One of the persistent and perennial problems experienced by the homeless remains the difficulty of keeping up appearances by accessing a place to clean themselves as well as a launderette to wash their clothes not to mention purchase them. Some people tend to myopically look down upon as well as assault people who wear old and outworn clothes or simply look differently. One of the main issues raised by charity groups in Russia is the fight to allow all homeless people access to decent showers and laundries so they can at least avoid poorer self-esteem. StreetSense explored this issue in Moscow.
'And who thinks of what it means not to be able to have a proper wash for days and weeks on end? One's skin becomes so stiff that it stops one from making any but rough movements, even supposing one wanted to be make gentle, loving ones - the living soul sets and hardens under such a crust. It may not affect the mind so much; one goes on doing what is necessary quite sensibly. The mind is quite likely to keep burning like a little lamp in a huge walking lighthouse that is full of crushed earthworms or grasshoppers - but everything personal in it is squashed, and what walks about is only the fermenting organic substance.' wrote the Austrian author Robert Musil in his epic novel 'The Man without Qualities,' about the plight of a homeless wandering carpenter.
Unfortunately, not everyone expresses empathy with how the homeless have a hard time finding a place to clean themselves. They tend to look down on the homeless and think that the reason for them being unclean and unkempt is due to them being wicked and even evil. The more common sense explanation that a homeless person can 't get access to a daily shower and laundry as well as affordable soap seems to escape their imagination. The overwhelming number of surveys about the homeless in America indicates that the vast majority of the homeless make an effort to observe the basic rules of hygiene.
But even if some people fail to clean and wash themselves and really give off a putrid odor, it does not follow they are beyond the pale or should be treated with scorn. It is clear that the reason for a person becoming so dirty is that he has fallen into complete self-negligence due to severe falling self-esteem. We need to help restore their self -esteem rather than condemn or overlook them.
It is no exaggeration to state that appearance can be treated as God in Russia. People put a much stronger emphasize on how presentable you are than in many other countries. Woe to the person who forgets to look great when they go on a date. When you go to work you can't help noticing how a lot of people seem concerned or over concerned about their appearance. I have often noticed people checking their tights to see if there is a speck of dirt on them or on their shoes.
I notice that school teachers who go to work in heavy boots immediately change them when they enter the staff room. They have an extra pair of clean shoes awaiting them in the staff room. It would not be right to be seen in school with dirty shoes or even an overcoat. You practically have a cult of the immaculate appearance in Russia. Anyone who walks about in patched up clothes or old shoes risks poisonous glances from people.
I heard that on one occasion a new teacher who arrived at a private school turned up with an unkempt appearance as his hair was unsettled and he lacked a suit. The head of staff ordered the teacher to be driven to a hairdresser for a haircut and they lent him a suit before he could even think about teaching. The headmistress understood that such a teacher might make a bad impression on the students and she might even lose some students.
Yet a lot of academics are so poorly paid at Moscow State University that they can't afford a decent suit. They go to university in shabby, patched, and worn out clothes. Kirill, one of my students, stated that "Lecturers are so low paid that sometimes you can't tell whether they are homeless or not".
However, it helps when you put things in a historical context. At the end of the Great Patriotic War in Russia 20 million people were left homeless. Many people then had no access to running water and struggled to keep themselves clean. The historian Orlando Figes writes that 'As late as the 1950's, there were still millions of people living in the ruins of buildings, in basements, sheds or dugouts in the ground ' {page 457, The Whisperers: Private life In Stalin's Russia, Orlando Figes, 2007, New York & London: Penguin Books}. In the town of Perm everyone was going around wearing patched up clothes and worn out shoes. In one situation a family might have one pair of shoes for three children so each child would take turns in going out to school!
Some people were so ashamed of their appearance they did not go out! They even refuse1d to go out to the theater because they felt they lacked the inappropriate clothes for the occasions!
So it is easy to see what a great disadvantage the homeless are when it comes to keeping up appearances. Not wearing smart enough clothes is almost a blasphemy. It is deemed worse than swearing, stealing or physically hitting someone.
The 2020 annual report by the charity Nochlezhka readily acknowledges how acute this problem is. They report:
'One of the main things people tend to hold against the homeless is that they smell bad and their clothes are dirty. But people rarely stop to think that the homeless simply have nowhere to wash their clothes. Not every launderette will let a homeless person in and , besides one needs to pay for it. But homeless people may not have enough money because they cannot find a job while they look this way. It's a catch 22 situation. Helping people clean themselves is one of the first steps to help them get off the streets.'
So where do the homeless go to clean themselves? They might drop into public toilets in the park where they are open, drop into McDonalds or some mall. They can often wander in at the earliest hours when few people are about. There are, in fact, a couple charities in Moscow which do provide free showers and launderettes for the homeless such as the charities Miloserdeniya and Nochlezhka. On Tuesdays homeless women can turn up at the offices of Nochlezhka from 2- 5 p.m. to take a shower and clean their things. On other days reserved for men the homeless can turn up on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There are also three special cabins reserved for invalids. In Saint Petersburg the charity runs a special launderette equipped with 8 washing machines and 8 tumble driers. Unfortunately, the charity points out that 'This is the first and so far the only free laundry in Russia for homeless people.' If this is the case, volunteers who help the homeless have a long struggle ahead of them.
It is not only clothes which need to be spit and span. Even documents such as a certificate or a passport can't be allowed to be folded or creased. Try folding some signed documents here and you'll be ticked off for damaging a document. Indeed Nochlezhka has just launched a public appeal asking for the public to hand in special plastic covers which would allow the homeless to protect their passports from wear and tear. It is as if a passport is part of your appearance itself. You have to keep your passport in immaculate condition in order for it to be fully recognized. A spokeswoman Catherine Olisova stated, ‘Living in the streets makes it difficult to keep your documents in order and to restore your passport your need to spend time and money. Thanks to special coverings you can preserve such documents from damage.’
So what is to be done to improve the situation? It goes without saying we need not just one launderette and a place to take a shower but a whole accessible network. And it is imperative to publicize such facilities because quite a number of homeless are not aware that such facilities actually exist. Another problem is that some of the homeless can feel awkward, ashamed, and embarrassed about using those facilities. Therefore, volunteers have to be very polite, tactful, and genuinely helpful. We have to put such people at ease and make they feel fully at home!
Hairdressers can also play an important role by offering free haircuts. As the hairdresser Katja Azarkeviich states, "A person when he or she is having a hard time, I think, has a particular need for beauty and pleasant experiences."
A second challenge ought to be an educational campaign which challenges the notions people have around how people look and how people narrowly perceive how people appear. People should learn not to judge by appearance, clothes or level of income. Such a campaign not only would help the homeless but poor children who are being bullied and teased for wearing old clothes, but also some teachers at university who are subject to mockery and contempt. We should not let the superficial and outer cancel out the more important inner qualities of a person. Clothes don't make the man but simply conceal some of his best qualities which we can't see.
A third challenge is to keep a sufficient supply of certain items available for the homeless. A volunteer should always carry around items of hygiene, tissues or plasters just in case he comes across a homeless person. He or she should also have a leaflet showing useful addresses where the homeless can go to get washed for free. We always need to be at the ready.
It is indeed unfortunate so many people look down on the homeless and think that the reason for them being unclean and unkempt is due to them being wicked—or worse! It is safe to say appearance can be treated as God in Russia. It is through our hard work and our concern for the homeless that we can help them hold onto some dignity, and help them also with their self-esteem.