stable migrants life is easier: times and lists for acceptance are endless and people are forced to live on the street, in overcrowded conditions or in temporary solutions if they are lucky, ending up being deprived from their dignity as humans and becoming vulnerable to every form of violence.
Secondly, because in recent times, restrictions and laws for transiting across boarders have be-come tougher and tougher. Migrants in transit have the possibility to apply for support in the welcoming country, but some deliberately refuse because they hope to leave as soon as possible (FEANTSA, 2017).
Every year, an increasing number of people is at risk. Usually, prevention measures and a lack of preventive interventions are not enough to tackle the issue. What should be done as quickly as pos-sible is to integrate targeted and efficient mea-sures into national policies, taking inspiration from those countries, like Finland53, that succed-ed in rsucced-educing the number of homeless.
54. United Nations Human Rights - Office of the High Commissioner, The draft guiding principles on extreme poverty and human rights: the rights of the poor, Annex, 2006, p. 33, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Poverty/SubCommis-sion2006_9.pdf
for the dignity and the fundamental rights of per-sons living in extreme poverty, particularly in hu-man relations, in huhu-manitarian services and in project formulation and implementation. The per-sonnel of social welfare schemes have these ob-ligations, and the right to freedom from discrim-ination based on the circumstance of poverty is a right which must be guaranteed to the poor.»54 (United Nations, 2006)
Section B taken from the Drafting Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, developed by the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Pro-tection of Human Rights, puts the emphasis on the problem of homeless people being stereo-typed and then discriminated, which moves the discussion on a psychological level.
The very first simple example of what happens comes from people reacting in front of rough sleepers. As far as we can see while walking through teh city, most of the time they are com-pletely ignored, as if they do not exist. (fig. 10) For some reasons, circumstances have led people to
create some myths and questions around home-lessness that contribute to the stigmatization of a group of people who are already marginalised enough both due to social and racial reasons.
Homeless Hub, for instance, lists some of them:
1. People choose to be homeless;
2. People experiencing homeless are lazy;
3. All people who experience homelessness are addicts;
4. People experiencing homelessness should just find a job;
5. There are plenty of adequate services and sup-ports to help those experiencing homelessness.
(Homeless Hub)55
This first chapter has already spent some words about what hides behind a homeless, so it is easy to affirm that, despite some cases could be as de-scribed, reality is that there is much more com-plexity to be taken in consideration when talking about such a delicate issue. «The prejudices that still survive around homeless people often drive
55. Homeless Hub, Myths and Questions About Homelessness, https://www.home- lesshub.ca/about-homelessness/homelessness-101/myths-and-questions-a-bout-homelessness
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FIG. 11 | Asleep in Red
Photo Credit: (edit of) Derek Mindler via flickr, CC BY 2.0 1. understanding homelessness
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local politics, fragmented due to the lack of a cen-tral programme, and legitimate different form of social inequalities.»56 (Porcellana, 2010)
On the other hand, it is curious to understand how homeless people themselves feel and what they think about the social status they are asso-ciated with. In an article for The Conversation57, Zoe C. Walter, from University of Queensland (Aus-tralia), explains how an experiment conducted together with The Salvation Army (TSA)58 showed how homeless people’s «perceptions of their sit-uation might be just as important as how others classify them.»59 (Walter, 2017) The interview with 119 people from five TSA accommodation centers in Queensland resulted in: 55% accepted to be defined as homeless, 31% rejected that label and only 14% were ambivalent.60
It appears «that the wellbeing of people who re-fused to define themselves as homeless was significantly higher than the wellbeing of those who had adopted the label to describe them-selves»61, demonstrating the effects of a positive mindset upon social attitudes. One male
partici-pant explained:
«To me, homeless is on the street. This is a hos-tel, it’s a refuge, it’s a roof over your head, a show-er, food, so I wouldn’t say I was homeless. I’ve got somewhere to go every day to sleep, so I wouldn’t say I’m homeless»62 (Unknown).
«The absence of an accommodation is just the most evident social and individual discomfort»63 (Porcellana, 2017) within the framework, but mea-sures and policies should be built at first, around a bigger sense of community.
58. The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestant Christian church and an interna-tional charitable organisation
59, 60, 61, 62. Zoe Walter, Cameron Parsell, Genevieve Dingle, Jolanda Jetten, What’s in the name ‘homeless’? How people see themselves and the labels we apply matter, 2017, (for) «The Conversation», https://theconversation.com/whats-in- the-name-homeless-how-people-see-themselves-and-the-labels-we-apply-matter-69282
63. Valentina Porcellana, Abitare il dormitorio. Il lavoro educativo e gli spazi di prima accoglienza notturna a Torino, in Gabriele Proglio, Le città (in)visibili, vol. 1, Antares, Catagnito 2010, p. 34, (translated from Italian)
56. Valentina Porcellana, Abitare il dormitorio. Il lavoro educativo e gli spazi di prima accoglienza notturna a Torino, in Gabriele Proglio, Le città (in)visibili, vol. 1, Antares, Catagnito 2010, p. 36, (translated from Italian)
57. «The Conversation is an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the pu-blic.» The Conversation, Who we are, https://theconversation.com/uk/who-we-are
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