Chileans are facing a homelessness crisis, a first for one of South America’s wealthiest countries

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SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The residence of president Gabriel Boric, Chile’s millennial leftist leader who was elected three years ago amid public unrest over income inequality, shares a street in downtown Santiago with a homeless shelter.

Cardboard boxes and blankets dotting the sidewalks in Boric’s bohemian neighborhood are reminders of his struggle to fulfill his promise to give Chileans “a better life.”

The recession caused by the pandemic combined with the housing crisis and the influx of major immigration have expanded the homeless population in Chile like never before. Over the past four years, the homelessness rate in one of South America’s richest economies has risen by more than 30%, turning the streets of a country proud of its prosperity.

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“The resources given to fight the homeless have decreased, and the homeless population is increasing,” said Rosario Carvajal, a city councilor in the capital, Santiago.

Even in the “barrios altos” – the well-to-do areas that previous president Boric called home – poor families are increasingly turning benches into beds and trees into toilets. In the beach tourist center of Vina del Mar, a crowd of improvised tents has covered the trendy art scene.

Chile says it has registered 21,126 homeless people this year, compared to 15,435 in 2020. Government figures rely on one-night snapshots by municipalities. Social workers put the real number at around 40,000.

Last month, the government announced that, for the first time, it would include homeless people in the national census. Aid workers say better numbers, however flawed, would better reflect the scope of the problem and the country’s progress – or lack thereof – in fixing it.

“This should force the government to implement more effective social policies,” said Andres Millar, of the Chilean charity Hogar de Cristo.

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The visibility of large numbers of homeless people in Chile – a country considered richer and more stable than its neighbors _ has put the issue on the agenda. “There is a lot of pressure from neighbors to reclaim public space,” Carvajal said.

Chilean police, reviled on the left for their handling of the 2019 mass protests, have broken up the camps, joining municipal workers in routinely removing rough sleepers from parks and plazas.

“The police came and took everything, tents, blankets, HIV medicine,” said Paris Lopez, 43, who was sleeping outside the city of Santiago. He stayed up all night, he said, fearing violence from the police as much as attacks from criminal gangs that have recently gained a foothold in Chile.

“It’s dangerous,” said Victoria Azevedo, a homeless mother, about life on the streets of Santiago – especially amid a crime wave that has seen Chile’s homicide rate rise 50% since 2018. “If you’re a woman and have children, worse.”

In recent years, Chile has experienced a demographic shift in its homeless population. Although there won’t be an official breakdown until the census comes out next year, experts say the country’s affordable housing crisis is pushing more women and children onto the streets.

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“All the families have lost the resources to pay the rent,” said Ximena Torres, another lawyer from Hogar de Cristo.

The pandemic lockdown has caused distress in Chile’s economy as it struggles to recover from 2019 mass protests that cost the country at least $3 billion, Chile’s national insurance organization estimates.

Lavish pandemic relief – including a measure allowing Chileans to cancel early – inflationary pensions. The unemployment rate doubled to a record 13% from 2019 to 2020, making it difficult to pay the rent. The central bank raised interest rates, lenders raised their borrowing costs and the housing crisis was born.

House prices have risen 70% over the last decade, said economist Gonzalo Duran of the SOL Foundation, a Chilean think tank.

“I was so broken inside,” said Moka Valdes, crying as she tried to describe the shock of landing on the streets last November after losing her job.

Migration is on the rise

Many of the families bouncing between the camps in Chile are undocumented migrants drawn to the country by its reputation as the most successful economy in South America.

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Government data shows that almost 1.6 million of Chile’s 19 million inhabitants are registered migrants, up from 1.3 million in 2018. The number of undocumented migrants has also increased, from 16,000 in 2020 to a staggering 53,875 two years later, according to the Responsible Observatory. . Migration, Chile watchdog.

As the economy slows and public backlash against migrants grows, Chile tightens visa requirements for Venezuelans – the largest group to arrive. And last year President Boric deployed armed forces to the northern border with Peru, a key migration pass, to check migrant documents and arrest smugglers.

After fleeing Venezuela and finding life as an intolerable migrant in Colombia and then Ecuador, 34-year-old Karen Salazar dreams of Chile. Through walking and pick-up trucks, Salazar, his wife and two children challenge the cold mountains, desert terrain and predatory smugglers, who are thrown by Chile’s reputation as a rare mobile country in the region.

He didn’t find what he wanted. At first, they lived in a flimsy camp in northern Chile. Then go to Santiago, and sleep outside in a public park.

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“We understand why we are in this situation, but seeing children like this is heartbreaking,” Salazar said from the shelter on Boric Street, where he was waiting in line for a free meal.

As the crisis escalated, aid groups increased pressure on the government. There are fewer than 200 homeless shelters nationwide, barely enough to house the 13% of the homeless population today, said local attorney Rodrigo Ibarra Montero.

When he took office in March 2022, Boric vowed to build 260,000 government-sponsored houses in four years. Because of the scale of the problem, many fear that it won’t be enough.

But the president hopes it will.

“We are making steady progress,” he said in a recent speech inaugurating a new public housing development in Santiago. “You must judge us at the end of our season.”

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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