Outcasts, Marginals, VulnerableThe Homeless People in Moldova

Petru NEGURĂ

The social welfare in a transitional country: successes

• The social work is taught at the university since 1994

• The social work is officially recognized as a profession from 1998 (each municipality has a social worker)

• Social insurance system - stabilized

• New programs, strategies, laws were adopted and carried out in order to support the social development (family, children), social inclusion (de-institutionalization of disabled, of children in residential care), non discrimination (minorities), gender equality, etc.

• Emergence of a wide NGO sector, etc.

A"new" practice in a changing system. Challenges

• Massive pauperization (population), mass migration, growing social inequalities

• Overcentralization and institutional rigidity of the public welfare institutions: tough management and reluctance to reforms

• "Paternalistic" / authoritative welfare mentality (public institutions and population)

• Institutionalization rather than social inclusion

• Strong discriminatory stereotypes (population)

The Soviet welfare system: inclusive and exclusive strategies

• Inclusive strategies (mothers, veterans, disabled, etc.)

• Exclusion, discrimination, criminalization ("social parasites": beggars, vagrants, prostitutes, "spongers" (tuneiadtsy), alcoholics, etc.): the 1961 "anti-parasite" law

• The work (socially useful) presented as central value and main criterion for the distribution of social services ("кто не работает, тот не ест")

The homeless: a post-Soviet phenomenon?

• The "transition" to market economy generated a huge stratum of poor, vulnerable people (in 2000, people's average revenue decreased by 3 times after 1990)

• Vulnerable people were often victims of fraudulous privatization during the 90s "transition"

• Visibility of the marginal people (incl. homeless) in the public urban space

• The homelessness perceived as a social problem

Case study: the Hosting and Guiding Center for Homeless People in Chisinau

• Founded in 2004 by the Municipal Department of Social Work (Chisinau) with a grant from Moldova Social Investment Fund (Swedish funding): a shift of strategy

• Main objective: to shelter and to orient homeless people from Chisinau, contributing to their social inclusion

• Capacity: 70 people (in frosty nights, twice more)

• Eligibility for clients: adults before retirement (57/62), without severe disabilities, contagious diseases, no pregnant women, no drunk or drugged people

Center's services• accommodation (at night, 3 months maximum,

exceptions admitted)

• food (breakfast and dinner)

• hygiene

• primary healthcare

• legal advice

• psychological counseling and social assistance

The Center's clients in figures

• From 2004 to 2012: 1937 new beneficiaries, on the average 215 per year

The Center's clients by gender

Clients by age

18-25 25-62 (M) 25-57 (F) 62+

215

140

464

259

Other social categories

Disabled

Pensionaries

Ex prisoners

Orphanage graduates

Others* 185

65

410

172

226

* Others: alcoholics, drug users, prostitutes, failed émigrés, etc.

ID papers

The loss of home: some causes• Family problems (nuclear and extended)

• Alcohol and drug addiction (see family problems)

• Victims of fraudulous business with flats

• Loss of ID papers, loss of residence visa (propiska)

• Failure of integration after release from prison (loss of belongings)

• Boarding schools and orphanages graduates

• Failed emigration

• Etc.

Case 1: Galina• Born in 1953, in Magadan (Russian Far East).

• Graduated the College of commerce of the region.

• Gets married with a military, moves in different cities.

• In the 1970s moves with her husband in Chisinau.

• Divorces in 1982. Continues to work in shops.

• "I had everything, unless a plane [during the Soviet period]".

• In the late 1990s, she has a stroke, then in the early 2000 a second one.

• In 2000 she sells her flat, buys two other ones, then loses both: a "stupidity".

• Homeless experience.

• The Center.

• Plans to get into the public home for elderly.

Case 2: Marina• Born in Bălți (city in the northern Moldova) in 1951 in a Russian speaking family

• Studies history at the Moldova State university, but does not finish them.

• 1974-1990 - works as technician at the Moldovan film studio

• Attitude towards the Soviet time: "A Golden age... That really was the communism and we even did not know that".

• 1991, her mother dies

• Divorces

• Works as a nurse

• Is cheated by her relatives and loses her flat

• Works occasionnally

• Still has a daugher and a son, both working (don't have possibilities to foster her)

• Plans to get into the public home for elderly

Case 3: Oleg• Born in 1947 in Chisinau in a Russian speaking family

• University studies

• Works in the police 10 years, then at the airport customs

• His wife working in the KGB

• Gets rapidly a state appartment,

• Divorces

• Late 1990s, cheated by a relative and loses his flat

• Suffers a shoulder injury

• Works occasionally, is sheltered occasionally by his friends

• Lives at the Center

• Plans to get papers to move in the public home for elderly.

The Center's Achievements (to date)

• 86 (8%) - assisted to get welfare allowance ("ajutor social")

• 248 (23%) - assisted to find a job

• 151 (14%) - assisted to get permanent accommodation in the public home for elderly

• 162 (15%) - assisted to face psychological and social problems

• Many (30%) prolong their stay at the center beyond 3 months

• The other 20%: back to the street (Are they hopeless?)

Challenges

• Limited autonomy (to the Municipal Department of Social Work) - institutional rigidity

• High demand (for shelter and services) and low institutional capacity

Temporary solutions and palliatives

• Informal regulation ("secondary adjustment" of the staff to the institutional rules)

• "Paternalistic" / "authoritarian" approach in dealing with clients ("keeping the discipline") - professional "habits" (of the former policemen staff)

Future plans• To create a day center for homeless people

• To create a "social ambulance" service (with a mobile team for emergency aid)

• To adjust the Center's formal regulation to clients' real necessities and staff capacities

• Lobbying the national and municipal administration to improve the legislation and promoting policies in order to facilitate the social inclusion of the less ressourceful people (the legal regulation concerning the welfare allowances, the issuance of ID papers, medical assistance, professional training for adults, etc.)

Thank you!