22.8% of Canary households with a minor are in a situation of exclusion, a figure that rises to 38.4% in households with two or more minors, to 42.3% in single-parent families, and to 46.1% among households with five or more members, according to data from the latest report by the FOESSA foundation, promoted by this NGO.
The general secretary of Cáritas Diocesana de Tenerife, Ricardo Iglesias, announced these data to the Study Commission on Child Poverty of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, where he detailed that this NGO of the Catholic Church assisted 12,466 people in the diocese in 2025, including 2,250 minors.
The housing crisis generates "insecurity, fear, and lack of safe spaces"
Through the Base 25 project, aimed at preventing homelessness and financed by the Cabildo de Tenerife, Cáritas has also worked with families in which there were 527 minors and who were at risk of losing their habitual residence.
Cáritas also assisted, through its mobile units, 73 minors in Tenerife and 41 in La Palma in situations of extreme residential exclusion.
Iglesias has placed housing as "the core of family development" and has denounced that housing problems affect one in every three people in the Canary Islands.
Residential problems generate insecurity, fear, and lack of routines and safe spaces for minors, in addition to causing situations of family tension, mental health problems, and violence.
The general secretary of Cáritas has defended that economic responses must be complemented by social support and has given Base 25 as an example, where social workers and lawyers intervene with families to prevent the loss of housing, facilitate procedures, mediate with landlords, and, when necessary, provide financial support.
Among the proposals put forward, Iglesias has defended the need to streamline and simplify social service procedures to facilitate access to benefits for people in situations of exclusion.
In this regard, he has highlighted the difficulties related to registration, which is a "gateway" to rights and benefits but is hindered by the conditions and procedures used by some town councils.
He has also denounced that families who continuously change housing face new administrative, health, and social difficulties.
Iglesias has warned about the chronic nature of poverty and has pointed out that, although benefits such as the minimum vital income have improved the economic situation of many families, they have not resolved the housing problem.
As he explained, the FOESSA Foundation report reflects a positive evolution in other economic indicators, but a worsening of the one related to utilities and housing needs.
Therefore, he has advocated for expanding the public housing stock for rent and facilitating access to it through vulnerability criteria.
Cáritas has also called for simplifying access procedures to benefits and developing the Social Services Law so that the catalog of social services is complied with, as well as improving coordination between administrations and social entities.
Iglesias has advocated for more stable funding for third-sector entities, considering that delays in calls for proposals and the conditions of subsidies can jeopardize the continuity of some projects.
The third sector should not be considered solely for the provision of services, but also for its capacity to generate community networks that allow the integration of people in situations of exclusion.
The Cáritas representative has called for anti-poverty policies to incorporate civil society and has advocated for prolonged support processes to prevent people from formally leaving a resource without having a social network that allows them to maintain their inclusion.
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