SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The presidential palace of Gabriel Boric, Chile’s leftist millennial leader elected three years ago in response to public discontent over income inequality, is on the same street as a crowded homeless shelter in downtown Santiago.
The sight of cardboard boxes and blankets strewn on the sidewalks of Mr. Boric’s bohemian neighborhood is a stark reminder of his struggle to deliver on his promise to give Chileans a “better life.”
The pandemic-induced economic downturn, housing shortages and mass immigration have combined to push Chile’s homeless population to an all-time high. Homelessness in South America’s largest economy has risen by more than 30% in the past four years, upending the city’s streets in a country that prides itself on prosperity.
“Resources allocated to combat homelessness have been cut and the homeless population has increased,” said Rosario Carvajal, a city council member in the capital, Santiago.
In Barrio Altos, the wealthy neighborhood where former president Boric lived, poor families are increasingly turning benches into beds and sticks into toilets, and in the beachside tourist town of Viña del Mar, makeshift tents are crowding out the city’s thriving arts scene.
Chile says 21,126 people are registered homeless this year, up from 15,435 in 2020. The government figures are based on a one-night snapshot by municipalities. Social workers estimate the actual number is around 40,000.
Last month, the government announced it would include homeless people in the census for the first time, and advocates say a more accurate count, however imprecise, would better reflect the scope of the problem and the country’s progress (or lack thereof) toward solving it.
“This should force the government to implement more effective social policies,” said Andres Miller of the Chilean charity Hogar de Cristo.
The visibility of so many homeless people in Chile, a country considered much wealthier and more stable than its neighbors, has put the issue on the agenda. “There is strong pressure from neighborhoods to restore public spaces,” Carvajal said.
Chilean police, criticized by the left for their harsh response to mass protests in 2019, have begun dismantling encampments and work with city officials to regularly clear homeless people from parks and squares.
“The police come and take everything away: our tents, our blankets, our HIV medication,” said Paris Lopez, 43, who sleeps rough in downtown Santiago and says she stays up at night fearing police violence as much as attacks by criminal gangs, which have recently gained a foothold in Chile.
“It’s dangerous,” Victoria Azevedo, a homeless mother of two, said of life on Santiago’s streets, especially amid a wave of rising crime that has seen Chile’s murder rate rise by 50 percent since 2018. “If you’re a woman with children, it’s even worse.”
Chile has seen a demographic shift in its homeless population in recent years. An official breakdown won’t be available until next year’s census, but experts say the country’s lack of affordable housing is pushing more women and children onto the streets.
“Entire families have no assets left to pay rent,” said Ximena Torres, another Hogar de Cristo activist.
Chile’s national health institute estimates that the pandemic lockdowns have caused hardship for the country’s economy as it struggles to recover from mass protests in 2019 that caused at least $3 billion in losses.
Generous pandemic aid, including measures allowing Chileans to take their pensions early, has fueled inflation. Unemployment doubled from 2019 to 2020 to a record 13%, and many people are struggling to pay their rent. The central bank raised interest rates, lenders increased the cost of lending, and a housing crisis was born.
Gonzalo Duran, an economist at the Chilean think tank SOL Foundation, said home prices have risen 70 percent in the past decade.
“I’m heartbroken,” said Mocha Valdez, crying as she described the shock of losing her job and finding herself homeless last November.
Increased migration
Many of the families moving through Chile’s tent camps are illegal immigrants, lured to the country by its reputation as South America’s most successful economy.
According to government data, registered migrants in Chile’s population of 19 million have risen by nearly 1.6 million, up from 1.3 million in 2018. The number of illegal immigrants has also soared, from 16,000 in 2020 to a staggering 53,875 two years later, according to the Chilean watchdog Observatory for Responsible Migration.
Amid a struggling economy and growing public backlash against immigration, Chile has tightened visa requirements for Venezuelans, the largest group of recent arrivals, and President Boric last year deployed troops to its northern border with Peru, a key migrant crossing point, to check migrants’ documents and arrest smugglers.
After fleeing Venezuela and finding life as a migrant in Colombia and then Ecuador unbearable, 34-year-old Karen Salazar dreamed of Chile. Drawn by Chile’s reputation as one of the region’s few developing countries, Salazar, her husband and their two young children braved freezing mountains, inhospitable desert terrain and predatory smugglers on foot and in a pickup truck.
They didn’t find what they wanted: At first they lived in a shabby tent city in northern Chile, then moved to Santiago, where they slept in public parks.
“I understand why this is happening, but it breaks my heart to see kids like this,” Salazar said at the Bolick Street shelter, where she was waiting in line for free meals.
As the crisis deepens, aid groups are stepping up pressure on the government: There are fewer than 200 homeless shelters across the country, barely enough to house 13 percent of Chile’s current homeless population, said local activist Rodrigo Ibarra Montero.
President Boric has pledged to build 260,000 new government-backed homes over his four-year term when he takes office in March 2022. Many fear that will not be enough, given the scale of the problem.
But the president wants that to happen.
“We are making steady progress,” the president asserted in a speech inaugurating a new public housing development in Santiago. “I want you to evaluate us by the end of your term.”
___
Follow AP’s Latin America and Caribbean coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
