What to do if life forces you to be convinced by your own experience of the correctness of the saying “do not renounce the bag”? Where to turn, left without a home and sources of income? "Republic" has prepared instructions for survival in the "stone jungle".
Anatoly, a resident of one of the villages in the Belogorsk district, no longer remembers exactly when life turned its back on him. In the nineties, he “got hooked on a glass”, then he lost his job, then his wife left, then he drank the house away and ended up on the street. “Homeless” until one of the neighbors took pity and took him to work. Anatoly helped in the garden, worked in construction, and in return received food and a bed for the night. Life was just beginning to get better, when a misfortune happened - Anatoly ended up in the hospital. Neither his "employer", nor anyone else, he, the patient, was needed. Anatoly will be discharged soon. What to do next - he does not know: he says, without housing, money and with the stigma of "homeless" he has nowhere to go.
It is not known exactly how many such offended by fate people in Crimea: statistics on vagrants are not kept. Two years ago, before the winter cold, Crimean law enforcement officers carried out the “Homeless” operation: people who had no housing and were vagrants were sent to a reception center where they were provided with accommodation and food, but now such raids are not carried out. “We would be happy to help, but there is nowhere to put these homeless people,” the press service of the Center for Public Relations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Crimea says. “In August 2010, the Simferopol reception center was closed.”
Psychologist Olga Vitchenko believes that what ends up on the street is not those who have nowhere to go, but those who do not want to live according to the rules accepted in society.
“A bum is not a person without a roof over his head, but a person with certain beliefs. Usually these people value the freedom not to work, the freedom to live without documents, without control, freedom from family, freedom to drink... Work where you have to obey some rules is hard labor for them, the observance of social norms is an encroachment on freedom. If a person has realized the hopelessness of the life of a homeless person, he will begin to return to society, but you need to realize it ... Whoever wants, they will always lend a helping hand.”
Work and money
At first glance, it may seem that no one cares about a person who is left alone with his misfortune. Actually, it is not. Deceived relatives; while he was in places of deprivation of liberty, his relatives fussed and discharged a dysfunctional relative; signed, inattentively reading, documents and ended up on the street - in each case, state structures dealing with social policy issues provide the necessary support. So, for example, in the Employment Service you can not only find out about vacancies, but also get free legal advice and, of course, apply for unemployment benefits.
“We help everyone who contacts us. I emphasize, to everyone,” says Irina Boris, deputy head of the department of the Republican Employment Center. “You can limit yourself to free legal advice, but if a person has documents, he can be registered, and then he will receive benefits.”
By registering with the Employment Center, you can get other "privileges", for example, one-time financial assistance. It is paid to socially unprotected citizens in the event of a prolonged illness, death of close relatives, natural disaster or other extreme life circumstances. Whom to help is decided by a special commission under the Crimean Ministry of Social Policy. “This year, the commission considered 103 appeals from citizens, paid 121,000 hryvnias of financial assistance,” says Elena Semichastnaya, Minister of Social Policy of Crimea. - By the way, similar assistance is provided at the expense of district budgets under the “Care” program. To get it, you need to contact the local Department of Labor and Social Protection.
However, a person who, by the will of fate, found himself on the street, is unlikely to have a work book, a salary certificate and an identification code - at best, only a passport. What to do and what to expect in such a situation?
Roof over your head
The Ministry of Social Policy says that there are several social protection institutions for the homeless in Crimea, including non-governmental organizations. For example, in Simferopol since 2007, the "Center for Registration and Social Protection of Homeless Citizens" (formerly the House of Night Stay) has been opened, which is financed from the city budget. As Galina Protasova, head of the social policy department, notes, today this is the only place in Crimea where you can not only live for free, but also get registration for six months. An individual assistance plan is drawn up for each homeless person.
“In the first half of the year, 236 people turned to the Center. Of these, 148 people received registration, 32 found a job, 16 had their documents restored, 124 simply received accommodation and meals,” says Galina Protasova. A vagabond can stay in an overnight stay for 24 days. During this time, it is possible to draw up documents (or start the registration procedure), find a job, find housing, and, if necessary, get a job in a hospital or a nursing home.
