Wendy WilliamsVOLUNTEERS at a new homeless shelter are furious after it was shut down following complaints from a nearby school.
The drop in shelter opened last month in La Linea gave rough sleepers a bed for the night.
But the Junta – which owns the building – has now closed it down because it was unauthorized.
Mary Finlay, 59, who has been taking soup to the town’s homeless for the last four months, is indignant about the whole situation.
“To have a bed for the night was a wonderful thing after sleeping rough for months,” she said. “Now that has been taken away.”
The building was formerly used by nuns to look after Moroccans who arrived in Spain by illegal boats, known as ‘pateras’.
This article saddens me, as a regular holiday visitor to Spain, it’s the first time I have seen quite a number people begging.
I suppose with the economic crises the way things are at the moment it should not be that surprising. But after seeing it at first hand experience, we were concerned for the well being of some of the people we came across. Only by going out & about on our holiday, we didn’t go out of our way to find these people.
The one incident that sticks in my mind was a young German lad about my eldest sons age 28-29 begging in the car park of the Euroski complex in Fuengirola, he said he had lost his job he was to ashamed to go home to his parents, and he said he could speak 4 languages, he was a car mechanic,
but nobody wanted him. He had tried to do odd jobs and people told him to go away. He said to us that he would rather beg than steal! We believed him. what would you do ? We gave him 2 euros, he said thank you and that he would get something to eat with that money, we felt we would have liked to have been able to do something about his situation hoping there was some organisation that would help. Somebody we could contact when we arrived home from Spain.
Is there any help for people in this kind of situation.
Rotary Marbella-Guadalmina collect and assist with food and funds for charities assisting with distribution to homeless and families in need in Marbella area. There are many.
“http://www.rotaryclub-marbella-g.org”
Professional beggars from Romania and Germany give begging a bad name. Look outside so many Marbella and Estepona supermarkets.