Homelessness. Comparison of the Problem in Latvia and Sweden

Introduction

There are many problems in the world that are not very much discussed and are not very pleasant to talk about, but they still exist and homelessness is one of these problems.
Homelessness refers to the condition and societal category of people who lack housing, or live in transitional housing, or who spend most nights in a supervised public or private facility providing temporary living quarters, or in a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings. In different languages, the term for homelessness reveals the cultural and societal perception and classification of a homeless person:

Latvian: "bezpajumtnieks"(without a roof)
Russian: "bomzh" (a person without a permaent place of residence)
Swedish: "husvill" (wants a house)
Spanish: "persona sin hogar" (person without a home)
French: "Sans domicile fixe" (SDF, without a fixed domicile)
German: "obdachlos" (without a roof above)
Italian: "Senzatetto" (without a roof)

In our opinion, homelessness is a very actual problem not only in a small and not so wealthy country as Latvia, but even in high developed countries in the world, like Sweden.
While walking through the streets of Riga – the capital of Latvia – it is impossible not to pay attention to the “begging souls” who, despite the fact of being homeless, still belong to the same country and society as we do. And none of us can judge whose fault is it – whether it is their destiny, choice or a serious problem of government, not trying enough to solve it.
We decided to compare the situation between Latvia and Sweden because the difference became obvious for us as we got to know Swedish society better.
So, the aim of our paper is to find the reasons for these differences.



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