Don't give money to a begging junkie

MejlaEva Franchell+ FÖLJÅSIKTGe not have the money to the begging junkie Aftonbladet leader board independent social democratic.Photo: Christoffer Hjalmarsson the Couple Bos and Daniel's abuse and life on the street portrayed in the SVT series ”36 days on the street”LEADER

SVT shows right now a series about the homeless. In the first episode, I get stuck for Bos, a 26-year-old missbrukartjej from Blackeberg in the western Stockholm.

On the tv, she moves a little springy by a subway car. The hair hanging long and a bit matted under the knitted cap.

In her hand she has a pappmugg.

She is asking for money for a hostel for kvinnohärbärgena is overcrowded right now and I recognize her.

She'll have the money for the dope, I thought when she a couple of times while passing by me in the subway so there was no money in her pappmugg. Instead, I looked well down in the cell phone and repressed soon the adventures the girl. We are many who have learned to look away and look down when reality becomes too intrusive.
But now I see her again in the tv program.

the Real picture of the homeless

She called for the Bos and together with her fiancé Daniel, she lives on the streets of Stockholm. She has knarkat since adolescence, and every day is a renewed chase for money and heroin. The begging, the dealing and shooting up. Certain dream about a farm in the country, but that dream seems ever more distant.

I had thus the right, the money had gone to drugs. I had not helped her with a twenty in the cup.

Bos is one of Sweden's 33 000 people homeless. In Stockholm live 2 439 people without a home of their own. Some may eke out a living on the couch of a friend, but for others it remains until the end of the street.

Bos and Daniel is not very cute when they squirt in and of itself heroin in a dirty toilet.

In 36 days Swedish photographer Christoffer Hjalmarsson lived with the homeless on the streets of Stockholm. It is a modern depiction of the day is the photographer in the centre, it is he who sleeps among the bulky waste and is as hungry as the homeless. DN-the columnist Johan Croneman complain Christoffer Hjalmarssons presence, but it is well the price we pay in the day to be published. My byline is as big as Johan Cronemans.

It is important Christoffer Hjalmarssons real pictures of the homeless. Bos and Daniel is not very cute when they squirt in and of itself heroin in a dirty toilet. It was a long time ago I saw such a realistic scene on the tv.

reluctant to seek help

The homeless hunting is consistent throughout the series.

the Hunt for food, the hunt in the heat, on money, soap and water and a bed for the night. In the homeless world, the need for a toilet to be painful.

But the worst is drugs.

the Hunt for heroin, amphetamines, hashish, or just plain alcohol. Often is the reason that people end up on the street. In among becomes the safe comfort for those who ended up there.

But today is also youth and senior citizens among the homeless. If we can, we can certainly also see the elderly man, who fumbles after the empty cans in the buckets.

the city of Stockholm has a ”roof-over-head-guarantee”, but the homeless are referred to the overcrowded shelters, which many obviously are afraid of. To be homeless is also a shame. Many are reluctant to seek help.

– realizing That you are homeless is really hard, " says Anders, who has been homeless for seven years due to unpaid debts.

– You go as well as for himself.

Addiction is a disease

It is not enough with a roof-over-head-guarantee. The homeless are addicts, mentally ill, in debt or just very poor. They dare not meet the socialens all the requirements, but prefer to spend the night in stairs, garbage rooms or on night buses.

The severely strained the social services must receive increased resources in order to meet the needs of these homeless people. Also voluntary organisations like the city mission needs more support.

the Whole country needs more cheap apartments and a better addiction treatment. Drug policy cannot only be about the hunt anymore. It must also be about the harm victims. Addiction is a disease that requires a empathetic care that never gives up.

maybe We should not give a drug addict money, but we shall never step over her when she is knocked out on the street. In a decent society, she will never remain there.

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