Socio-Demographic Characteristics, Living Conditions, and Needs of Homeless People in Moscow

Abstract

In many developed countries, the problem of homelessness has firmly entered the main political agenda over the past decades as a serious challenge to the well-being of the population. This is reflected in strategic documents and legislation. In Russia, unfortunately, support for homeless people does not yet have the necessary systemic character. In addition, there is virtually no official data on homeless people, with the exception of statistics that are collected at the level of specialized state institutions and that are not publicly available and are not combined into any common database. This study is based on the results of a survey conducted in 2019 in Moscow, a region with — supposedly — the highest level of homelessness. The authors surveyed 297 homeless people — residents of social centers and visitors to day centers and food distribution points. Based on approaches that recognize homelessness as a result of the influence of both structural and individual factors, the article presents an analysis of socio-demographic characteristics, living conditions, the needs of people in a situation of homelessness, depending on the place of birth, the reasons for getting into the street, the length of stay there, and maintaining contact with relatives. The survey showed that for those born in Moscow, the first experience of homelessness usually turns out to be long, and for those born in other regions, these are more often temporary difficulties, but the situation tends to repeat itself. Only a third of the respondents do not have registration at their place of residence, and there is a clear increase in the proportion of such people as the experience of homelessness increases. About half of the respondents regularly spend the night directly on the street, among other places of overnight stays the most common are railway stations, entrances, electric trains, airports, less often shelters, work houses and apartments of acquaintances and relatives. Despite the fact that many of the respondents have experience of seeking help from to state and non-profit organizations, the assistance received there is far from fully meeting the needs of people who find themselves on the street. All this stresses the importance to develop both state social policy and the activities of non-governmental organizations that help homeless people.

Acknowledgements. The work uses the results of the project «Social Information Center for People in a Homeless Situation» carried out in 2019 by the Caritas of Mother of God Archdiocese of Moscow. The article was prepared as part of the research work — the state assignment of the RANEPA and the research work of the Moscow State Pedagogical University.