Homelessness has always been one of the main social scourges that societies have faced since the formation of the first sedentary communities. Individuals who, due to bad fortune, little income or a marginalized situation, are forced to subsist by begging and make any bench, doorway, bridge or overhang their improvised refuge. In Barcelona alone, the Arrels Foundation estimates that there are 1,384 people living poorly on the streets, with an increase of 12% in one year.
Such is the harshness of life outdoors that, in the 21st century, it would seem impossible to even think that someone would decide this existence of their own free will. In past times there have been examples of historical figures such as Buddha, Diogenes of Sinope or Ramon Llull, who, as a result of disturbing experiences, have left all their possessions to devote themselves to an ascetic life on the street. Yet in much more recent times it might seem that his example is too archaic for anyone to want to replicate.
That is why it is surprising to know that, although few, there are still people who live in poverty by choice. In 2012, the story of the Carmelite nun Mª Ángels Segalés made the news in Barcelona, ??who decided to live for more than nine years on the streets of the city to accompany the most vulnerable.
More recently, the case of former actress Mónica Cervera has also become known, who has appeared in the newspapers for living in a bank in Marbella, also rejecting any help from friends and family: “They have to respect me. I want them to leave me alone. peace and live as I have chosen to live,” said the actress in a statement. That is why it is worth asking what kind of person would want to voluntarily live outdoors and give up the comforts of home in the 21st century.
A profile as peculiar as that of the homeless volunteer surprises Andrew Funk, perhaps one of the greatest experts on the homeless experience in Spain. This American living in Barcelona, ??himself lived on the streets for a year and a half, and when he managed to escape from homelessness, he created the Homeless Entrepreneur entity to get other homeless people out of begging.
Funk explains that in his work he has heard all kinds of stories about how people have ended up destitute, but he doubts that anyone would want to choose a life in the open: “The only reason anyone would choose to enter this world is because “The place where he has lived is so unsafe that it is better to live on the street.
He also redoubles his skepticism about voluntary homelessness, pointing out that, although there are people who say they do it out of conviction, it is probably nothing more than a facade that hides the true reasons for such a decision.
From his point of view, except in the home danger scenario, there would be absolutely no benefit to living this way even temporarily, and it is something he would never recommend anyone do. “The street kills, and it will never be a positive place to be,” he says. Thus, it makes it very clear that it is very different to choose the street for having been rejected, than for rejecting what you have, and warns that such a choice may have involved mental health problems.
For her part, Laia de Ahumada, writer and co-founder of the Center Heura, an entity for basic services and activities for homeless people, is not so surprised that there may be people who want to live like this, because she says that after years of dealing with homeless is no longer surprised by anything.
Even so, he warns that the street is not a place for bohemians and romantics: “Anyone who believes they can live on the street to temporarily escape from their life would not last even two days.” Furthermore, he states: “Life on the street is extremely violent.”
He even points out that in recent years, street life has become even harder, due to the closure of ATMs and the proliferation of hostile architecture, with the placement of smaller benches, bollards and bars.
Even so, in her 2008 book, Monges, she recorded in detail the extraordinary story of the Vedruna Carmelite Mª Àngels Sagalés, who lived on the streets for more than nine years because she chose it that way.
De Ahumada explains that the example of Sagalés, who declined to speak for this report, was a very extreme call in favor of accompaniment to those “who have no entry anywhere.” This Carmelite nun went like the rest of the homeless to the Center Heura to shower and eat, living the same life as the other beggars in the city.
The expert understands the motives of this nun, despite the radical nature behind her choice. Both she and the rest of the voices consulted defend that one of the most effective ways to help the homeless is not to feed them or clothe them, but to make them feel accompanied, and to have a bond with someone so that they do not do anything to them. feel abandoned by the world. “People on the street do not die of hunger or cold, but they do die of loneliness, and Sagalés decided to get off the train to be with those who cannot get on,” says the expert.
De Ahumada is fully aware of this need, since from the Center Heura she has also dedicated herself to the homeless, even without having reached an experience as extreme as that of the nun. Without being connected 24 hours a day, she and other volunteers have made midnight runs to the hospital to take sick homeless people or spend weekends entirely dedicated to their needs.
Beyond keeping company, De Ahumada also points to empathy as a possible cause for living in the open by choice. Accompanying others is the most accurate way to experience oneself the deprivations and needs of those who have little or nothing, and this impels some to replicate the working-class experience that university students once did: “By saving the distances, it is a bit like when “The students, in the 60s or 70s, were going to become workers to understand their living conditions.”
That need to put himself in the shoes of others was exactly the reason that drove Jaume Vives to be homeless for eight days. This Catalan writer and journalist based in Madrid is one of the few people who can say that they have lived rough of their own free will on more than one occasion. The first time was when he was 13, when he spent the night away from home for a week after a fight with his parents. For the same reason he did it again a second time at 17.
