless.
“Our experience tells us that almost every educational centre has experienced an eviction. It’s another matter whether they have addressed it,” members of Docents080 told VilaWeb. Furthermore, the situation is set to worsen across the region. The recent overturning of an eviction moratorium in the Spanish Congress could reactivate over 13,000 eviction proceedings in Catalonia.
The problem transcends socio-economic boundaries, affecting families in both public and state-subsidised charter schools. Anna Pérez, a teacher and member of Docents080, highlighted the rise of “invisible evictions,” where families are forced to move due to unaffordable rent increases. “This constitutes an eviction, as it breaks the child’s bond and life with that educational centre,” she explained.
Education and Health ‘Plummet’
The guide’s authors argue that the right to housing and the right to education are inextricably linked. “It’s essential we guarantee equal opportunities in the classroom,” Pérez stated. “We cannot treat a child who has a stable situation at home the same as another who is worried about where they will sleep tonight.”
The consequences of housing insecurity are severe. “The moment a student loses residential security, their educational level plummets. Their concentration drops significantly, and emotional anxiety rises,” Pérez added. Data from the Barcelona Health Consortium and Public Health Agency corroborates this, showing children affected by housing insecurity suffer alarmingly poor mental health, at levels ten times higher than the average.
“We know of kids who could only do their homework in the laundry room of the hostel where they were staying with their family,” the group reported. “We also have cases of children who come to school without breakfast because they live in a hostel so far from the centre that they have to leave very early, before the catering is open.”
Núria Cervera, another teacher with Docents080, emphasised the broader impact. “We have three pillars: housing, education, and health. They go hand in hand, and all three rights are being violated.”
A Practical Toolkit for Schools
The guide offers schools a framework for creating their own protocols. It provides advice on how to intervene on the day of an eviction, how to identify a child experiencing homelessness, and how to offer emotional support to families.
One of the most effective tools proposed is for a school’s headteacher, who holds public authority status, to write to the judge overseeing an eviction. This letter can formally report the family’s vulnerability and argue that the eviction threatens the child’s fundamental right to education—a right more strongly protected by law than the right to housing. Indeed, Docents080 says this measure has proven effective in halting evictions.
The collective criticises the lack of official support, arguing they have been forced to act due to institutional passivity. The current situation reflects a broader sense of frustration among educators, many of whom have also been protesting what they call an “educational emergency” over resources and conditions.
“We have a system that has wanted to make child evictions invisible, and the administration continues to act as if nothing is happening,” said Joan Artigal of Docents080. Cervera added, “There is no guide, there are no guidelines, there is no plan from the administration… No matter how much you close your eyes, the reality continues to exist.”
The group is now planning to meet with political parties and other organisations to raise awareness. A training day for all interested schools in Catalonia is scheduled for 9 May.
