In my Caravan, I feel like Superman - European Observatory on ...

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196 <strong>In</strong> <strong>my</strong> <strong>Caravan</strong>, I <strong>feel</strong> <strong>like</strong> <strong>Superman</strong> We are only sent away from the underpass, nobody cares what we do out here. We can do anything outside, the police and public space patrols do not care. Why ? Because that are the orders they got. When it is raining we can stay underground, but when it stops we must leave. (homeless person, Hungary) This strict division between metro-underpass and the street is not the same for every homeless person. When the police get to know you, they sometimes leave you alone. Two of the interviewed persons, for instance, buy the metro security guards something to drink now and then, with the aim of being left alone in the metro. <strong>In</strong> Spain, since the beginning of the millennium, public space has become a problematic, difficult and conflictive place resulting in a more severe approach. <strong>In</strong> Barcelona for instance, the local Catalan government has put into effect some municipal ordinances forbidding prostitution, aggres sive begging and ‘bad citizenship’. At the same time, in the historic area of Madrid, there are districts implor ing more policemen to control urban gangs. Because of the deterioration of some commercial areas of the city centre, some councillors asked that the police be given a legal instrument that would allow them to temporarily move to shelters (even against their will) those beggars, prostitutes and drug addicts who have taken up living in public areas which are thus degraded and have stigmatized the environ ment (El País, 1st July 2006). What appears to be an open, free space has its unspoken rules, can apparently easily be unknowingly broken. Homeless people are subjected to a kind of institutionalised violence by the police force : gestures which are appar ently innocuous but which touch the limits of legality (for example asking people who are homeless for their identity papers over and over again as a kind of pressure to make the person leave). Good behaviour, clean clothes and a conven tional use of public space seems to be the code which homeless people have to follow : Since I was sleeping on a bench in the park there, in <strong>my</strong> district, well they called me (because they probably thought I was drunk or drugged or something) and I woke up and said “ yeah ? ” “ What are you doing here ? ” and I said, “ … well nothing, resting a bit. ” And of course I lied because they said : “ Where do you live ? ” and I said : “ Well, right near here, I said that I was waiting for <strong>my</strong> dad or some fib <strong>like</strong> that. Because I couldn’t tell them anything else, of course, they saw I wasn’t drunk or drugged or nothing. I was dressed OK. I always try, being out in the street and all, to dress as well as I can. You can see. (Antonio, Spain) None of the interviewees told us of any case of police brutality ; however beatings by security guards appear to be common. One of our interviewees had worked in the past as a private security guard and can now see, from the other side, what his previous behaviour had been <strong>like</strong> :
eight_ The changing profiles of homeless people 197 I know people that have had problems with security guards and the <strong>like</strong>. For instance, for not having any money and jumping the gate to the underground, people do that, and the guards catch him and instead of throwing him out, well they throw him out and hit him on the side of the head a couple of times. (Homeless person, Spain, former secu rity guard) <strong>In</strong> Norway the homeless people interviewed noted that when it comes to chasing people away, the private guards are the worst. The private guards are more aggres- sive, espe cially towards drug addicts. <strong>In</strong> Norway the visibility of drug users seems to be a theme of conflict. A group of veteran users of opiates had for some years settled in an open space named Plata near Oslo central railway station. The group, which had a core of older and exhausted drug addicts, was quite visible in the landscape. During spring 2004 a debate developed around the harm the group might be causing. The debate was fronted by the head of the Oslo Police Force and by politicians in the City Council. <strong>In</strong> early June 2004 the group at Plata was physically removed by the police force. The group settled just two blocs from Plata in a rather busy street. According to the security guards of Oslo S they observe very few homeless or drug users in and near the hall after the action against Plata. If the guards discover people who sleep at the station area, they are instructed to expel them. <strong>In</strong> the case of the Czech Republic, the results of the Prague 5 District research illustrate the restrictive approach of public administration to the issue of homelessness. The municipal authorities of Prague 5 hired a security agency to guard the pedestrian zone around the Zlatý Andel shopping centre. Three security guards guarded the area of Andel non-stop from about the end of November until Christmas Eve. Never theless, this strategy did not seem to work. Immediately the security guards left alcoholics, homeless people and street vendors moved back to Andel. The mayor is now considering the possibility of hiring the security agency all-year round. When asked about possible conflicts with security services, the interviewees’ responses were negative at first then rather evasive. All respondents take good care of their appearance and were aware of the importance of their behaviour and clothing in order to avoid conflicts. The Luxembourg police seem to be relatively tolerant of homeless people, and the odd problem that has arisen appears to be to do with the attitude of individual officers. Part of the reason for this is the context of Luxembourg, which cannot be compared with big cities <strong>like</strong> Paris. The closing-down of the squats in 2003 on safety grounds without doubt contributed to getting the situation in Luxem bourg City under control. The opening of a night shelter for drug addicts near Luxembourg’s main railway station and more recently, a ‘dope room’ in the same building, as well as the opening of a night shelter and homeless services in Lux embourg’s second town as part of a process of decentraliza tion have helped defuse the situation.
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six_ Homelessness ‘ in transition
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