Another Homeless Person Found Dead on the Streets of Badalona During Winter

The Spanish Mossos d'Esquadra police confirmed the death of a 57-year-old homeless man, whose body was found on Saturday around noon among cardboard boxes in the La Morera district of Badalona, a city in the Barcelona metropolitan region. Investigators, after a preliminary examination, ruled out the active involvement of third parties, finding no signs of violence or stab wounds on the body. Badalona, with about 220,000 inhabitants, is the fourth largest city in Catalonia. The problem of homelessness in the region, especially in the Barcelona metropolitan area, is chronic and intensifies in winter during cold waves coming from the Pyrenees. Local authorities have been struggling for years to provide a sufficient number of shelter places.This is the second such death in the city in just over a month. At the end of January, also during a cold wave, the body of another homeless man was found in a parking lot on Torres i Bages street. Both events highlight the dramatic situation of people without shelter during the winter period. These tragedies are becoming the backdrop for an escalating local political conflict. The opposition Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) accused Badalona's mayor, Xavier García Albiol of the conservative People's Party, of "sowing confusion" regarding the project to create a municipal shelter and soup kitchen. The socialists accuse the authorities of delays and a lack of concrete decisions that could have saved human lives in extreme weather conditions.„„Denunciamos las contradicciones del alcalde y reclamamos decisiones urgentes ante la situación de las personas sin hogar en la ciudad”” — Fernando Carrera. The municipal authorities did not directly comment on Saturday's incident, although the shelter issue has been the subject of heated debates in the city council for months. The police are conducting a standard procedure to determine the exact cause of death, which will most likely be established after an autopsy. The case has resonated widely in the local media, reminding people of the systemic problem of housing exclusion and the social responsibility of local authorities towards the most vulnerable citizens.