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Transcript/Script EnglishPLAYBOOK SLUG: Brazil Homeless (TV)
HEAD: Homeless Population Takes Over Sao Paulo Streets
SUBHEAD: The number of homeless people soars in Brazil’s biggest city as the country’s crisis deepens.
PUBLISHED AT: 12/20/2021 at 10am
BYLINE: Yan Boechat
DATELINE: Sao Paulo, Brazil
CAMERA: Yan Boechat, João Castellano
PRODUCER:
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA, AFP
SCRIPT EDITOR: LR, BR
TRT: 3:30
VID APPROVED BY: MAS
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB _x_ TV _x_ RADIO __
UPDATE: ACCOMPANYING PHOTOS VIA EMAIL; YAN’S EMAIL IS yanboechat@hotmail.com))
((INTRO)) [[Since the start of the pandemic, the streets of Sao Paulo have become home to thousands of Brazilians who have lost everything. Homelessness is not new to Brazil's biggest, most prosperous, and most important city. According to government statistics – it had jumped by 50 percent in the five years preceding 2019, but as Yan Boechat reports from Sao Paulo, the problem has worsened since then.]]
((NARRATOR:))
It feels like home, says Tairine de Souza, the homeless mother of two who lives under this bridge in Sao Paulo.
De Souza lives here with12 other people who, like her, found life on the streets is the only way to survive.
((Tairine de Souza, Homeless Person ((FEMALE, IN PORTUGUESE))
"Look,no one chooses to live on the street, no one chooses. If people are living on the street, it's because they've gone through something or they're going through something to get to this point".
((NARRATOR))
De Souza is part of a different profile of homeless people. Until a decade ago, the homeless population of big cities was mostly made up of men with drug and alcohol problems.
With the economic crisis deepening in the country, more and more people like her are turning to the streets.
((RADIO VERSION: Robson Mendonça heads the advocacy group, Movimento Estadual da População em Situação de Rua de São Paulo or State Movement of Sao Paulo’s Homeless Population. The group was started by former homeless people. ))
((Robson Mendonça, Homeless Advocacy Group President (MALE, IN PORTUGUESE))
"The homeless population has increased by more than 100%. With the pandemic, people lost their homes, and the government did not provide housing assistance. With the recession and unemployment and inflation, the number of homeless people grew by a lot."
((NARRATOR:))
Advocate Robson Mendonça knows it well. Once homeless, he has been distributing food to the poor in downtown São Paulo every day for more than 20 years. The last homeless population census was carried out in 2019 and counted almost 25 thousand people living on the streets.
But those figures are now way out of date, says Mendonça.
((Robson Mendonça, Homeless Advocacy Group President (MALE, IN PORTUGUESE)) "Sixty-thousand people are living in total vulnerability on the streets in São Paulo today."
((NARRATOR:))
The increase in the homeless population in Brazil's largest city reflects the economic crisis that has befallen the country in the last decade. The coronavirus pandemic worsened a dire economic situation – one that is a key issue in the next presidential elections, set to be held next October.
In 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was elected on promises of ending corruption. In the past three years, inflation has soared, unemployment has continued to run at 13 percent, and the average Brazilian income has fallen by 10 percent.
Poverty weighs on the minds of many ahead of the poll.
((Lidiane Silva, Homeless Person (FEMALE, IN PORTUGUESE))
"The pandemic came; I worked in recycling. The stores closed; I couldn't work."
((NARRATOR))
Lidiane Silva, like millions of Brazilians, could not bear the crisis. Without a job and money, she came to the door of the Sao Paulo Cathedral where she now makes her home.
((RADIO VERSION: Monsignor Julio Lancelotti heads the Catholic archdiocese’ ministry for people living on the street.))
((Msgr. Julio Lancelotti, Episcopal Vicar for the Homeless ( MALE, IN PORTUGUESE))
"Democracy is at risk with inequality of this size."
((NARRATOR))
Monsignor Julio Lancelotti has been dedicating his life to the homeless population for over four decades. He has only seen the situation get worse and fears for the future.
((Msgr. Julio Lancelotti, Episcopal Vicar for the Homeless (MALE, IN PORTUGUESE))
"We have to resist in a fight we are losing. And we're going to lose more. More people will die, more people will go to live on the streets. It will increase, but we are not going to stop fighting."
((NARRATOR))
Lacking government assistance, many of the homeless now look for help from people like Father Julio, Robson Mendonça and private charities. Their work among the poorest of the poor is only getting bigger.
((Yan Boechat, for VOA News, Sao Paulo))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
Topic TagsHomeless
Brazil
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateDecember 20, 2021 17:43 EST
Brand / Language ServiceUS Agency for Global Media
