On March 31, a new report was published that collects the study on residential exclusion and gender violence in the Balearic Islands, carried out by the Social Observatory of the Balearic Islands of the University of the Balearic Islands (OSIB-UIB) and the Institute for Social Reinsertion Foundation (IRAS). This research, which has been funded by the Balearic Institute of Women and the Ministry of Equality, began in 2022, exploring, first, the professional voices of care in Mallorca and then, in 2023, collecting the story of women victims and residential exclusion on the island. Now the third installment has been published, from the professional teams to the rest of the Balearic territory, which is far from uniform. A fourth and final installment is expected in 2025, when the current phase of the research is finished, in which the women’s stories are also being collected from the rest of the islands and not only in Mallorca.
Despite the large deployment of resources in the attention to gender violence, there are women who do not access or do not remain in specialized resources, often receiving violence in the institutional response. Based on 42 interviews with professionals working in the field of residential exclusion and/or violence against women, and 19 interviews with women in a situation of residential exclusion, the reality and experiences are analyzed through their own narratives, which allows for a deeper and more authentic understanding of the complexities surrounding female residential exclusion and how to approach it through intervention.
Among the most noteworthy results, and which are linked to the RESCUPAN project, the dimension of care and gender roles are fundamental in the analysis. On the one hand, in the face of housing precariousness, women deploy a series of strategies, usually from the private sphere and on the margins, to avoid the street and emergency residential centers and shelters. Among these strategies, it is important to highlight the work as a live-in caretaker, because it ensures a roof over their heads, even if only for as long as the employment relationship is maintained, often without a contract and, therefore, without a book of exploitation and lack of rights and security, and involving exposure to violence. On the other hand, women are often responsible for the care of dependents (minor children, elderly and/or disabled people) and this hinders their access to housing, especially in the case of single-parent families, due to the refusal of many people to rent to single women. We must not forget, moreover, the difficulties of maintaining housing, whether rented or owned. Homelessness is incompatible with caring for dependents, which makes people accept totally precarious housing conditions before becoming homeless.
Therefore, institutional responses based on intersectionality are necessary in order to avoid making the reality of these women invisible and to be able to attend to them regardless of the axes of oppression that affect them.
For more information, do not hesitate to consult the report, which is available on the OSIB website, in the Publications – Other publications section or by clicking here.