Presentation given by Dr Svetlana Stephenson, London Metropolitan University, UK at a FEANTSA Research Conference on "Homelessness and Poverty", Paris, France, 2009

1. Homelessness in Russia
Research Conference on Homelessness
Paris
18 September 2009
Dr. Svetlana Stephenson

2. Homelessness and poverty
• homeless people as ‘undeserving’ poor (Morris, 1993)
• ‘disreputable’ poor (Matza ,1966)
• displaced poor
‘An agent’s position in social space is expressed in the
site of physical space where the agent is situated (which
means, for example, that anyone said to be “without
home or hearth” or “homeless” is virtually without social
existence)’ (Bourdieu, 1999, p.124)’
Their main fault seems to be that they are situated
outside territorial communities, and this displacement
also almost universally signifies their transgression of
moral boundaries.

3. The key causes of homelessness in
Russia
The re-emergence of mass homelessness in
Russia in the 1990s-2000s is linked to
• economic and forced migration
– the growing problem of undocumented residents
(Russian migrants and so called gastarbeitery),
having to keep alive either by dependence on their
legally established relatives or by working in the
streets
• marketisation of housing
• erosion of enterprise based social systems

4. Erosion of enterprise-based social
systems
• Vast social welfare functions of state enterprises
• Reform of social protection entailed a relegation
of responsibilities for housing by the enterprises
to the municipal authorities
• Enterprises provided a locus for all types of
relationship associated with close-knit
communities – be they neighbour, kin or
friendship ties.
• Having lost corporate economic and social
support and lacking access to state welfare,
unskilled and poor individuals became
vulnerable to homelessness

5. 2005-6 survey of homeless people
• Average length of homelessness is 7 years
• 80% men
• 24% secondary education
• 66% vocational education
• 9% primary education
• 1% uneducated
• 96% are Russian citizens
• The majority are aged between 25 and 45 years

6. 2005-6 survey of homeless people
436 interviewees in 7 regions
• 38% family causes
• 19% property fraud
• 11% were discharged from prison
• 11% were evicted
• 10% sold their housing
• 3% voluntary homeless
• 2% care-leavers

7. Displacement and re-placement
displaced people try to exercise their own
‘re-placement’ strategies – by moving to
peripheral spaces of the country, switching
on to the informal economic markets and
developing their own webs of personal
relations and ties

8. Conditions leading to long-term
poverty and exclusion
• low/unpredictable earnings from street activities;
• a risk of physical violence
• health risks
• legal obstacles to employment and re-housing
• harassment and persecution by the agents of
social control
• lack of access to facilities of rehabilitation.
• low degree of social cohesion within the street
community

9. 2005-6 survey of homeless people
• 61,1% of the homeless people experienced
physical violence since becoming homeless.
• Only 60% of homeless people had daily access
to hot food
• About a half of the interviewees tried to get
housing and registration without result
• Over one third did not even try due to a lack of
funds, documents or a lack of hope

10. • Current economic crisis has led to an
increase in the numbers of “new “
homeless.
• St.Petersburg’s ‘Nochlezhka’ reports that
the number of new clients in the first three
months of 2009 increased 30% compared
to the same period in 2008. Most of these
people have no money to rent their
housing after having lost their jobs.

11. Changes in social protection
legislation
The Law ‘On the foundations of social
services for the population in the Russian
Federation’ of 15 November 1995 :
people without fixed abode, together with
other groups in a ‘difficult life situation’ are
entitled to support from social protection
bodies (such as placement in temporary
shelters, residential homes and material
assistance).

12. Lack of facilities
• According to the Ministry of the Interior data of
2002, there were 4 mln street homeless people
in Russia, and 6 mln “hidden” homeless
• There are about seventy special social
assistance institutions for people without fixed
abode, with 8,000 places. The city of Moscow
now has twelve night shelters with a total of
1,600 places
• In St.Petersburg there are 300 hostel places for
10,000 street homeless people

13. Residential rights = social,
economic and political rights
Unregistered individuals have major
obstacles with obtaining
• legal employment
• civil and political rights
• access to social benefits
• non-emergency health care
• access to housing (including homeless
shelters!)

14. The experience of the unsolved
threat of poverty
The newly prominent visibility of
experiences of poverty and social
displacement can produce different
effects:
• the undermining of the citizenship of those
who are marginalised and criminalised;
• or, conversely, a new awareness of
citizenship rights as part of the need for
more comprehensive social cohesion.

15. Poverty as a perceived cause of
social disintegration
‘The most destitute and hopeless segment
of the homeless people…beg, rummage
through rubbish, steal, become carriers of
infectious diseases and originators of fires,
create moral discomfort for the members
of the public. ‘ (Homelessness, the
Russian Social Encyclopaedia)

16. Poverty as the cause of crime
“Because of their dirty, ragged clothes and shoes the
bomzhi are expelled from public places and they have to
roam the streets looking for night shelter. This leads to
frequent aggression, violation of public order, coming
together with similar bomzhi in cellars, underground
water pipes, dug-outs and dachas. Bomzhi
unconsciously develop spontaneous protest against their
non-acceptance by society and this leads to muggings,
vandalism and more serious deviations.”
(Zavialov and Spiridonova, 2000, p.69).

17. Repressive re-placement
“These people need help and not prohibitive
measures. Naturally, they influence the
criminogenic situation, but mostly they affect the
sanitary–epidemiological condition of the city.
Unkempt sight, specific smell, and of course
Muscovites and visitors do not like encountering
lice. That is why the militia removes this
category. This removal mainly aims to provide
social and medical help in co-operation with
other agencies and not to repress. He is not a
law-breaker, he is a citizen, but he needs help”
(police officer, Moscow)