Barcelona shelter gives homeless, drug addicts a second chance
Barcelona, Jan 18 (EFE).- A shelter for homeless people and drug addicts in Barcelona has given Rosa Maria a second chance.
“This center has given me my life back,” she tells Efe.
Rosa Maria was living in her car before she was sent to the shelter run by the Pere Tarrés Foundation by her psychiatrist.
She weighed less than 40 kilos and had lost contact with her entire family.
Since living at the shelter, she has gained her life back and fixed her relationship with her family and daughter.
Rosa Maria is one of the over 200 drug addicts the shelter has welcomed since opening its doors one and a half year ago, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pioneering shelter is the first in Spain to welcome drug addicts as well as homeless people.
“We hope that this initiative helps to break the stigma around drug addicts and dignifies them,” head of the drug prevention service at the public health agency in Barcelona, Montse Bartroli, tells Efe.
“Being a drug addict should not exclude basic human rights,” Ester Aranda, from the drugs and welfare development association, says.
The center not only gives shelter to the vulnerable, but works to help the rehabilitation and re-integration of addicts into society.
Some 30,000 people live on the streets across Spain. EFE
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