Interview with Daria Amosova, P.R. Manager for the Russian Charity Nochlezhka.
By Stephen Wilson, one of our reporters abroad
Nochlezhka is a charity which has been helping homeless people to get off the streets and reintegrate into society since 1990. It is the most established and well-known charity which aids the homeless in Russia. The charity is a non-government organization which provides all kinds of aid to the homeless such as feeding, clothing, and warming them as well as providing places where they can take a shower. The charity also runs shelters for the homeless in both Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The charity offers free legal advice and counselling, plus struggles to ensure the homeless obtain access to free medical aid and work. They also act as a pressure group to campaign for a more humane and caring system of homeless prevention, social rehabilitation, and the reintegration of the homeless into Russia. In this respect they attempt to educate the public and challenge widespread ignorance and prejudice against the homeless.
According to Nochlezhka: “Through our projects designed to defend the rights of people with no registration, papers, or home, thousands of people get access to public services and health care.
Note the average time on the streets in Russia: 5.8 years, but for women specifically: 7.8 years.
Here we look at the average time people remain homeless. They tend to actively seek to get off the streets in the first two years, and then their energy often seems to run out. It is nigh on impossible to get back to a stable life without assistance. In countries which have a better-developed system for helping the homeless, this period is under a year.
Russia has no system of social assistance and rehabilitation for the homeless. People without a registered address cannot exercise many of their rights. They have no access to social benefits, some types of medical care and much more {from the Annual Report of Nochlezhka 2022}.
StreetSense was fortunate to interview Daria Amosova of Nochlezhka in Moscow. Daria is largely responsible for public relations, social networks, and newsletters. Daria is from Siberia and is a linguist who holds a degree in English and French. She articulately, attentively and eloquently explained not only the problems in estimating the number of homeless in Russia, but how it is practically impossible to attain accommodation in Moscow without a valid passport as well as registration. Of particular importance was how homelessness can be severely prolonged by many intransigent officials who refuse to grant a Russian a new passport even if they collect and amass convincing documents confirming their identity and past addresses. Without a passport, it is practically impossible to obtain legal work--not to mention an apartment. It is as if Maxim Gorky's statement {from a character in the play “The Lower Depths”}. That a person without a passport is no longer a human being still stands. I have recently encountered a 72-year-old Russian who returned from abroad after over 30 years and finds it highly problematic to restore her passport. {She has an old Soviet passport that is not recognized.} She lost her job in Moscow because she could not offer her employer a recognized up to date passport. Her local employer failed to understand why it was difficult for her to restore her passport. This indicates how local people in Moscow might not always grasp the tremendous difficulties facing people when it comes to getting a new passport. For a well-established person getting a new passport might be seen as a formality which could take only a few weeks. For a homeless person getting a new passport can represent a feat or miracle. You can't even open a bank account without a passport! So many homeless as well as Russians with homes feel like foreigners in their own country.
Daria points out why the findings of a 2023 survey undertaken by Nochlezhka and Validata where 1 out of 5 Russians interviewed claim they have experienced homelessness is not an exaggeration or overstatement but a quite logical conclusion.
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Here is the interview:
StreetSense
Has the attitude of Russians to homeless people improved or worsened since the 1990's?
Daria Amosova.
I don't think it has improved greatly but it is better! Previously the homeless were understood as being alcoholics who had a separate mindset apart from people. They would call them 'Bomzhi', which is a derogative term to describe the homeless. This term is still used but less so. Thanks to Nochlezhka there is less of a negative attitude towards the homeless. Now people understand that homelessness is a Russian problem connected to the housing /apartment crisis. The migration to the cities is now understood as being a symptom of the crisis in housing rather than a cause.
StreetSense.
Isn't the figure found in the 2023 survey claiming that 1 out of 5 Russians have experienced homelessness a gross exaggeration? Then in your 2022 annual report the claim is that the number of homeless stands at 238,000 in Moscow alone. In the 2020 annual report the figure was reported as just above 100,000! Does that mean the level of homelessness had drastically shot up in Moscow over 2 years?
