Social Sciences
Pandemic leaves families into the streets of Sao Paulo and increases profile changes of homeless population
Uneven GDP growth and high unemployment leave behind the most vulnerable. Formed mainly by single men, homeless population has increased with couples, single women and children.
Originally written in Portuguese by Felipe Betim, El País Brasil, 03 June 2021, 18:09
Sao Paulo — In Brazil’s wealthiest city, more than 20,000 people are living in the streets. A crisis that has worsened even more during the coronavirus pandemic, and one that has been leaving entire families into homelessness. In the background of this crisis are: Maxwell Oliveira and Veronica Aparecida Medeiros, 36 and 33 years old, with their children Pablo and Brenei, 10 and 8. They had to leave their home at the end of last year. “Because of the pandemic, I lost my job on December 7. I was working as a full-time attendant at Burger King for the past three years,” said Maxwell. His wife was working as a company cleaner and was also made redundant around the same time.
What happened to both is an example of what implies Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) released this Tuesday: even with 1.2% growth in the first trimester this year, the economic recovery occurs at an uneven pace — services sector increased 0.4% based on household consumption decline, and in the same period, unemployment increased and already has affected 14.8 million people. For economists, lack of effective actions such as mass vaccinations bring darker days ahead.
It’s Tuesday, May 4 midday. The family are queuing with 500 others waiting for a meal donation. Same time every day, they go to the NGO State Movement of Homelessness Population [ONG Movimento Estadual da População em Situação de Rua], a few blocks away from the town hall, in the search for a meal. When employed, Maxwell and Veronica received together around 2,500 reals per month.
It is not a lot for an expensive city like Sao Paulo, but it was enough to pay 800 reals rent for a two-bedroom house in Belem neighbourhood, capital east side. “We had everything. But when we lost our jobs, we didn’t have conditions to pay the rent and we ended up in the streets. Fortunately, we were accepted in a shelter,” he said.
The family routine has completely changed since they became homeless. The adults almost always with their children, hand over curriculum vitae around companies and businesses with hope to get a job. “I’m used to work…I have always worked, and this situation is very difficult for us. It’s very hard,” said Maxwell. The breakfast is served at the town hall shelter, but they are always seeking donations for the other meals.
Their children are studying at municipal schools in Santa Cecilia and Bela Vista, but restrictions of movement affected school routine, leisure and experiences with other children, as well as the work flexibility of their parents. They can even stay at the shelter all day, but after certain hours they can’t leave the place. “I think about the children, they have a lot of energy, and they can’t study…,” said Maxwell. The family said to be in contact with teachers. A mobile phone is the tool that allows the children to follow classes virtually. “But we don’t always have credit, so it’s difficult,” said Veronica.
Formed in majority by single men, Sao Paulo’s homeless population is now seeing a demographic change that increased during the health crisis. Nowadays, entire families, including women who are also single mothers, are inflating this contingence. As in the case of 33-year-old Monica da Silva. She returned to her mother’s home after her divorce, and had to deal with family conflicts. Over a year ago, she left it all behind and went to the streets in full pandemic with her daughters — Maria Eduarda (12), Julia (8), and Alana (2).
They moved to Praça da Sé where there are dozens of others homeless. “Being a single mother is to be father and mother at the same time. You can even earn a minimum salary, but then you have to pay rent, food, clothing, shoes…and you also have to pay for someone else to look after your children while you’re at work, because no one does it for free,” she said. Class-based school disruptions did not make her flexible either, but her older girls are enrolled in a school in Bela Vista with scarce conditions to follow virtual classes.
Monica and her husband when married were earning around 3,000 reals per month. She did cleaning services, even worked on the books. She lived in a three-bedroom house in Belem. Now, divorced, quarrelled with her family, and with jobs even scarcer. She collects cans and plastic bottles to sell in a recycling centre, and that way she can earn up to 400 reals per month — her ex-husbands: they haven’t been paying child pension for a long time, way before the pandemic.
“Normally there are more ways to make money. You do some cleaning here, sell a lolly there. But now there aren’t many ways to earn money,” she said, while breastfeeding her youngest child. “I wish to build a scrap metal yard, but financial limitations don’t allow me. Chances are dim as I did not finish my studies.”
Limited data and without a recent study of Sao Paulo’s homeless population, the last census was from 2019, when it was recorded 24,344 people living in this condition. The Municipal Department of Development and Social Assistance [A Secretaria Municipal de Assistência e Desenvolvimento Social] confirmed to El Pais that the next census should take place only in the second semester of 2023.
This increasingly contingent population is visible to the eyes of those walking around the city. “It is likely to register more than 30,000 people. The pandemic worsened, but even without it, this population was already increasing,” said Juliana Reimberg, master’s student of political science at the University of Sao Paulo (USP), researcher at the Centre of Metropolis Studies [Centro de Estudos da Metrópole (CEM-USP)], specialising in homeless policies.
