"We just want to stay in Porreres": the cry for help of a mother and daughter in the face of the rental crisis

Porreras“It is not a cry of despair, we have time, but we cannot find an apartment to rent in Porreres and we do not want to have to move to another town”. The housing crisis in Mallorca is reaching Pla little by little and it has a face and eyes, and in Porreres there is an example. A single-parent family from Porreres, made up of a mother and daughter, has turned what should have been a conventional advertisement looking for a rental apartment into an original protest publication through which they have wanted to make visible the reality of many families and also young people who find themselves with an increasingly inaccessible real estate market throughout Mallorca, and Pla is no exception.

Joana Maria Barceló, the author of the publication along with her daughter Sofía, explains to l'ARA Balears that the publication, while being so, “is not just a search for housing, but I already published it with a double meaning because it is a way of making visible a reality that affects many families today, especially those like my daughter Sofía and I, as a single-parent family, form.”

The family lives in a rented apartment belonging to a relative who needs the home for her daughter. “All very normal and logical,” says Joana Maria, who is not new to apartment hunting and has already moved a few times. Until now, however, she had never encountered so many problems in finding housing. Word of mouth, family networks, acquaintances, and friendships had always worked, but now it is no longer the case, at least when it comes to finding decent housing at an affordable price: “Two bedrooms for the two of us, we are not asking for more, but I only have my salary, and this is one of the problems for single-parent families for whom everything is a problem,” she points out.

The other way, real estate websites, “there is nothing either because the prices are very high, we cannot afford it”, points out this psychologist specialized in labor orientation who works at the Fundació Deixalles.

“Given this situation, I put a small ad on Facebook saying I was looking for an apartment, but I saw it wasn't working and that's when I came up with the idea of the ad with a more visual poster and with our photographs; the idea was to see if it touched a nerve, the feelings, the emotions of people and to bet on collective consciousness, solidarity and empathy of people, and we have achieved it”, she explains.

The publication has worked so far and, in fact, has received the support of many people who are starting to offer her housing. But for now, they are too expensive and large, and she gives the example of a four-bedroom apartment for which they are asking €1,500 per month.

What she asks for is simple, but for now it seems difficult: “We want to continue living in our municipality with our people, greeting people in the street and in our environment, and we find ourselves with an increasingly inaccessible rental market. And I wanted to turn a normal apartment search into this other way of making it visible. I am from Porreres, we have our family, our friends, our life here, and we would like to stay here because if there is no other choice, we will have to leave”.

Rootedness

Thus in the publication, which has taken the form of a well-structured newspaper article, it points out with the headline “A Porreres, every street tells us the name” that “have grown up here, we have loved here, and here is the light that we recognize even with our eyes closed”. “We are mother and daughter, two lives that walk together, rooted in this land that has seen us grow up” to continue asking that “we are looking for a small refuge within the town, a space where we can continue writing our story among neighbors, bells, and memories that we do not want to leave behind”.

In the same vein, it appeals to roots as a vital necessity. Thus, in another section that says “Mother and daughter from Porreres add” that “We are from Porreres”, the announcement says: “We have grown up in it, we have family there, friends, and all the roots that tie us to our town. That is why we want to continue living here, in our home”.

Finally, it focuses on the minimum characteristics required by their family: “We are looking for a flat to rent, preferably with 2 bedrooms, quiet and with a stable contract. We are responsible, respectful, and solvent people. If you know of any available flat or one that will be free soon, we would be very grateful for any information”.