NEWS

‘I want a job, not pity’

Costas, 55 «I have often been starving. One month I had only a few apples to eat. Back then they hadn’t yet opened the canteens. I worked for years as a seaman and then put my money into a business which failed. It was downhill from then on. For the last eight years, I have been living in a shack I have fixed up in an open public space. «There are a lot of shady deals going on around the homeless. There are gangs that provide loans or issue credit cards in the names of homeless people, who are then landed with the bills. I am terrified of losing my identity card. «Gala events are held supposedly to aid our plight so that politicians can promote their own image. A lot of money is wasted – hotel accommodation is overpriced, low-standard meals are also priced too high. As for the non-governmental organizations, each of them has latched on to a cause that is impossible to do anything about – the homeless, the jobless, or turtles! Only the ants are left.» Apostolis, 43 «I worked at the Public Power Corporation (PPC) in Argostoli (on the island of Cephalonia) for about eight years. When the PPC plant closed down and moved to Actio, I was let go along with 35 other people. In Cephalonia, only a skeleton staff of about five to six people was kept on. I went back to my village but there was no work there. I applied to PPC and elsewhere, but nothing came up. «I was on the streets for three months of hell. How can you sleep? You’re too scared. I slept rough with another guy in Piraeus for a while, but one night we were beaten up by about seven men who stole the 70 euros I had taken two days to earn. I was cold and wet all the time. Then I came to the Klimakas Center for the winter, otherwise I would have died. «Now I live in a flat with another six people. Things are very hard at night; we have no electricity. If you saw it you’d wonder if it were people or mice who lived there. I have had some very hard times. Climbing those power pylons was nothing compared to this. The mental strain is far worse than the physical hardship. If I had known three years ago what I was to go through, I would have gone crazy. «I don’t want a part-time job, but a full-time one. I’d even clean cesspits. I go everywhere looking for work – I load and unload trucks sometimes. I am 43, they don’t take me on easily. I want work, not pity, for goodness sake! I am too proud to bother my family. Sometimes I wish I’d get run over.» Giorgos, 60 «I am divorced, with three children. I had a job but now, because of my age, the contractors don’t want us. I can still work for those who know what I can do. I’m a marble worker and tiler. I sometimes find a day’s work but that is not enough to maintain a home. That’s how things are at this point. We don’t have steady work, so no social security stamps. I used to think that ‘you can’t take it with you.’ I couldn’t hang on to money, I didn’t think about tomorrow, but if you don’t, you can end up on the streets. All right, I used to gamble a bit, a game of cards at the cafe. I was on the streets for three months. The homeless don’t have any trouble finding food, but the problem is washing and sleeping. I used to go to porn cinemas that stay open till 5 a.m., not to watch the films but to sleep. Then I’d go to a cafe. If I didn’t have any work that day, I’d just walk around.»

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