Caras dos Sem Abrigo em Lisboa. Por Uncle Monty.

Caras dos Sem Abrigo em Lisboa.

Por Uncle Monty.

Faces of Homelessness at Lisbon.

By Uncle Monty.

Lisboa Photos By Alex Albion.

***

Lilliana Pęlo is old enough to be a great-grandmother.
Yet, she has no home at the historic capital of Portugal

at where she was born almost 75 years ago. While I

surmise her name, her age, and her place of birth,

I do not surmise the fact that she is homeless and

sleeping rough on the streets despite her being so

elderly and in such poor health. See the photo

of Lilliana below.

***
"Lilliana Pęlo"

***

Each day she goes to her local No. 28 city
bus stop and begs for abit of money.
That’s where I first saw and met Lilliana

Pęlo on my way to get a city bus ride to

East Oriente. Everybody at the bus stop

just plainly ignored her with her little

plastic cup in her hand with no coins in it

other than the ones I gladly gave her. No
empathy or sympathy was shown toward
her by the well-fed folkz at the bus stop.
In her other hand she displayed a small sign
in Portuguese presumably asking for help
from her fellow Lisboans. But they just

ignored the poor woman, whose face was
so wrinkled it was hard to ignore the

suffering that I saw in her sad face

and her weary eyes and her

aged lips of old age.
***

In many ways, Lilliana Pęlo would be better

off dead than alive. She struggles daily to

live. And, the quality of her life looks pretty

dismal like so many others caught-up in

the homeless cycle of dead-end street living.

She is, ironically, already like the living dead

in many ways, too. For the Portuguese society

has given up on her for whatever reasons best

known to itself. She wasn't the only elderly

woman I met that was homeless on the

winter streets of Lisboa.

***
Another Street Lady with Uncle Monty at Lisboa.

***
A few days earlier I discovered another “Street
Lady” at Lisbon’s downtown Praça do Comercio

at where a number of the regular homeless gather

to rough sleep and socialise each night under the
canopy of the sheltered walkways. Come morning
the Lisboa municipal police – Policia Municipal -

move them out by force until the shops there

close at night. They then return to spend

yet another night sleeping at the plaza.

***
While at the Portuguese capital, I went most nights
after dark to checkout the homeless and to give them

a euro or two to help them out. During the day, I kept

a sharp lookout for homless people throughout the city

as I went here and there to record the sights of Lisbon.

***
Some Homeless Men Nr. St. Emilia Street.

***

In the most unexpected places scattered around

the city, I came upon the homeless like near

St. Emilia Street off the beaten track and found

homeless men and women in clusters just laying

or sleeping or lounging on the streets in broad

day light. They were hidden from the drama of

downtown Lisboa and forgotten and unseen

by the busy city slickers and ever trooping

foreign tourists. The photo above is a good

example of what I found of just two of the
homeless near St. Emilia Street along with

the above caption photo that introduces

this story of mine to you called "Caras

dos Sem Abrigo em Lisboa."
***
Homeless Camp near Lisbon's Cais do Sodrė.

***

My impression is that the City of Lisbon seems

to be in absolute denial of the serious problem

of the homelessness and its ever-growing

displaced population. When I also hit upon a

make-shift homeless camp (seen above) of

about couple of dozen or so members at the

Rio Tejo river edge near Cais do Sodrė, it

only confirmed my suspicion of the denial

of the homeless by the authorities at the

Portuguese capital.

***

I was told it was too danger to approach by

myself the make-shift homeless camp as a
foreign visitor for they may rob me of my

money, my cameras, my passport, and even

beat me, etc., but I went ahead anyway and

then photographed upfront the entire home-

less camp for this story of mine of the faces

of homelessness at Lisboa. They told me at

the camp that I was the first Englishman to

venture with my cameras to the camp and

to speak with those homeless there. I had

no fear whatsoever of being harmed despite

the graphic tales of horror I was told else-

where about the "dangerous" and "evil"

camp. Nothing could have been further

from the truth. The camp itself was

made-up of mostly Portuguese-African

immigrants who became jobless and

homeless since their unhappy arrival

at Lisbon during the past decade of

immigration admission to Portugal. The

rise of the black immigrant homeless is also

a growing social problem at Lisbon. In fact,

I witnessed alot more blacks on the streets

of the Portuguese capital than I have in places

like Washington, D.C. (at where I myself was

homeless), or in London or Melbourne or

Copenhegen or Rome. At the Lisboa camp,

poor white folkz also shared the same camp

being equally jobless and homeless, too.

