Up north, new homeless centre offers warm beds

The cold snap sweeping through Catalonia has been especially biting in the north: in the town of Girona, at night, it often drops below zero. And it’s here, in front of a building known as Sarraïnes, that a line has formed. By 8pm, eight homeless people are waiting outside to spend the night in one of the center’s 17 beds.

Adel

Among them is Adel. Almost 40 years old, from Morocco, he’s lived in Girona for a decade and a half. Adel’s been sleeping on the street for a while, he explained in faltering Spanish, specifying he would settle down for the night just about “anywhere.” Those nights that the temperature dropped, he had no other choice but to sleep through it. “That’s life,” he proclaimed.

Until about a week ago, Adel was spending his nights in an abandoned warehouse. “Until now, when the cold came in I held out as best I could. Here, it’s much better,” he admitted, adding that, if he’s lucky and there’s space, he can “stay until 8am, and sleep where it’s warm.”