Homelessness in Girona

Girona is the only place in the Girona province with a year-round homeless shelter, which is called La Sopa. If you are homeless in Girona, go to La Sopa (Carrer Claveria 5, 17004, Girona). They will either offer you a bed or redirect you to services.

La Sopa

El Centre d’Acollida i Serveis Socials La Sopa or just La Sopa is homeless shelter near Girona Cathedral. La Sopa is the only year-round shelter in the Girona province. The centre offers beds, food, showers, and laundry.

How La Sopa works

People can stay for about a week. To stay longer, they must have a work or recovery plan (for example, to get their NIE, work permit, or housing). If they don’t have a plan, they can’t stay indefinitely, because the goal is rehabilitation and reintegration, not permanent housing.

It’s not just a place to sleep. There are also day services (meals, showers, laundry, lockers). Those who don’t stay overnight can still use the day services.

Staff also work with residents on mental health, addiction, and relationship issues.

Services at La Sopa

• La Sopa provides meals, showers, laundry, and mail collection for anyone who doesn't have a home. This not only includes people living on the street, but also people staying with friends or renting rooms short-term.
• Centre de dia (day center): Social support, hygiene facilities, meals, and laundry services.
• Allotjament nocturn (night shelter): Has 16 beds
• El centre residencial (The Temporary Residential Service): 50 places for people committed to a personal improvement and recovery plan.
• Els pisos d’inclusió (Inclusion Apartments): For people who need stable housing to develop daily habits and regain stability. At present, these flats mostly accommodate people whose financial situation prevents them from accessing the regular housing market and who are waiting for some form of public assistance. There are 6 flats with a total of 20 places.
• Projecte Housing First – Primer la Llar: Five individual flats providing stable, permanent housing for people with long-term experiences of homelessness.
• El Club is an afternoon social space at the Centre de Dia La Sopa, open Monday to Thursday from 5–7 p.m. It’s run by the non-profit Traçant Camins. Around 30–35 people attend daily, most of them men experiencing homelessness. Volunteers and University of Girona students help run activities. Both homeless people and housed residents are welcome. The aim is to build relationships, reduce isolation, and create a sense of community. Participants share conversation, leisure activities, and craft workshops.

Contact details

• Phone: 972 204 250
• Website: www.girona.cat/lasopa
• Email: centreacolliment@ajgirona.cat
• Address: Carrer Claveria 5, 17004, Girona
• Opening times: 8 AM to 1 PM, Monday to Friday

Pla de Fred

The Pla de Fred (“Cold Weather Plan”) is a winter emergency shelter in Girona's Barri Vell. It operates from December to April, from 8:30 PM to 8 AM. Its purpose is to prevent deaths from cold exposure during the winter months. The shelter has 48 beds, and offers a warm place to sleep, laundry for bedding, hot soup and drinks at night, and light breakfast in the morning.

The Pla de Fred is not open to everyone. Most places are assigned only through a referral from La Sopa, which evaluates each case individually. The Sopa prioritizes people who have lived on the street in Girona for a long time, are older (over 40 years old) and have significant health problems. These are the individuals at highest risk of dying from cold exposure. Therefore, newcomers to Girona are unlikely to receive a place at the Pla de Fred, even if they have nowhere to sleep. However, elderly people, women, people with disabilities, and gender-diverse individuals may enter directly if there is space available.

The Pla de Fred began operating around 2018–2019. It is located in the former UNED building (Universitat Nacional de Educación a Distancia).

Carrer Sant Josep, 14.

Youth homelessness team

Girona has a youth homelessness team (for ages 18–25) run by the city.

They provide:

• Basic meals (only about 15 seats)
• Social work support and health follow-up
• Help paying rent for rooms (about 30 places funded by the Generalitat)
• Support for up to 1–2 years with social worker supervision.

Homelessness counts

Girona does a homeless count every few years to track trends. However, numbers are always underestimates. Some are sleeping on friends’ sofas. Women especially tend to stay invisible for safety.

Year	Total homeless	Men	Women	Source
2016	60	57	3	Informe Sensellarisme Girona
2022	86	82	4	Informe Sensellarisme Girona Also see bisbatgirona.cat
2024	111	–	–	Information still unpublished

Homeless people in Girona

• Since 2025, there have been a group of around 20 young Black men from Mali living in Parc Central, near the train station. These are asylum seekers, staying in the park temporarily while waiting for political asylum paperwork. The individuals change, but there’s always a group there. Their visibility in Girona has made homelessness seem more widespread, and has caused the creation of outraged anti-immigrant Instagram accounts like @girona_perduda. For more reading see https://www.diaridegirona.cat/societat/2025/07/20/els-migrants-acampats-comencen-abandonar-119866378.html
• Okupas (squatters) are people who illegally occupy empty apartments.

