On Mallorca’s Streets: Over 800 People Living Without a Home

The number of people without a fixed home on Mallorca continues to rise. Families, pensioners, and workers are finding hardly any affordable housing—aid organizations are sounding the alarm.

More People, Less Protection: The Situation on Mallorca's Streets

On a cool morning around 7 a.m., when bakeries in Palma are just opening and the scent of freshly baked bread wafts through the alleys, you see them more often: people who do not have a key to a home. Recently, there are significantly more than a year ago. Aid organizations now count over 800 people who sleep regularly outdoors or in emergency shelters.

Who is affected?

It's not only unemployed people. Among those affected are couples with small children, single seniors, and even people who have a job but do not earn enough to pay rising rents. Some have only a small pension; others work in seasonal jobs in hotels or as service staff.

“It's not the old idea of homelessness anymore,” a worker at a soup kitchen near Paseo Marítimo told me. “Many have lost out because apartments are scarce and expensive. Some sleep at friends' homes, others on park benches.”

Why is the number rising?

The causes are multifaceted: scarce housing, high rents, lack of social housing and bureaucratic hurdles in accessing aid. Local aid organizations therefore demand not only short-term emergency relief but structural solutions – for example more affordable housing, simpler application processes for support, and coordinated counseling centers.

Political talks are ongoing, but on the streets that changes little. In S’Escorxador, at the market in a small district and in front of supermarkets in the city center you see sleeping bags or makeshift tents more often. For those affected every rainy day is a risk.

What helps now?

Practically, welfare associations work with warming rooms, meal distributions and legal advice. Volunteers collect blankets, cooking facilities are improvised. But the helpers say openly: without administrative intervention and long-term housing projects the problem remains acute.

If you want to help: small donations, volunteer time or tips about vacant apartments can relieve pressure immediately. And if you notice someone in the neighborhood, you should inform local counseling centers – often a single call is enough to open paths off the streets.

The numbers are more than statistics. They are people who tomorrow must find somewhere to stay again. And this at a time when Mallorca is brimming with life—but there is not enough space for everyone who wants to stay here.