Shared beds, scams, entire families living in one room and discrimination are some of the abuses that turn the search for accommodation into a nightmare for many Latin Americans living in Spain. The unstoppable escalation of rental prices and the housing shortage mean that immigrants, especially those who have only been in Spain for a short time and do not have papers or a work contract, have to submit to the excessive demands of some landlords.
That is the case of Liliana, a 29-year-old Peruvian woman who during her first year in Spain shared a bed, slept on the sofa in the dining room of an apartment where five other people lived and was residing in the house of an older woman who did not care. She gave days off, arguing that she couldn't be left alone.
Stifled by the old woman's demands, she left work and, from then on, her situation became even more complicated. "No one really helped me, rather some took advantage of me," she says in an interview with EFE.
Without work or documentation in order, no one wanted to rent her a room, so she had to accept the proposal of a compatriot who offered her a 'warm bed' shared with two other women. One of them worked at night, but the other slept with her in a double bed that took up the space in her room.
When it seemed that things couldn't get any worse, the owner of the house kicked them out of the room to accommodate relatives and offered her the sofa, to the contempt of the other inhabitants of the house, who disliked that she used the dining room for sleep.
Housing problems also affect Latin Americans who have been in Spain for longer, like Iliana, a 32-year-old Salvadoran, who had a peaceful arrival because she was received by a friend and well treated by the woman she was caring for, but when the elderly He entered a residence and had to look for housing, everything became complicated.
"I had dozens of interviews with people who rented rooms and, when they saw that I was pregnant, they left me on the street, without mercy," she remembers.
"They were afraid that I would stop paying and become a squatter," she explains, a fear based on discrimination, since some tenants believe that Latin American women stop paying rent when they have small children in their care because it is legally more difficult to evict them.
Iliana has an indefinite employment contract and the financial capacity to pay the rent for a room in Barcelona, the city where she works and where she found a daycare for her daughter, but she found nothing in the Catalan capital.
Finally, she had to accept a room in a neighboring town, and now she is forced to take long trips on public transportation because her landlords do not allow her to register in that town, a necessary requirement to change her daughter's daycare.
lsy, a native of Honduras, arrived in Catalonia a few years ago. In her current home, inhabited by a couple, she occupies a rented room with her three children and has the right only to use the kitchen, without being allowed to enjoy the dining room or take anyone to the apartment.
"In addition, my sister, who takes care of my children on the weekend while I work, also has to pay for the use of the room," he laments.
Stephanie, born in Colombia, has been in Spain for a year and her greatest dream is to be able to bring her son who lives in her country, but, although she has a partner and between the two of them they can afford a large room, they cannot afford an apartment and that complicates the arrival of the child.
Housing, along with the search for a decent job with a fair salary, is one of the main concerns of Latin Americans in Spain.