For many who have become a victim of life circumstances, days at the Center are an opportunity to take a break, gather their thoughts, re-learn how to relate to society and change their life attitudes. Psychologists help them with this.
“First of all, we do not separate our guests from ordinary people. Yes, they smell bad, they don’t know some elementary things, but everything can be changed, ”says one of the employees of the Center. - We teach them to make decisions on their own, we constantly remind them that the problem will not be solved by itself, personal participation, personal responsibility are needed. Figuratively speaking, in order for you to open the door, you need to knock on it - not once or even twice.
The "Center for Registration and Social Protection of Homeless Citizens" is designed for forty places, and not everyone can get here. People who are in a state of drug and alcohol intoxication, with mental disabilities, with infectious diseases and who have not undergone fluorography, are strictly prohibited from entering the "Center". Although no one is denied a cup of hot soup here. By the way, the homeless can get money for fluorography from public organizations that cooperate with the Center, but more on that later. So, crossing the threshold of a temporary shelter, the vagrants fall into the hands of a doctor who examines them and gives permission to stay, and then take a shower and get clean linen. If necessary, the paramedic organizes consultations with doctors or additional examinations (the “Center” cooperates with the 3rd polyclinic and hospitals No. 2 and 7). Employees of the "Center" also work closely with the district police departments, the passport office of the Central District, and public organizations.
In Christ's bosom
The church is always ready to help the orphan and the poor: to feed, clothe, cure, provide work. The Society of Orthodox Doctors has been working in Crimea for 10 years now. Its chairman Tatyana Shevchenko says: “Our functions are much wider than helping the homeless. But if a person is in such a difficult situation, we help with hospitalization and overnight stay. And to all people, regardless of religion.
A doctor's office has been opened in the building of the Crimean diocese, and activists of the Society of Orthodox Doctors receive everyone free of charge. If they cannot help, they are sent to colleagues in Simferopol clinics.
According to volunteer Maria Smutok, many churches have refectories. “Especially in rural and suburban areas. Everyone will be given food there. Maybe it's not always advertised, but it's true. There is a free refectory, for example, at the church of the Holy Prophet Elijah on the Evpatoria embankment.
Public associations can also provide heat, food, help with housing and work. For example, for thirteen years, the International Christian organization "Salvation Army" has been making sure that the Crimean homeless do not starve and do not freeze in winter and can again find themselves in society.
“A homeless person usually smokes, drinks and takes drugs. We have access to rehabilitation centers, if a person wants, we send him to be treated,” explains Irina Denisyuk, an officer of the Salvation Army in Crimea.
An international charitable organization helps people get into the Center for Registration and Social Protection of the Homeless, and other rehabilitation centers in Crimea and Ukraine.
“We help with paperwork, sometimes we even take it by the hand and go to various authorities. Sometimes we pay expenses - for example, a ticket home to another region of Crimea or Ukraine,” says Irina.
In the Salvation Army, the homeless can get their teeth treated for free, take a bath, get clean linen and warm clothes. Volunteers will find cheap housing or a room in a hostel for those who wish.
“I can say for sure: you can only help a person who wants help and is ready to accept it,” says the Salvation Army officer.
What documents are needed to register at the employment center?
- Passport or document replacing it
- Employment book or its duplicate
-Documents of education and professional qualifications
- Identification code
- Certificate of average salary for the last three months at the last place of work.
When will aid begin?
From the 8th day after registration with the employment service. For persons who are dismissed of their own free will without good reason or for violation of labor discipline, the payment of unemployment assistance begins from the 91st calendar day.
Any Russian can lose an apartment or house and become homeless, but this happens especially often in some special categories - socially unprotected or fallen into the hands of swindlers or circumstances:
- lonely old people
- Orphans not accustomed to real life come from orphanages
- Alcohol and drug addicts, gamblers
- Co-investors in the market of new buildings
- Mortgage borrowers who failed to calculate their strength
- Disaster victims
Let's take a closer look.
