Homeless People: A View from A Foreigner

When the first time I stepped out of the Ferihegy Airport it was a winter day, it was cold for me who has been living with sunshine everyday for all of my life. But I was excited so I ignore the coldness. Then I got on the old, scary metro like I always see on TV where they pictured the subway of Bronx. Again, I ignored all of it for the second time. Long story short, it was nearly evening and it was already dark, I did not see anything much after that.

Then the next day I was out exploring the city of Budapest, and I can see everything with my eyes. How the people in here are tall, how beautiful the buildings are, how there are a lot of people smokes, and another thing I noticed was there are many homeless people in Budapest. I’m not saying that my country is free from the poor or homeless people, they are there but I don’t see them every day. They have a house though it’s only a rickety shack. But in here I can see them every day, everywhere.

This is a very sensitive issue I know, but I just can’t help but noticing. Many of them are living in a metro station or just simply on the street. For example, in Ferenciek Tere metro station I can some people living there, I know the metro station is still new but they make it less looks new. They just live there and I have not seen anyone give them money. But they still have some breads and blanket, though it is not much but I think it is enough to keep them warm and not starving. But to live outside on winter is tough, and of course nobody wants that to happen to them.

I have no clue about who the homeless people are, are they Hungarians or immigrants from other countries. I looked at the internet and I saw that actually Hungarian government has a legislation about it. It says that homeless people can be fined, the also may receive a custodial sentence too in under certain circumstances. But I have not seen any government officer or police do their job to talk to the homeless people or maybe to relocate them somewhere else. It is a hard task to convince them to live a better life but it’s for their own good. I am no one to judge but in my honest opinion (and I’m sure everyone else’s), it will be much nicer if they move to another place and no longer live in public spaces.

To sum up, there are a lot of homeless people living in Budapest. According to some locals the percentage of them also getting higher year by year. The government actually has a legislation about it but I’m not sure if it’s working effectively or not. But from a foreigner’s point of view who just started living in Budapest, it was not the impression I expected before I came.