The Cardinal Juan Jose OmellaArchbishop of Barcelona and former president of the Episcopal Conference, has asked administrations, social and religious associations to contribute so that everyone can live “in decent housing”. He did so through his Sunday letter entitled “New Slavery”, in which he focuses on “homeless“, which, according to him, “condemns the people who suffer from it.”
For Omella, we are facing a “serious problem that affects many people”, including “to everyone“Those who don’t have a job and those who have a job but can’t make ends meet; young people who want to start a new life or elderly people who can’t afford to pay rent,” he explains.
“We cannot limit ourselves to considering only the economic dimension of housing. Having a home is much more. When we live in a space, it becomes our home, a place where we grow, where we take care of our loved ones and are cared for, where we feel protected. Without a roof, health deteriorates, work is difficult, living and relating to others becomes complicated,” he argues.
Omella also talks about situations that “go unnoticed”, such as the fact that more than a third of the families supported by Cáritas Diocesana de Barcelona and who were living in a rented room had to change rooms because they could not pay the price they were offered. .they asked during the pandemic. “In many of these families there were one or two school-age children. Any change of room it was more difficult to get the child to schoolbecause it was almost always much further away,” explains the cardinal.
