| Welcome to the weekend issue of Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union. Join us on Saturdays for deeper dives from our bureaus across Europe. MADRID — From dusk till dawn, the halls of the modern Terminal 4 at the Spanish capital’s Barajas airport are filled with long rows of people lying on the floor, trying to get some sleep. Some have blankets, others sleeping bags — or no cover at all. Many carry bags or suitcases with their belongings, heading to toilets along the hallways to wash. But they aren’t travelers — it’s a growing group of homeless people who have taken shelter at a major European hub for international flights. The situation has sparked a public crisis, with officials trading barbs over whose responsibility it is to handle it. It highlights the challenges that the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez faces to contain a brewing housing crisis.  Several hundred homeless people live and sleep in the facilities of the Adolfo Suarez-Madrid Barajas Airport. Photographer: Europa Press News/Europa Press Spain’s airport operator Aena, majority-owned by the government, estimates that there are around 400 people living in the terminal. Its head, Maurici Lucena, and Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida recently agreed to mandate a non-profit organization do obtain more precise numbers and information on who the homeless are. Part of the difficulty to resolve the crisis lies in politics. Almeida, a member of Spain’s largest opposition group, says that the airport is under the purview of the Socialist central government. The national administration argues Barajas is in Madrid and therefore it’s on Almeida to deal with it. Lucena is a former Socialist government official and a political appointee. Aena has warned that the presence of the homeless at the airport is a security and health hazard, stressing that there have been fights and employees feel unsafe. It recently proposed restricting access to the airport at night, but the initiative was met with widespread controversy. More broadly, Spain’s housing woes were triggered by a combination of factors, including a lengthy permit process, a scarcity of new land available for construction and a large influx of migrants. In the capital, the price surge is compounded by the arrival of wealthy foreign investors, mainly from Latin America, who have sparked a boom in demand for high-end property. The problem that has been pushing local residents to the streets in protest is now on display on arrival for tourists flocking into country. — Rodrigo Orihuela, Madrid Bureau Chief | 
