Personas jóvenes extranjeras y sinhogarismo en el País Vasco o cómo convertir la vulnerabilidad residencial en exclusión social

Abstract

The Basque Country is among the communities in Spain with the lowest poverty rate, but, in parallel, according to the Homeless People Survey conducted by the National Institute of Statistics in 2022, it is also the second community in number of homeless people. This contradiction is the starting point of this article, which answers the research question with various techniques: the analysis of data provided by the municipality of Bilbao, a survey and interviews with experts. This analysis will show a homelessness in the municipality of Bilbao formed, largely, by young foreigners from Africa —many of them foreign minors in the care of the State— who do not find a place in other public resources of emancipation and who end up in homeless resources. These resources are not prepared for the increase of users of this new profile and, consequently, end up having a negative impact on their social integration. The experts complete the diagnosis of what is happening with a clear explanation: the multiple and sequential overflow of care resources.