The Escola Pompeu Fabra in Reus has already distributed a protocol among its teaching staff to detect and support cases of eviction, substandard housing, or residential insecurity affecting students. The initiative is part of a proposal promoted in the Camp de Tarragona by the platform Comunitat Educativa 43 per un Habitatge Digne.
The step comes with an underlying idea that the platform places at the center of school debate. Teachers can demand more resources or more staff, but the collective maintains that learning and equal opportunities are compromised when a student does not have stable housing or even a space to study.
The school receives guidelines to act in cases of evictions and abusive rent increases
The manual sets out specific actions for situations of imminent eviction, termination of rental contracts, abusive price increases, energy poverty, or substandard housing. The document starts from the principle that without residential stability, there is no learning under equal conditions.
Furthermore, the protocol indicates that schools should not limit their response to referring cases to social services. The platform considers this step necessary but insufficient, and proposes broader intervention within the educational community.
Among the planned measures is that school faculties and councils can take a stance on these cases and coordinate with housing rights organizations when a student faces eviction. Along the same lines, the text recommends certifying the family's vulnerability and the impact of the process on minors during negotiations with banks or investment funds.
"Among other issues, we recall that a family is not obliged to leave the apartment immediately when the rental contract ends, and we recommend resorting to housing unions to try to negotiate extensions, social rents, or possible contractual irregularities" - Helena Arévalo, spokesperson for Comunitat Educativa 43 per un Habitatge Digne and member of the AFA of Escola Pompeu Fabra
The initiative was initially promoted by the educational unions USTEC and CGT together with the housing unions of Reus and Tarragona. The objective is for schools to have common criteria to detect warning signs and know how to act before the problem leads to school dropout.
Helena Arévalo describes cases of four children in one room
Helena Arévalo, spokesperson for the platform and member of the school's AFA, links the protocol to situations that are already emerging in classrooms. She explains that there are children with emotional distress from living in substandard housing and families with four children in a single room.
"We encounter children with emotional distress due to substandard housing situations, families with four children living in one room, or even the situation of finding out that a student's family has an eviction scheduled because the child had changed their behavior" - Helena Arévalo, spokesperson for the Comunitat Educativa 43 per un Habitatge Digne and member of the AFA of Escola Pompeu Fabra
The platform also warns that there are evictions that are not communicated to the school due to families' fear. This lack of information makes it difficult for the school to activate support in time and makes the direct effect of the housing crisis in classrooms less visible.
In this diagnosis, the group includes migrant families who, despite having jobs and income, cannot even access a room for rent. The platform links this lack of basic conditions to problems with school performance and emotional health among minors.
Arévalo summarizes the scope of the problem with a specific warning about educational continuity. "If they have to constantly change schools, what is achieved only within the classroom is of little use," she states, after asserting that the effects of an eviction on a minor can be devastating.