***
Uncle Monty (centre) With More of

the Lisbon Homeless on the Streets.

***

There isn’t any street paper at Lisbon, from

what I could find, for the homeless to sell un-

like in other European Union countries. Nor is

there much of a social service system to help

them out even with the present Portuguese

socialist government of José Sócrates in power.

One of the homeless guys – with many of them

speaking quite good English to me – said that

the few homeless hostels available were full

and that to get a bed in one of them was more

a matter of luck and timing than anything else.

There are no “Tea Runs," to speak of, although

I did see a volunteer bring soup to one of the

old street ladies at Praça do Comercio while I

was there. He asked that I not photograph him,

which I didn't to ensure that he would come again

and help those he is helping by his good deeds.

At Praça do Comercio itself, I counted at least

18 to 25 of the homeless and rough sleepers

there just in one night. They ranged in age

from perhaps 17 to 77 of both males and

females and of black and white people.
***
At Night, Another Lisbon Rough Sleeper.

***

It was getting on for midnight when the rough

sleeper shouted out at me and he immediately

flung his hands up in the air and I then imme-

diately shot the image of him as shown above

just like he was before he promptly put

his hands and arms back down at his side.

He wanted to know if I had any cigarettes

and/or booze to give to him. I said "no," for I

don't smoke nor drink - period. He spoke only
alittle rough English, but enough whatever to

then beg some money out of me instead of

fagz and booze. He then promptly curled

up and quickly dozed off to sleep the night

away. He looked so starry-eyed, I thought.
***
Yet, Another Homeless Woman at Lisbon.

***

Some final comments on the homeless of Lisboa

under my title of "Caras dos Sem Abrigo em

Lisboa," highlights the fact that homelessness

is not only a problem at Portugal but also

throughout the European Union and to which

most member countries have barely grapple

with other than attempting to criminalize

and to stigmatise, in many cases, the

homeless in the hope that problem will

somehow go away. But, it will not.

***

To see elderly women living and fending

for themselves on the streets who are old

enough to be our great-grandmothers or

grandmothers is totally unacceptable whether

they're in Lisboa or London or anywhere else.

What I also learned at Lisbon is the homeless

are looked down upon with contempt, suspicion,

rejection and even a degree of hatred by

many of the pubic at large. They have no pity

for them no matter what. All homeless people

are seen as the same that is tantamount to

"blaming the victim" and thus exonerates

whatever guilt the individual or society would

otherwise have. That simply compounds the

growing homeless problem for where there

is no social or collective guilt then such will

rarely bring about constructive public solutions

to help resolve such problems like homelessnes

in the future. I am, therefore, not optimistic

that it will get any better for the Lisboa

homeless before it is going to get alot

worse, I'm afraid, for them.

***

But for now, since writing here of homeless

women at Lisbon, there is one interesting

one from Hawaii, Honolulu, as reported

Wednesday in USA TODAY’s

"News From Every State":
“A homeless woman who has kept up to 19 cats

in cages and shopping carts while she camps

along streets is the target of a bill in the State

Legislature. The measure would prohibit keeping

a pet captives on public property for more than

four hours and also would outlaw keeping
more than 10 cats or dogs as pets.”

***

Well, I've yet to see any homeless person

with 19 cats. Yes, a cat or two perhaps but

not that many cats. I've mostly seen the

homeless, especially males, with their dogz.

I never saw a Lisbon homeless woman

either with a cat or a dog. I did see a

couple of guyz with their dogz, however.

***

Must run for now ... Oh, Happy Valentine's

Day tomorrow to all those nice womenfolk

I know. No, you're not going to get red roses

or fancy cards, sorry. I cannot afford to keep

you all happy, so there you are ...

***

Kudos, Uncle Monty.

+Eve of St. Valentine.

First Friday the 13th of 2oo9.

There are 3 of them this year.

Good luck ...

***