The Sant Pau social gym in the Raval neighborhood announced this Thursday that at the end of the month it will stop providing the service of showers, changing clothes and distributing food to vulnerable people, and that soon and very much to its regret it will be forced to close its doors, to also stop functioning as a gym.
The cause, sources from this cooperative explain, is the delay in the receipt of municipal subsidies. “We will also have to do an ERTE that will affect our workers. Of the 200,000 euros granted by the Municipal Institute of Social Services for 2023, we have not yet received anything.” About 200 people regularly use the Sant Pau showers.
Municipal sources report that precisely last week the City Council finished gathering all the necessary documentation to process the Sant Pau subsidy, which is currently in the inspection phase. “The City Council is prioritizing this subsidy in order to accelerate payment – municipal sources abound. The Commissioner for Social Action and the manager of the Municipal Institute of Social Services met with the entity this Wednesday and in this way informed them.”
Yes, they intervene from this supportive entity. “The problem is that they don't tell us when they are going to pay us, and in these circumstances we cannot continue our activity. “We are considering the idea of setting up a resistance fund to be able to continue operating, but the workers have to get paid.”
