Homelessness: Concept and approach from the perspective of social workers in Mallorca

Abstract

Actually, it is difficult to take a picture of current poverty and exclusion, keep it in my mind that changes quickly. However, the context of the economic crisis that began in 2008, accompanied by austerity polices, have created the right conditions for the increase of poverty and social exclusion in one of its harshest forms, residential exclusion. Despite that homelessness is considered as one of the extreme exclusion situations, it has not been considered as a specific problem (institutional, structural, personal and human relationships). The increase in the last years of homeless people has captured all political program attention and because every time is more difficult to ignore the situation, this investigation intends to understand and draw conclusions allow analyse the problems and proposals suggested by the social workers who work with the collective. For this, a research is carried out, through a qualitative survey (Jansen, 2012) to 27 social workers of the municipal services (16) and trade sector entities (11), with two clear objectives: to know and realize a diagnosis (describing and defining the problem) and a prediction (solutions and barriers) of the homelessness situation in Majorca.