How do they become homeless
1. Vagabonds - not protected elderly people
The lion's share of this category is made up of elderly and unprotected old people or sick people.
The hope that healthy relatives will protect the weak old people does not always come true - often it is the relatives who drive the elderly out of the street.
Moreover, the elderly themselves are not afraid of being deceived by their relatives, but of being evicted from their apartments due to the inability to pay utility bills. However, it is precisely these fears that are in vain - the proportion of people who have become homeless due to the inability to fully pay for a communal apartment is negligible.
According to the law, recovery under judicial executive documents cannot be levied on an apartment or house - the only residential premises that belong to the debtor - the owner of the apartment on the right of ownership.
The only exception here is an apartment with an encumbrance, that is, taken on a mortgage.
In the worst case, if debts have accumulated over several years, bailiffs can change the apartment to a smaller one, and use the released amount to pay for communal services.
Moreover, pensioners have a way out, which many people use with pleasure - lifelong maintenance with a dependency. In this case, the elderly person is paid a lifetime annuity or he receives services - cleaning, laundry, repairs, purchase of medicines.
However, lifelong maintenance with a dependent is often used by fraudulent black realtors who skillfully manipulate documents when signing an annuity agreement.
- They choose lonely, defenseless or illiterate people
- Rubbed into trust by providing primary assistance or simply drinking vodka
- Serious psychological pressure
- Often there is also a drug effect that undermines the health of an elderly person.
How close relatives cheat:
Often these are the closest people - children or grandchildren.
Through persuasion, promises, or a simple psychological divorce “don’t you love me?” elderly apartment owners re-register an apartment for close relatives under a verbal promise of living until the end of their lives.
After re-registration of apartments, old people are simply kicked out.
Moreover, from some higher considerations, it is easier for older people to wander around other people's corners than to sue their own child.
If fraudulent activities related to the illegal sale of an apartment are detected, you must first seize the apartment.
2. Homeless people and orphans
Despite all the adopted laws, the protection of the state often becomes only a formality. Very often, orphans and disabled people do not have an official guardian who would protect such people from scammers and their own unwillingness to make serious decisions.
Under the current law, graduates of orphanages must receive an apartment or house and after five years they can privatize it. However, graduates of orphanages very often remain without an apartment and join the ranks of either homeless people or criminals.
How scammers deceive orphans
Such a scheme is often used - when privatizing an apartment, scammers try to ensure that apartments are privatized for more than one person. This may be a fictitious marriage, the use of a fictitious power of attorney, and many other schemes.
Approximately such schemes are used with disabled people
The apartment, again, under a fake power of attorney, is re-registered to a figurehead, and then resold.
Disabled and dependent people are evicted to cheap village houses in semi-abandoned villages, and it’s good if only one - there are cases when dozens of people are registered in such a house.
When a disabled or dependent person understands what's wrong, it's too late: the apartment has been resold more than once - courts in such cases can take years.
Often the victims of such crimes are lonely people, according to the documents they are normal, but who are actually incompetent, and do not understand the consequences of their actions.
3. Homeless people are dependent people
- People with mental illness who are not registered
- Alcohol abusers (silent alcoholics)
- Suffering from drug addiction, but not caught in the eye of law enforcement
Sometimes they also use such a method as issuing bad loans in advance and throwing people out of apartments with the help of collection agencies.
4. Homeless people investing in the construction of new buildings
By law, investors are protected from deception by the current law No. 214-FZ "On Participation in Shared Construction of Apartment Buildings and Other Real Estate". However, in practice, this group of people is also replenishing the ranks of the homeless. Moreover, the number of problem developers is growing all the time.
How investors become homeless:
- Troubled developers are preparing documents for a new building
- Developers build new buildings on land intended for individual housing construction
- Bankruptcy of the developer
- “Problem agreements” are concluded - instead of equity participation agreements, an agreement on participation in shared construction is concluded
- When concluding a “participation agreement”, all responsibility under the agreement falls on the developer
- When concluding a contract for participation in shared construction, the responsibility of both the developer and the shareholder is equal.