Many of young homeless people work informally for apps like Glovo or Uber Eats, even without work permits.

According to Raquel Rico Marin, coordinator of the Pla de Fred homeless shelter, most people on the street are not dangerous. Perhaps 2% could be aggressive due to mental illness, but violence is rare. “They’re more afraid of you than you are of them, she said, in 2025.”

Some homeless people refuse to use Girona's homeless shelters, not because they want to be homeless, but because the shelters are restrictive (they don’t allow smoking, alcohol, or drugs) and can sometimes be crowded.

Other organisations that help homeless people in Girona

• Trobades amb sostre (literally “Meetings with a roof”) offers a drop-in space in Girona on mornings and some afternoons. People can rest, charge phones, get coffee, small snacks, and warmth. No names required; it’s a low-barrier space for anyone. They try to organize activities, but the language barrier (Arabic, French, etc.) makes it difficult.

• Càritas Diocesana de Girona helps with homelessness.
  • Caritas Girona has the Caldes de Malavella centre, which can house up to 20 young people permanently.
  • Another Caritas intiative is Som Refugi (We Are Refuge), which helps young migrants who have no family support, no housing, and little education or work experience. Website: https://www.caritasgirona.cat
  • La Càritas Jove (a group of young people that are part of Càritas Diocesana de Girona)
• L’Associació Traçant Camins
• Creu Roja
• Pan i Caldo

History of homeless in Girona

Homelessness (sensellarisme) in Girona has been growing steadily since the 2008 economic crisis, with a sharp rise since around 2021/2022. By 2025, small encampments of homeless immigrants began appearing in Parc Central, causing the creation of angry anti-immigrant Instagram accounts like @girona_perduda. Some people without housing have begun sleeping in doorways or near closed shops.

Adding to the appearance that Girona's homeless population is rising rapidly, around 40 to 60 homeless people were displaced from abandoned industrial buildings (naus abandonades) on the south end of Carretera Barcelona in summer 2025. They were using these buildings as homes, but the buildings were demolished for safety reasons (asbestos, collapse risk).

The Girona community traditionally has a history of looking after homeless people. Neighbours often look after homeless individuals near their buildings by bringing food, blankets, or calling services if they’re unwell. People often say, "In Girona, no one goes hungry" because someone always goes into the supermarket to buy food for homeless people.

How to help homeless people in Girona

• Volunteering
  • The Red Cross sends people around Girona a few times a week to distribute food. Sometimes they don't have enough volunteers to do this.
• Donating clothes to El Rober de Càritas at Carrer de Campcardós, 3, 17006 Girona (especially underwear and socks) Instead of donating money (because you don't know what the money will be used for) buy underwear and socks in different sizes and donate it to the Rober at Caritas. We don't know for sure, but clothing donations may be only accepted on Monday afternoons.
  • High priority: Underwear and socks
  • Medium priority: Coats, blankets, and backpacks
  • Low priorty: Other clothing

Other

• Girona’s small size helps, because all organizations know each other: La Sopa, Red Cross, police, health services, addiction centre (CAS), etc. They hold coordination meetings every two months (around 20 professionals and volunteers) to discuss who’s on the streets, new cases, and follow-ups. Caritas and other groups also help, some through volunteer food distribution or legal advice.
• An article from 2017 says that a building in Girona called Sarraïnes was being used a homeless shelter with 17 beds
• During 2020 and 2021, Girona's Palau de Fires was used as a temporary homeless shelter, helping 179 people over 196 days. The facility was opened in October 2020 as part of the city’s COVID-19 response, providing a safe place during lockdowns. Up to 65 people stayed there at once. City councillor Núria Pi called the project a success, but stressed that Girona cannot manage homelessness alone and urged other towns in the province to open their own facilities.
• Every year at the end of October, Càritas Diocesana de Girona, el Centre d’Acollida i Serveis Socials La Sopa, i l’Associació Traçant Camins run a campaign called la Campanya de persones Sense Llar
• Notably missing from Girona is a year-round shelter that doesn't require strict rehabilitation plans.