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A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 30 March 2019
Homelessness rises in Argentina's capital amid crisis

By DEBORA REY shelters. Residents from
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina the suburbs are increas-
(AP) — A smiling two-year- ingly choosing to stay in
old Valentina Aleman runs the city from Monday to
down a sidewalk in Buenos Friday to avoid spending
Aires, dodging cardboard on public transportation.
boxes, a worn-out sofa Workers who earn the mini-
and a broken refrigerator mum wage of about $280
without noticing the cars a month are estimated to
zooming dangerously close spend 10 percent of their
to her and others — risks of salaries on public transpor-
living on the streets. tation, according to esti-
A makeshift tent of card- mates from the Buenos Ai-
board and plastic bags on res Ombudsman's office.
the side of a busy avenue The Alemans now rely on
in the Argentine capital the money that Emilio gets
serves as shelter for the girl, gathering cardboard and
her four siblings and her recyclable waste, meals
parents, who sleep sharing at soup kitchens and on
two old mattresses laid out the generosity of nearby
on the concrete. residents. Not all empa-
"Being here with (the chil- thize, however. Some have
dren) is not nice. The main called the police to remove
risk is their health," Valen- them from the sidewalk.
tina's mother, Damiana, "When people live on the
said while the kids played streets, they feel like they're
with used toys. "They want a waste of space, like they
to watch TV. My oldest asks deserve to be there. Your
why we can't be at home opinion of yourself is so
with our TV and our bed." low," said Horacio Avila, a
Families living on the streets social psychologist who co-
outside shopping malls, bus In this Feb. 25, 2019 photo, Damiana Aleman holds her daughter Valentina in front of their make- founded Project 7, which
stations and parks have be- shift tent on a sidewalk in Buenos Aires, Argentina. provides assistance to the
come an increasingly com- Associated Press homeless. Avila himself was
mon sight in Buenos Aires, homeless for over 10 years.
as an economic crisis, soar- tricity by 46 percent and ond half of 2018 from 27.3 of much-needed farm ex- Leaning out of an igloo-
ing inflation and a spike in water by 26 percent percent in the first half, port revenue. Argentina's looking structure made
utility bills fueled by auster- Eight months ago, the Ale- the INDEC official statistics economy was also hit by out of layers of cloth and
ity measures have left more man family became un- agency said on Thursday. "external factors," including plastic tethered to a super-
people unable to afford a able to keep up with soar- "I trusted him when he said the U.S.-China trade war, market car, Hector Garcia
home. The long-running cri- ing utilities costs. The family 'zero poverty'. It looked he said. jokes with passers-by.
sis sharpened in 2018 when paid about $112 per month like he would stand by the Macri has seen his popular- "You keep laughing, you will
the Argentine peso lost in rent. Their finances col- poor," Aleman said. "But ity ratings plunge. Fernan- be right next to me soon,"
about half its value follow- lapsed when they received Macri actually meant get- dez is tied with him in most he sometimes tells people
ing a run on the currency. a $246 electricity bill. Then ting rid of the poor, rather polls even though she fac- with a laugh.
The number of people in Valentina's father, Emilio, than improving the econo- es numerous investigations Garcia has been living on
extreme poverty in Argen- lost his job in a furniture fac- my." into alleged corruption dur- the street of a middle-class
tina's capital - the coun- tory that shut down amid Following last year's deval- ing her 2007-2015 adminis- Buenos Aires' neighbor-
try's wealthiest area - has the crisis. uation of the peso, Argen- tration. hood for four years since
doubled in the past three "Seven out of every 10 fam- tina was forced to seek a A poll conducted in Bue- losing an administrative job.
years to 6.5 percent, or ilies see the cost of utilities record financing deal with nos Aires and its suburbs Nowadays, he survives by
about 198,000 people, ac- as a problem for their do- the International Monetary showed that 65 percent of repairing home appliances
cording to official figures. mestic finances," said Ma- Fund. The decision brought respondents said their in- or disassembling them to
The Buenos Aires city gov- tias Barroetavena, director back bad memories for Ar- come was not enough to sell the scraps. He shares
ernment has yet to release of the Center of Metropoli- gentines who blame the make ends meet. Fifty-two the improvised shack with
homeless numbers for the tan Studies, a Buenos Aires- IMF for introducing policies percent said they had re- 77-year-old retiree Maria
end of 2018, but local civic based research center. that led to the country's duced their food consump- Ortega.
groups estimate the figure Reducing poverty is still on worst crisis in 2001 when tion as a result. The Center Garcia also believed his
at around 8,000 people. the to-do list for Macri, who one in every five Argentines of Metropolitan Studies living conditions would im-
Argentines continue to lose has entered the last year went unemployed and mil- surveyed 1,523 people be- prove after the change of
purchasing power to an of his presidential term and lions slid into poverty. tween Feb. 26 and March 2 government.
inflation rate that reached has launched a re-election Macri says he underesti- in a poll that had a margin "The government provides
47.6 percent last year, the bid for October's voting. mated the macroeconom- of error of 3.1 percentage you with the possibility of
highest since 1991, and When Macri took office in ic imbalances inherited points. getting off the streets for
many are frustrated with 2015, he said his administra- from his populist prede- Shelters in Buenos Aires are five or six months. That's not
the decision by President tion should be judged by its cessor, center-left Presi- at full capacity. But since a solution," the 57-year-old
Mauricio Macri's govern- ability to reduce poverty. dent Cristina Fernandez. most are divided by gen- said about government
ment to slash subsidies on "Zero poverty" became He argues that correcting der, families often prefer housing subsidies.
utilities and public transpor- one of his top goals. them became more dif- staying on the streets to "At least I don't get any bills
tation. On average, in the But poverty in Argentina ficult when Argentina's splitting up. here," Garcia said before
past year natural gas has increased to 32 percent of worst drought in decades And it's not only the home- ducking back inside his
shot up 77.6 percent, elec- the population in the sec- deprived his government less demanding beds in shelter.q