Additional funds to be made available from the City Council to tackle elderly vulnerability and homelessness. The organisation’s headquarters will also move from its current location in the outskirts of Barcelona to a building over five times the size in the neighbourhood of Poble Nou.
The Fundació Arrels (Arrels Foundation) works to assist Barcelona homeless people. Just in the Catalan capital there are more than 2,000 homeless people. The foundation receives 65% of their funds from private citizens and companies.
Over 140,000 people in Catalonia depend on the distribution of food by the Red Cross. The number of beneficiaries who have been strongly hit by the economic crisis increased by more than 2,000 people compared to the last trimester of 2011.
The Catalan Supreme Court of Justice issues a court order giving the Catalan Government 2 months to change the current school model and include Spanish as a school language of instruction. The Government will appeal. Teacher unions and the main parent associations back the current model. Currently, Catalan is the language used and Spanish is taught in school but only as a subject. For the Catalan Government, the court decision breaks a model praised by international organisations, which guarantees social cohesion and the knowledge of both languages by all pupils.
A grant allocated to the poorest, which is supposed to be their only income, was not paid regularly on August 1st as the Catalan Government changed the payment method. The official explanation is that the change was taken to avoid fraud and be able to ensure the sustainability of this grant system. From now on, the 37,000 beneficiaries will have to personally go the bank with a pay check that will be sent to them. In mid-August, most of the beneficiaries had already received the money. The opposition has heavily criticised the Government, which has recognised errors but stressed that many people were getting money without meeting the conditions. 500 beneficiaries and social workers protested on Thursday in Barcelona.