Number of Homeless Higher than Official Data, 4,000 Registered in Three Years

Belgrade panorama (BETAPHOTO/PETAR VUJANIC)

Representatives of non-governmental organizations helping the homeless people in Belgrade and Novi Sad on Nov. 28 said there was not an adequate methodology to estimate their actual number, but that the figures were far higher than the onespresented by official institutions. They stressed that the problems of the homeless had to be resolved systemically through social housing development.

Danilo Curcic, a representative of Initiative A 11, said the fact that only 60 percent of accommodation capacities in reception shelters for homeless in Belgrade was occupied “speaks about other issues,” that is, the admittance requirements, which included a referral note of the Social Service Center, a personal ID with an address registered in Belgrade and a negative PCR test for corona virus at own expense. Curcic said that a news conference was organized following Belgrade’s outgoing Mayor Aleksandar Sapic’s statements on the homeless, including the one that the number of the homeless in Belgrade was best reflected by the number of vacant places in reception centers for the homeless.  

Speaking about homelessness, Katarina Bogdanovic, a representative of ADRA, said that over the past year, the organization had provided support to 1,850 persons in Belgrade, of whom 95 percent were affected by homelessness, including those sleeping out in the open – in parks, on benches, or in underground passages. She said that since 2020, ADRA had registered around 4,000 such persons, adding that “around 20 new people seek some sort of support on a monthly basis.”

Ivan Arsenov, a representative of the Solidarity Kitchen, said that data for Novi Sad showed that all 60 places at the main reception facility for the homeless in the Futog nursing home, near Novi Sad, had been constantly occupied as there were no requirements for admittance.