Daria Amasova
I don't think the level of homelessness has skyrocketed. I think that we have to make estimates using new methods as well as recognizing what we define as being homeless. The official state estimate of homelessness underestimates the problem. The official count of homelessness is based on a population census. A surveyor will ask a person, “Are you homeless?” Homeless people who are asked this question are inclined to say “No.” They are too embarrassed and ashamed to admit they are homeless. We use a new mathematical model to calculate the level of homelessness. We also try to work out how many homeless people die on the streets. Those figures are not taken into account by the census.
I don't think the 1 out of 5 estimate is inaccurate. The problem is that many people have a wrong understanding of what homeless is. They think it is just about having no roof over your head and being on the streets. But homelessness is not just about being on the streets. Homelessness can be where you live in a dangerous and unsafe place. For example, if you live in a room with 10 people! A recent report by 'Takii Dela' has found shocking levels of poverty throughout Russia where many houses in villages lack indoor toilets.
You have the invisible homeless who are just one step away from being made homeless.
StreetSense
I once read an article by Leyla Gamidullaeva and Elena Korustysheva published by the “American Journal of Economics” {“Homelessness in the Russian Federation: Regional and Local Context,” 2020, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ajes.12323} where they are highly critical of how charity organizations view the causes of homelessness. They even claim that Nochlezhka, and other organisations, confound the causes of homelessness with the consequences. They argue that charity groups ignore or play down the wider structural economic and social causes of homelessness. They accuse charities of 'blaming the victim.' How do you respond to this criticism?
Daria Amasova
We don't blame the homeless for their own problems. We don't even think 'being to blame is important.' We help any homeless person who comes to us. Even if a homeless person decided to become homeless it does not change the fact we help them. As for the causes of homelessness being 'a free life choice,' one can see the influence of how the church views some of the homeless. There is a tradition where the homeless were seen as wanderers or saints. This is a very romantic view. But the main point is that homelessness is not a life-style choice or choice people freely make. It is not a life choice but absence of choice. A person only goes on the streets as a last resort when all the other options are no longer available.
The average time a person is homeless on the streets is almost 6 to 8 years in Russia. {In European countries the homeless spend just under a year as homeless.} Once a person becomes homeless it is difficult to get a home. They often can't get documents to get a job, if they don't have a job they can't get a place to stay. It is a vicious circle. For instance, yesterday I met a woman called Svetlana. She had been trying to get a passport for 3 years. It took 3 workers working on her case to get her a new passport. She is now in her 60's. The officials had lost her records. We had to get documents from neighbors, the police and many sources just to confirm her former address and identity. We went to the police and neighbors to prove she lived at one address. Our colleague Andrei spent weeks looking through archives. They got some documents but it wasn't enough for officials. Even with a lot of help it took Svetlana years to get a new passport. Can you imagine the difficulties that the homeless have getting a new passport when they don't have any help?
If I lost my passport I would have to go back to Siberia to renew it despite the fact I have been living in Moscow for 6 years!
StreetSense
I keep hearing news that 'my documents' and other state institutions have made it easier for people to obtain passports by using on-line applications.
Daria Amosova
I think that it's great that those organizations have made things easier for some people. This is good if you have on-line skills and on-line backing. But not all the homeless have on-line skills. Of course, just to make a resume requires a laptop.
Being presentable it important to get a job. People often complain about how the homeless smell badly. But where can they wash themselves? Out of a population of 20 million there are only four places you can take a shower for free. {One of those places is here.} So it is possible for the homeless to be presentable.
We met a person who was working in the construction industry. He was making a lot of money. But because he had no documents he had no place he could live. Without a passport you can't book a motel or hotel room.
Thank goodness for Nochlezhka which provides all kinds of aid to the homeless such as feeding, clothing, and warming them as well as providing places where they can take a shower. As mentioned above, the charity also runs shelters for the homeless in both Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
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For further information on the Russian charity Nochlezhka, please see: https://homeless.ru/en/ and the page in Russian language: https://homeless.ru/