Monday, September 12, 2011

New generations in Europe tipping into homelessness...

"The population of the homeless has changed," said Aris Violantzis, a psychologist at the Klimaka NGO. "It's usually middle-aged people, in their productive years, who thought everything was going fine and they did the right things.

After 18 years cooking moussaka and roast lamb in restaurants around Greece, Petros Papadopoulos prepares lunch for 50 in a place he never expected to end up -- as a resident of a homeless shelter in Athens.

The soft-spoken chef, who admits he is not giving his real name for fear his friends and relatives will find out about his situation, had just bought a flat and was hoping to start a family when his dream was crushed by Greece's economic crisis.

In 2010, he lost his job to Greece's worst recession in decades and joined the ranks of tens of thousands of unemployed. When he could no longer afford his mortgage, he lost his home and was forced to roam the streets.

"I felt like I was living in a movie. My life changed 180 degrees. I was lost," Papadopoulos said, wringing his hands as he recalls how he struggled to find a sleeping place in an abandoned building. "The street is unbearable." Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. Number of homeless people rises by 17% in Britain... 
  2. The 'rituals' of the Greek riots... 
  3. Capital of Scrap: Dying Detroit looting itself...
  4. More than 100 homeless people live at Heathrow... 
  5. Hard times generation: homeless kids in America...
  6. Buy one house ... and get one free!!! 
  7. US streets full of formerly middle class people who are now homeless...
  8. Reality show in Holland 'pits asylum seekers against each other’

No comments:

Post a Comment