Soup and hope for Russia's homeless as winter bites

ST PETERSBURG, Russia, Nov 6: Mikhail might not seem to have a lot going for him -- he's living rough in St Petersburg and facing another harsh winter in a rich city where most are oblivious to his plight. But today he is happy.

His favourite soccer team -- Zenit St Petersburg -- won a recent match and he has found out where to get a bowl of soup and slice of bread every night.

''I've been told a bus will be bringing food to the same place and at the same time every evening. I also need some clothes, they've made a note of my size,'' said the 53-year-old, who did not want to give his last name.

It might not sound like much but in a country with few facilities for the homeless and where scores of street dwellers died during the coldest winter in a generation last year, any offer of help is welcome.

In affluent and pretty St Petersburg, the winter cold sets in as early as October and lasts until April. More than 8,000 homeless people live here, out of a population of around five million.

Life as a homeless person is especially difficult in Russia as the country has preserved a unique remnant of the Soviet police system -- registration at the place of residence, without which access to a job, pension, medical care or any state benefits is impossible.

There are few charities to help the homeless and those that do operate are small and underfunded.

So it is little wonder that Mikhail is excited about the arrival of a ''canteen on wheels'' run by local non governmental organisation Nochlezhka.

''A timely bowl of soup in winter time can save lives,'' said Maxim Egorov, head of Nochlezhka.

RICH MAN, POOR MAN

The new night bus made its first trip in early October.

''Everyone who comes to the bus gets hot soup, bread, tea, help from a nurse and a chat with a social adviser. But we are limited in what we can do: we can feed only 150 people a night,'' said Mikhail Kovalenko, who works at Nochlezhka.

Medical help is available on site. Sometimes Nochlezhka's activists drive people with sores, wounds or heavy colds to hospital, and then argue for them to be accepted.

Almost a fifth of Russia's 142 million people live below the poverty line -- their lives increasingly and painfully at odds with the huge wealth accumulated by an elite tier of ''New Russians'', grown rich on high world oil and metal prices. This new world flaunts its wealth in the department stores, expensive cafes and exclusive bars of Moscow, which boasts more billionaires than London and is second only to New York.

But last winter, scores of people died in the same city as temperatures plunged to around minus 30 degree Celsius the victims succumbed to heart attacks, hypothermia, excessive alcohol consumption and breathing problems.

Nochlezhka says about a third of the homeless in St Petersburg end up on the streets after being released from prison, a quarter are migrants and the rest are victims of housing conmen or have been thrown out of their homes by relatives.

St Petersburg has nine official hostels, or ''night-stay homes'' for the homeless, with beds for just 189 people.

Nochlezhka, which was set up in 1990, can offer shelter to another 40. The new night bus is the group's second ''canteen on wheels'' and was bought with money collected by authorities, residents and a church in Hamburg, Germany.

SUSPICION

Coping with homelessness in Russia is exacerbated by an ingrained suspicion of aid agencies, and a reluctance to donate, Nochlezhka's workers say.

''Businessmen think that everything they will give will be stolen. It's easier for them to throw away left-over food than give it to us,'' said Egorov, who spends hours trying to persuade restaurant owners to donate stale bread for the homeless.

Authorities have also recently introduced a new law which Nochlezhka says makes it harder for NGOs to receive foreign donations. Transfers from abroad make up more than 90 per cent of Nochlezhka's funds.

''The new law on NGOs makes it difficult to receive private donations because every money transfer has to be accompanied by a document showing the specific purpose of the funds. Before, people abroad just collected the money and transferred it to a bank account advertised on the Internet,'' Egorov said.

Despite these obstacles, Nochlezhka has notched up some successes: some of the visitors to its ''canteen on wheels'' have now got jobs as street cleaners, giving them a roof over their heads and a small salary.

Reuters