In the context of such a stormy adolescence, he says that he learned for the first time the reality of homelessness. One night, in a state of drunkenness, he ran into the Youth of San José, who suggested that he accompany them through Barcelona the following week to take care of the beggars: “The night I was with them distributing food, accompanying the homeless and doing charity, it was a very exciting experience. Vives explains that from then on her vocation arose to “explain stories that can do good to people.”
For this reason, he decided to live on the streets one last time, but with the goal of seeing and experiencing the life of the homeless with his own eyes. In 2014, she spent a week sleeping rough in Barcelona documenting everything she saw and experienced, an experience from which she wrote her book, Poor People, Poor People: 8 Days Living on the Street.
He emphasizes that he did not do it with a “pornographic” purpose like the 21 days television formats, and also that from the beginning he was fully aware of the limitations that his portrait could suffer from: “All the time I knew that he had a house with a family and friends who were waiting for me, and I also knew that I could end it whenever I wanted.
Even so, exposing himself to deprivation did make him understand much better, and empathize with those who had no choice but to live like this. Among the hardest hardships he had to experience, he mentions two: indifference and loneliness.
As an example, he explains that they once organized a balloon battle on the Ramblas with other homeless people, but it did not raise the slightest interest in the rest of the passersby: “It’s as if you were wearing a camouflage suit, as if you were one more part of urban furniture”.
Despite the general indifference, Vives points out that he continues to feel the gestures of prejudice from others, something he describes as a condemning attitude towards homeless people, due to the fact of living in poverty. In his experience, however, he also claims to have experienced positive things. From making friends with other homeless people to having a greater understanding of this reality.
Far from romanticizing his experience, he affirms that it allowed him to understand that the difference between the homeless and ordinary people is not as abysmal as it might seem and that it could really happen to anyone: “In the end it is almost like an escape forward from what is difficult going out a lot”.
The empathetic journey that Jaume Vives chose, however, is far from being something unique or new, and has been part of the Christian experience of numerous religious orders, which for centuries and even today, they continue to put into practice. Some congregations, such as the Society of Jesus, seek, through the example of Saint Ignatius of Loyola 500 years ago, to encourage the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, as well as love and mercy for their neighbors.
For this purpose, it is common for many Jesuits during their novitiate to live an experience of begging as a formative rite. The novices must survive at the mercy of other people’s help, living in an unknown city without money or food for a month or a month and a half, and without revealing their status as Jesuits.
“There is a part of wanting to experience poverty as Jesus lived it, and at the same time promoting solidarity,” explains Pau Vidal, Jesuit and delegate of the Order of Jesus in Catalonia. He himself also spent a week living on the streets with two companions in the Ebro lands, which he remembers today as a “providential and precious” experience. However, he clarifies that in his case it was done as a community experience rather than an individual one, and that he did not experience it in all its rawness. He explains that one day he agreed with his colleagues to spend 24 hours in isolation, and it was enough for him to know all the harshness. “The loneliness may have been the hardest thing,” he says.
Another Jesuit, who preferred to remain anonymous for this report, explains that in his case he spent two months on the streets in Alicante, as part of his training in the novitiate. The religious remembers it as an experience that was “unforgettably hard, but humanly very beneficial.”
His time in poverty exposed him to a daily reality, parallel to the common reality of the rest of society. Among his hardest experiences he cites hunger, but again also loneliness: “After two weeks without talking to anyone you feel like your brain is turning off.”
“The longer you live on the street, the more you enter a depressive state from which it is very difficult to get out later,” confirms De Ahumada, and insists that “that is why the bond and showing interest in them is so important.”
The path of a homeless person towards a normal life goes through a complex process of empowerment and dignity in which friendship, understanding and patience are basic to begin this return to normality. “It’s not as easy as changing your appearance and that’s it. Changing shapes, habits and so on takes time,” says Andrew Funk. Recognizing them is a beginning on the journey to recovering normality, and cohabiting with them is perhaps a more extreme degree of commitment, and wanting to break the barriers between your world and that of others.
And although, to help and accompany them it is not necessary to follow the example of Mª Àngels or the Jesuits, sometimes it is enough to do the minimum so that a change begins to occur, even looking at them or calling them by their name. “I remember that whenever the homeless people from Heura passed by me on the street, when I called them by name, they turned around and were happy that someone had recognized them,” Laia de Ahumada remarks.
Even so, given the possibility that other people voluntarily want to pass by on the street, he reflects: “If there are people who want to try it, I hope that their eyes will be opened, and that it will lead to a change of life to commit to the people who live in the “In the end, what we have to achieve is that no one wants to or has to sleep on the street.”
