AP PHOTOS: Virus accentuates isolation of Spain's homeless
Emilio Morenatti | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 7 months AGO
In this Friday, March 20, 2020 photo, Boris, 42, from Bulgaria, sleeps under a blanket in the street in Barcelona, Spain. While Spanish authorities tell the public that staying home is the best way to beat the coronavirus pandemic, some people are staying out because home has come to mean the streets of Madrid and Barcelona. Authorities are scrambling to get as many homeless people off the streets without cramming them into a group shelter, where the risk of getting infected with the virus could be even greater. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
In this Saturday, March 21, 2020 photo, Javier Redondo, 40, covers his head with his hands as he waits for alms on an empty street in Barcelona, Spain. While authorities are telling people to stay at home amid the COVID-19 outbreak, others as Javier are having to stay on the street -- because they have no choice. "I am not afraid of the virus because my physical condition is very good. If I caught the virus, my body would expel it as if it were a gastroenteritis", Javier said. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
In this Saturday, March 21, 2020 photo, a blanket is used as a shelter in the corner of a square in downtown Barcelona, Spain. With Spain one of the world's worst-hit countries by the new coronavirus, and the government ordering a national lockdown, the country's streets are largely deserted. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
In this Saturday, March 21, 2020 photo, Kevin, 32, from France, plays guitar in front of a supermarket in Barcelona, Spain. Kevin, who has slept on the streets of Barcelona for the last 4 years said "I used to earn enough money to eat every day, now I don't get even one meal a day. Now I play the guitar just for me as nobody is in the street". While Spanish authorities tell the public that staying home is the best way to beat the coronavirus pandemic, some people are staying out because home has come to mean the streets of Madrid and Barcelona. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
In this Sunday, March 22, 2020 photo, a man from sub-Saharan Africa covers himself with clothes and blankets as he sits on a bench at an empty car park outside the train station in Barcelona, Spain. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
In this Sunday, March 22, 2020 photo, a man covered with a blanket sleeps in an empty street in Barcelona, Spain. In Barcelona sleeping figures with boxes and blankets punctuate the mostly empty city. They are Barcelona's homeless, and there are about 1,000 of them. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
In this Friday, March 20, 2020 photo, Gana Gutierrez sits in an empty street in Barcelona, Spain. "It is as if there has been a nuclear explosion and they are all sheltering in the bunker. Only us, the homeless, are left out " explains 36-year-old Gana, who has lived on the street for more than 8 years and comments that the slogan. "quedateencasa" (Stayathome) is only for those who have a roof over their heads but not for them. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
In this Thursday, March 19, 2020 photo, a man from sub-Saharan Africa sleeps in an empty street in downtown Barcelona, Spain. Authorities are scrambling to get as many homeless people off the streets without cramming them into a group shelter, where the risk of getting infected with the virus could be even greater.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
In this Friday, March 20, 2020 photo, Nasir, 37, from Pakistan, sleeps in an empty street in Barcelona, Spain. Authorities are scrambling to get as many homeless people off the streets without cramming them into a shelter, where the spread of COVID-19 could be even greater. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
In this Friday, March 20, 2020 photo, Riccardo, 32, sits in empty arcades in downtown Barcelona, Spain. "I thought I had seen everything during all these years sleeping in the street, but no. This silence on the street all day scares me... more than the virus itself ..." says Riccardo, 32, who has been sleeping on the street for more than 10 years. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
In this Sunday, March 22, 2020 photo, a man covered with a blanket sleeps in an empty street in Barcelona, Spain. In Barcelona sleeping figures with boxes and blankets punctuate the mostly empty city. They are Barcelona's homeless, and there are about 1,000 of them. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
In this Saturday, March 21, 2020 photo, Jose sleeps in the street in downtown Barcelona, Spain. Jose, 27, has been sleeping in the street for 5 years and is convinced that the Spanish army will put all the beggars of the city in tents "I refuse! I am not going to be infested with the virus anywhere, I am safe here in the arcade". Authorities are scrambling to get as many homeless people off the streets without cramming them into a shelter, where the spread of COVID-19 could be even greater. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
In this Saturday, March 21, 2020 photo, a woman pushes a cart with her belongings as she walks along an empty street in downtown Barcelona, Spain. While Spanish authorities tell the public that staying home is the best way to beat the coronavirus pandemic, some people are staying out because home has come to mean the streets of Madrid and Barcelona. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — While Spanish authorities tell the public that staying home is the best way to beat the coronavirus pandemic, some people are staying out because home has come to mean the streets of Madrid and Barcelona.
Spain, which ranks fourth worldwide among the countries with the most virus cases, is under a government-imposed lockdown that has closed stores, emptied office buildings and left cities largely deserted, day and night.
In typically bustling Barcelona, figures with boxes and blankets, mattresses or tents, punctuate the eerie emptiness. The bare sidewalks and doorways of shuttered shops where they bed down during a national health emergency accentuate the isolation of the city's homeless population, of about 1,000.
“It is as if there has been a nuclear explosion and (people) are all sheltering in the bunker. Only us, the homeless, are left outside," says 36-year-old Gana, who has lived on the street for more than eight years and uses only one name.
He is taking advantage of the unprecedented absence of activity to make the doorstep of a designer furniture store, which has been closed for days, the place where he lies on a cardboard box covered by a single blanket for the night.
Many of the city's day centers for the homeless and soup kitchens have closed or reduced their hours during the lockdown.
"I thought I had seen everything in 12 years sleeping in the street, but no. This silence all day scares me ... more than the virus itself," says Riccardo, 32.
He shares, with four other homeless people of different nationalities, the floor of one of the wide shopping arcades that overlook Las Ramblas, the pedestrian avenue that is a Barcelona landmark. The only noise is from the motorcycles of municipal police.
Authorities are scrambling to get as many homeless people off the streets without cramming them into a group shelter, where the risk of getting infected with the virus could be even greater.
The sprawling IFEMA exhibition center in Madrid has been converted into a makeshift shelter with 150 beds. In Barcelona, an old school was turned into a temporary shelter for 56 people, and officials promise to make more beds available soon.
Those sleeping rough in Barcelona agree on one thing: panhandling for money or food is pointless now because there’s nobody around to give them anything.
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