Caritas points to housing as "the epicenter of inequality" in the Balearic Islands

PalmaCaritas Mallorca provided care and support to 6,976 people in 2025, 10.4% less than the previous year, according to the report the entity presented this Thursday and which was disseminated by Europa Press. The director of Caritas Mallorca, Esther Romero, stressed that housing is "the epicenter of inequality" in the Balearic Islands. In fact, 49.5% of the people Caritas has assisted in Mallorca lived in shared houses with people with no degree of kinship – 4.4 points above 2024 – and 40.5% in sublet accommodations. This turns the homes where these people reside into "survival spaces", with a "lack of privacy" and where "conflicts deteriorate the physical and mental health of families".

Regarding the profile of the people who requested help from Caritas last year, around 4,150 were women and just over 2,800 were men. The average support time is two and a half years. 57.2% of users are irregular migrants. By nationality, the most numerous aid applicants are Colombians (over 2,400), followed by Spaniards (over 1,300) and Moroccans (almost 570). The most frequent age group is between 36 and 65 years old (49%). On the other hand, minors exceed 1,100.

Romero defended the Church's position, in favor of the extraordinary regularization of migrants proposed by the Spanish government to prevent these people from being "invisible" to the system and being "trapped in an underground life". The director stressed that exclusion "hits harder those who come from abroad".

Another piece of data that Romero highlighted is that around 4,450 people had some educational qualification that they have not yet managed to have recognized in Spain. Almost 4,200 people were unemployed or actively seeking employment, although many worked in the informal economy.

The most requested Caritas program was reception and orientation, which assisted nearly 5,250 people, followed by basic needs coverage (2,750 people), programs for elderly people living alone (900), and legal advice (600).

The housing and homelessness program offered residence to 210 applicants and assisted another 235. Regarding the solidarity economy, over 200 people participated in training activities, with a job placement rate of 62%. More than 1,100 people received job guidance, more than 200 found employment, and almost 130 participated in pre-employment workshops.

The claims of Càritas Mallorca

Regarding the institution's demands, Romero has called for an increase in the public social housing stock, measures to contain rental prices, more protection for children, and a reform of the Guaranteed Social Income (Resoga) so that it complements the Minimum Vital Income (IMV).

The entity's general administrator, Joan Bassa, detailed that in 2025, nearly 3.9 million euros were invested, 150,000 more than in 2024. After five years of losses to "prioritize care for people," last year they returned to positive results. Bassa has criticized that the entity's public funding decreases "year after year." 75% of the resources came from private sources in 2025. But the administrator also valued that this situation allows Caritas to maintain "independence" from the political spectrum.

The bishop of Mallorca, Sebastià Taltavull, has warned that the volume of poverty "is increasing" because people are "overwhelmed" by the international situation and the displacement of people who used to live better. Taltavull has called for solutions and remarked that "when someone has become rich, it is because they have taken something from someone else".