Health issues, aggression confront Sevilla’s homeless

New survey of Sevilla homeless reveals depth of problems facing city's street dwellers. Image: Ayto. de Sevilla / Diario de Sevilla
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• Nearly half of all homeless experience aggression while living on city’s streets
• Nearly 70 pct have health problems, two-thirds admit to mental health issues

The just-released results of a socio-demographic survey of people living homeless on the streets of Sevilla shows that nearly two-thirds (61.6 perent) have been living on the streets of Spain’s fourth largest city for more than three years and nearly half (47 percent) have been the victims of some form of agression from others since they have become homeless.

The survey of a sampling from among 444 homeless people encountered on Sevilla’s streets on a single night in November was sponsored by the Sevilla city government’s Municipal Unit for Social Emergencies and Social Exclusion (Unidad Municipal de Emergencias Sociales y Exclusión Social , Umies), and carried out with the help of non-governmental organizations working with the homeless in Spain, including the Spanish Red Cross, Caritas, Médicos del Mundo, Solidarios, RAIS Foundation, the Miguel de Mañara Project and Cristo Vive.

According to the survey results, the most common prototype of a person living homeless on the streets of Sevilla today is a male individual of Spanish nationality, single, from 46 to 55 years old and with primary or secondary education. Of those interviewed, more than two-thirds (69.86 percent) said they suffer from physical illness or health problems and only slightly fewer (64.8 percent) acknowledge they suffer from some type of mental illness.

► Read More in Spanish at Diario de Sevilla and Europa Press …

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