Regarding sleeping on the street, the woman said that “you have to be careful, sleep with your eyes open because it is terrible for kids at night, between drugs and alcohol.”
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Photo: Cristian Lozano
A few meters from the woman, another woman is alone and homeless. When speaking with TVA Mendoza, she expressed: “I have been living on the street for three weeks because I have family that left me stranded. It has been horrible because I am 47 years old and this has never happened to me. “I wanted to make rice the other day, without burning anything, carefully, and the preventers and the police made me put it out.”
A family separated by the crisis
A couple reported that four months ago they lost their job and could not continue paying the rent. “If you don’t pay the rent you have to go out on the street”.
“We sell, we are window cleaners, we ask for water and pleasure helps us a lot. For example, we go out to sell nougat alfajores, whatever, and with that we more or less get enough to eat for the day,” they explained.
Living on the streets is not easy, especially with the arrival of winter. “The rain has already caught us, we are all suffering. Yesterday we had to call the ambulance because a woman here has bone problems, she couldn’t even walk,” the couple noted.
And he added: “They tell us that we have to get up, we get up and if you don’t want to for any reason, you couldn’t sleep at night because a lot of things happen, five or six come and take everything, mattresses, clothes, you left with nothing.” And he added: “They tell us that we have to get up, we get up and if you don’t want to for any reason, you couldn’t sleep at night because a lot of things happen, five or six come and take everything, mattresses, clothes, you left with nothing.”
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Photo: NA
The couple explained that, In total, they have 5 children: three are hers and two are his.. However, they live separately from the children.
“The children are with her mother, Why are we bringing the children here? If I bring a little boy here they will take him away from me. We sleep with one eye open and the other closed. Last night there was a piñadera and a pool of blood was left,” they said.
Despite the cold, the couple told Medios Andinos that “they take turns keeping the area clean.” “I ask for a rake, clean here so that they don’t come and take the little we have.”
When asked about food in dining rooms, the couple explained that It is difficult for them to get food or donations because “what was food is now snacks”. “Now you have to share a hamburger between three because if you don’t you’ll go without eating. There are several dining rooms, but they’re not enough anymore.”
In general terms, they maintained that they feel abandoned.
“There was someone next to me who said ‘I’m cold, I’m cold’ and he had urinated from the cold. Poor thing, without a blanket, without anything. That’s going to be a frozen future,” they concluded. “There was someone next to me who said ‘I’m cold, I’m cold’ and he had urinated from the cold. Poor thing, without a blanket, without anything. That’s going to be a frozen future,” they concluded.
Embed – THE FIRST WINTER LIVING ON THE STREET
You may also be interested in reading: Collapsed shelters and families on the streets: the harsh reality of the crisis in Mendoza
With journalistic production by Denia Gómez and Luis Vigazzola
