Social services attend more than 44,000 people in Barcelona during pandemic

Barcelona's social services centers have served 44,463 people in the four months since mid-March, when the coronavirus pandemic began to escalate and a state of alarm was declared.

The number of people attended to during this period is already half of the total number of people seen in the whole of 2019, which was around 90,000.

Despite increasing requests for help, the average waiting time has been reduced to six days.

20% of the people who received attention in the last four months had either never been to social services before or had not needed its services for more than a year.

Of the more than 44,000 people who asked for help, it is of note that 70% were women and 51% between 31 and 50 years old.

Food and housing are the two main reasons people contact social services for support.

Downward trend

The data indicates that the amount of aid being distributed is declining. While in March 4,354 grants were given out and in April a peak of almost 6,000 was reached, May saw a decline to around 4,000 and in June there were 3,719 grants.

"We are no longer looking at the worst figures, the demand for aid is declining," said Laura Pérez, Barcelona councilor for social rights.

She warned, however, that they are "very" concerned about those people who had expected to work this summer in the services and tourism sector, as well as the "informal" economy.