Survival mode

The ‘golden billion’ countries are clearing their cities of the homeless

The fairy tale of a beautiful life in the West is eagerly promoted by cinema showing the audience a polished image of towering skyscrapers, cosy private homes, and luxurious cars. However, if you look at the truthful reviews, you will see vast armies of homeless people in almost every city.

Dreaming of home

Poland’s daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza has recently reported that the number of homeless individuals in Warsaw has significantly increased. In just a few months, the number of people in the Polish capital seeking free hot meals has risen by 100 percent. Thus, queues for food distributed at the central train station are getting longer. Recently, a fight broke out there, resulting in a death. The authors of the newspaper’s article have noted that the homeless occupy benches in the centre of Warsaw and at bus stops, and can be seen lying in the metro, and sleeping in parks on the lawns. “There is always a homeless person almost at every stop. I have not seen this in the centre for a long time,” commented a Warsaw resident to the publication.
The Polish authorities intend to replace benches in the metro to make them impossible to sleep on — this is how our neighbour tackles the problem of the growing number of homeless people.
The Guardian notes that nearly one million Europeans are forced to sleep on the streets every night.
According to Eurostat — the official statistical office of the European Union — 22 percent of EU residents are at risk of poverty. The majority of them are victims of the economic crisis who have lost their income and housing in recent years. Moreover, the number of homeless individuals has increased even in countries like Germany and France, as energy and food have become unaffordable for many citizens in light of recent inflation.

Street nomads  

According to a news portal, the number of homeless people in European countries has significantly increased over the last 10 years, reaching critical levels in some capitals.  

France tops the list, with the total number of rough sleepers estimated at around 333,000 people, followed by the United Kingdom with 309,000 and Germany with 263,000 street persons.  

Instead of addressing the plight of these people in a civilised fashion — providing social housing, assisting with employment, social rehabilitation, or even placing children in nurseries and schools — the Paris authorities cleared the city of homeless people ahead of the Olympic Games. As reported by The New York Times, thousands of vagrants were simply removed to other areas, where they found themselves on the streets again — no hot meals, no tents, and no work.  
Bild labelled this situation ‘the shame of the Olympics’, yet, more accurately, it is the shame on those EU bureaucrats who flaunt democratic principles at every turn while sacrificing their own citizens. Despite the fact that homeless individuals constitute a significant portion of European society, they are barred from voting in elections.  
Information web portals have pointed out that the European Parliament has been urged to reconsider the necessity of confirming one’s residence address as a condition for voting. After all, this issue affects not only ‘street citizens’ but also those who have fallen into difficult life situations — for instance, if an individual has been evicted for non-payment and is forced to live with friends or relatives. This is a common situation across Europe. Former Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme highlighted, “At the moment where Europe is putting hundreds of billions of euros on the table to reboost the economy, we think that a tiny little bit of that money should also be used to address homelessness, to make our societies more inclusive.”  
Furthermore, the West is spending staggering amounts of money on further fuelling the conflict in Ukraine. Sure enough, if used to deal with the problem of homelessness, all the beggars could have become billionaires!

What Hollywood won’t tell you 

In recent years, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the USA has risen dramatically. 

The Wall Street Journal revealed that in 2023, the number of such individuals in the USA reached a record level of 577,000. The recent Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) released by the US Housing and Urban Development Office (HUD) listed over 650,000 individuals having no permanent shelter. These are only the official figures! 

According to unofficial estimates, there are around four million rough sleepers in the US today. The authors have emphasised that people are not only fighting for survival but are also facing an increased risk of criminal prosecution.  
It is clear that homelessness is not a new issue for America. The current surge has been driven by the coronavirus pandemic, rising inflation, and drug addiction. The US authorities have decided to solve this problem in a radical way. 
The New York Times has reported that at the end of July this year, the US Supreme Court allowed states to intensify their efforts against homeless people. Following this, a massive campaign to clear the streets was launched in San Francisco and throughout California. 
The plan is simple and focuses on forcibly removing large homeless encampments from urban areas and relocating them further away. In case unfortunate individuals resist, law enforcement officials have the right to arrest them and place in detention facilities.

Victims of democracy  

In Los Angeles, the homeless have set up encampments along the beach while in San Francisco, they simply move from neighbourhood to neighbourhood in fear of police raids. The city mayor commented on the aggressive crackdown on encampments to a local news outlet, “The homeless have only one choice left: accept help or get out.”
Speaking of help, authorities in other states have already outlined plans to build shelters for the homeless. However, not all Americans are fond of this idea. 

Thus, in Brooklyn, around 200 protesters gathered outside the construction site of a proposed shelter to voice their concerns. The signs they were holding read: ‘Homeless shelters can’t really help the homeless. New York City spends billions with no results.’  

“We got thousands of signatures that we gave to the city to stop the homeless shelter from being built, but it had no effect,” 19-year-old Tony Yang told The New York Post. Clearly, the city’s residents fear that the shelter will become not a cosy home for those in need, but merely a large den for drug addicts and alcoholics.   
Crime among the homeless is indeed thriving. At the same time, it is worth thinking about the reasons why the people ended up being homeless, why they are forced to live on the streets, and if the government and society are doing enough to address this issue.

By Yulia Demeshko