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HEALTH-VIRUS-BRAZIL-POVERTY,SCENE
‘Stay home,’ impossible advice for Rio’s homeless
RIO DE JANEIRO, March 25, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Stay home, wash hands — the
rules of the coronavirus pandemic sound simple enough. But not for people who
don’t have homes, on the streets in places like Rio de Janeiro.
The Brazilian city has gone into near lockdown in recent days, shutting
schools, restaurants, its world-famous beaches and its iconic Christ the
Redeemer statue.
“Cariocas,” as residents are known, were initially reluctant, but are
now largely staying home.
But home is not an option for the city’s estimated 15,000 homeless,
whose lives have only gotten harder in times of coronavirus.
Panhandlers begging for spare change and food face eerily empty streets.
Soup kitchens face a struggle to remain open as volunteers stay home. And
there are fears the city’s overstretched homeless shelters could become
infection hotbeds.
“We are trying to survive in this situation. It’s a struggle. We are
trying to do whatever we can to get by, because lots of people have stopped
helping us out of fear of this virus,” said Paulo Souza, 35, a homeless man
in Rio’s Lapa neighborhood.
Usually the heart of the city’s nightlife, Lapa is almost deserted these
days.
The neighborhood is famous for a sweeping white aqueduct that cuts
across it. The homeless now have it almost to themselves, free to sleep
beneath its elegant colonial arches undisturbed by cars or pedestrians.
“We want to get off the streets. We have to if we want to eat, because
people are no longer helping us. They’re afraid because they can’t have any
kind of physical contact, and to receive anything we need physical contact
and proximity,” said Denice dos Santos, 41.
She urged far-right President Jair Bolsonaro — who has condemned the
“hysteria” around the virus and criticized the economic impact of containment
measures — to “do something” for people like her who are suffering.
“But don’t just round us up and put us (in homeless shelters) with a
bunch of other people,” she said.
The city’s homeless shelters have just 2,300 beds — less than one-sixth
the size of the homeless population.
Many homeless people say they fear overcrowding there would only spread
the virus.
But they are hardly safe on the street.
“If it’s time for me to get (the virus), I’ll get it, because I drink
water from the same glass as my friends here,” said one 23-year-old homeless
man, who asked not to be named.
The new coronavirus first arrived in Brazil as a rich person’s disease,
brought back by travelers to Europe.
But fears are mounting over what will happen as it starts to spread
among the poor, including in impoverished favela neighborhoods that lack
basic health and sanitation infrastructure.
The homeless population faces even greater risks.
Brazil is the Latin American country hit hardest by the coronavirus so
far, with 2,201 confirmed cases and 46 deaths.
BSS/AFP/IJ/2057 hrs