Students to honour homeless who died in Barcelona

Memorial gardens to mark 10 years of remembrance

The Arrels Foundation is marking its 10th anniversary by launching 'Flors en memòria' (Flowers in memory), a citywide initiative to honour homeless people who have died in public spaces in Barcelona. From Monday 19 October to Sunday 25 October 2026, commemorative gardens will be set up in ten districts across the city, each featuring a plaque inscribed with the names of those who have died while living on the streets. At 10:30 AM on Tuesday 20 October, students from the Virolai school in Gràcia will install a memorial garden at the entrance to Creueta del Coll park on Passeig de Mare de Déu del Coll. The space will be adorned with handmade white roses and a plaque listing the names of homeless individuals who have died in the area in recent years.

Highlighting a decade of loss and hardship

Since 2016, Arrels Foundation has recorded the deaths of 700 homeless people in Barcelona. The foundation says the memorial gardens aim to ensure these lives and deaths are not forgotten, while also drawing attention to the dangers faced by people living on the streets, including exposure to violence, extreme weather, and illness. In 2025, 67 people were recorded sleeping rough in the Gràcia district alone.

These gardens are a way to bring visibility to those society often ignores, people who die without a home, without a voice, and too often, without being remembered.

Further events will mark the anniversary on Thursday 28 October. At 10:00 AM, a conference titled 'Viure al carrer mata' (Living on the street kills) will be held at the Col·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya (COAC), presenting an official report on homeless deaths in Barcelona between 2015 and 2025. Later that day, at 6:00 PM, a public ceremony will take place in Plaça Nova, in front of Barcelona Cathedral, with the participation of around twenty social organisations. The evening will include the inauguration of a photographic exhibition, 'Acompanyar fins al final' (Accompanying to the end), also at COAC, documenting the foundation’s work supporting homeless people through illness and death.

Reported by arrelsfundacio.org, independent.cat.