The only national census was carried out by the Institute of Applied Economic Research [Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA)], and it is estimated in September 2012 that there were more than 92,000 people living in the streets throughout the country. Early in the pandemic, March 2020, it was more than 221,000 in these conditions.
More than half of the homeless people in Sao Paulo are sheltered at home provided by the town hall, as Maxwell and Veronica. In other cases, as Vanessa Ferreira and her three daughters, the solution is to live inside a camping tent under a bridge — in the avenue Cruzeiro do Sul [Southern Cross] near Santana train station, in the north region.
They are homeless since 2019 when the slum where they lived, Zaki Narchi, in the neighbourhood of Carandiru, burnt down. They are living in the streets since. “I still haven’t got money to build my tent,” said Vanessa, who does odd jobs as a salesperson. But the pandemic crisis also made her life even more difficult and delayed her return to the slums. “If there was a soccer game, I used to sell water. It was impossible not to make money,” she said. “I would earn around 3,000 reals per month. And as we didn’t pay any rent, we lived well, honestly. Now there is no way to do anything”.
Poverty Increase
Data about this recent social mobility is also limited, but it shows that hunger and poverty returned to haunt millions of families in Brazil. According to FGV Social and studies from the National Research per Continuous Sample Household [Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios Contínua (PNAD)], the economy shutdown combined with a delay on the first emergency financial aid in December, valued at 600 reals, drove millions of Brazilians into poverty. In 2019, Brazil had around 24 million people, 11% of its population living in extreme poverty. This figure has increased to 35 million, 16% living with less than 246 reals per month.
The class C (with a household income from 2,004 reals, FGV Social) is being pushed to class D and E. The last one, by means, many times end up in the streets. “When this massive change happens, it is because family ties were already broken or things like drug abuse play a role. For women, many of them are victims of domestic violence,” said Reimberg.
Those circumstances are closely linked to class D and E. The class C for example, they were impacted by lack of employment, evictions and defaulting payments. “Yet, those people didn’t have their family ties broken: they will first ask for help in the family before turning to the state,” she said. The Chamber of Deputies just passed a bill prohibiting household evictions during the pandemic trying to minimise the problem.
“Many of the new residents were to lose their homes, but then the emergency financial aid came, and they could maintain themselves a little longer,” said Robson Mendonca, founder of the NGO State Movement of Homeless Population [Movimento Estadual da População de Rua]. His organisation assisted homeless people with personal documents, enrolment in courses, finding employment, and treatment of chemical dependence, as well as organising cultural events.
When those activities stopped, he started to donate lunchboxes. “Many residents were telling me that they haven’t eaten for two days. In the first day we gave away 20 meals, in the second 150. In the third 400,” he said. He was donating between 500 and 700 meals for lunch, Sunday to Sunday. From February 2020 to May 2021 were 15.000 meals and 460 consumer baskets¹.
“The homeless profile now is completely different. Education, manners, the way how they communicate,” said Kaka Ferreira, founder of the NGO Night Angels [Anjos Da Noite], which also donates food on Saturdays. “When people receive clothing or food, even how they treat is different. They are very sad people who are not used to live in the streets.”
Policy Challenges
For Reimberg, demographic changes of the homeless population introduce challenges for public policies. The traditional model, which is mostly catered to single men, is based on centred shelters. “Those services hold more than 100 people with bunk beds next to each other, and many are in warehouses”.
The challenge now is to accept and shelter people who were used to be autonomous and were pushed into homelessness because of evictions and economic context. “The traditional centres were designed for people who already broke family ties and were sleeping rough,” she explained.
Few shelters receive entire families. In male shelters, the hours are limited, and children cannot enter. In the female’s, children are accepted, but they cannot stay alone. “How a woman is going to look for a job?” said Reimberg. “We provide an assistance that is a byproduct of a patriarchal logic, where women need to look after the children, and men need to find a job.”
Veronica lives day-to-day with these challenges, even being in one of the shelters catered for families. “We need to be there by 8 p.m. There is a collective laundry and many rules. I need to regain my autonomy, but it is very hard because of the pandemic,” she said. Her husband, Maxwell, gives more details about the daily life in the shelter. “There are many drug users over there, so there is always a fight, a scene…the other day a young man wanted to touch a girl in the lift. What can I do with two children and unable to lock the door?” he said. He is reserved and tries to keep distance from those events. “I think about my wife when someone needs to change clothes. It’s an awkward situation. But thanks God, at least we’ve got this one.”
[Translator Notes] ¹cesta básica: consumer basket based on a monthly consumption of essential goods for a family of four, normally containing non-perishable food and hygiene products, with their prices monitored through the consumer price index.