The order of transfer of the apartment:
- Appeal to the arbitration court with a demand to transfer an apartment that has not been put into operation
- Entering a shareholder in the register of creditors with a demand to return the money or transfer the apartment
- In the event that the new building is not completed, the equity holder can also receive an unfinished apartment - in this case, the house will have to be completed at his own expense.
5. Homeless members of housing savings cooperatives (HSC)
Why members of housing savings cooperatives become homeless
Lack of state registration in ZhNK - there is a risk of double and triple sales
The ability of ZhNK to demand additional money from shareholders, even if the contract is fully paid
When joining the ZhNK, entrance, targeted and membership fees are paid. In this case, only targeted contributions are refundable.
The return of money to the ZhNK is made only if the cooperative really has money
ZHNK is not an enterprise, but only a meeting of citizens; there is practically no one to present claims on all issues.
6. Homeless people - recipients of mortgage loans (banking homeless people)
This category becomes homeless extremely rarely. The most important reason in this case is the overestimation of one's strengths. Moreover, banks are often ready for many concessions - even a loan with a delay is better than litigation, which can take a very long time and an apartment on the bank's balance sheet.However, there are exceptions. Sometimes voluntarily or not voluntarily, banks deceive their customers.
7. Homeless people who lost their apartments of their own free will
Cases often leak into the periodical press when people voluntarily give up apartments, becoming adherents of various sects. Moreover, the actions of relatives trying to return the apartment often do not help - the owner of the apartment often has no complaints against the leaders of sects.8. Players on the stock exchanges and other gamers
Here comments are superfluous. Suffice it to recall the Jewish proverb: "The stock exchange killed more Jews than Hitler."9. Homeless scammers
Often people rush into unprecedented adventures, selling their apartments and investing them in various pyramids and other cunning frauds. These people number in the tens of thousands.10. Homeless people who became homeless as a result of natural or man-made disasters, destruction of houses
The number of such people is extremely small - usually the authorities try to help the victims of the fire, especially if the authorities themselves are to blame for such disasters - they could not prevent a fire or flood.
11. Homeless - military
Technologies for providing servicemen with apartments are becoming more and more complicated all the time. If, for example, ten years ago, in order to get an apartment, it was necessary to submit three documents to the military registration and enlistment office, including a passport, now there are more than thirty. In this regard, the mass of the military, despite the peppy reports, remain homeless.
The number of homeless people is not decreasing. They have ceased to be as prominent as they were ten or twenty years ago, however, due to inattention, ignorance of the laws or fear of appearing ignorant, people make fatal mistakes and lose their only home.
The main thing for them, as they themselves say, is to “relax the soul”, “pass out”. It means, as a rule, one thing: drink a lot of vodka. In this, modern homeless people, of course, are similar to the heroes of the play "At the Bottom". In general, they look at life optimistically. But how do they become like this? A man lived for himself - he worked, had a family. And suddenly something happened. What exactly? Why? Here is the real story of one homeless man.
It so happened that some time ago I quite often had to visit the old Moscow “Stalinist” house in the center of Moscow. On the first floors of this house there are grocery stores and a restaurant, their office space overlooks the courtyard. Here, in the yard, they bring food, unload it, throw away waste and garbage.
One day I casually chatted with a garbage collector named Konstantin. Little plump man with a mustache. Looks like a retired soldier. His mannerisms and appearance seemed interesting to me. And when he told me his story, it became clear that life itself had left its mark on him. A life without tragedy...
So it goes
So: the house has a large basement, as long as catacombs. There is no civilized garbage chute. As in all elite "Stalinist" houses, the garbage is thrown directly from the apartment and flies down the tunnel, but it does not fall into special tanks, as it happens in modern houses, but simply falls into the basement. Cleaning up smelly garbage, raking it out of the basement is an unpleasant and hard job, which not everyone agrees to. Is that the Tajik guest workers and ... the hero of our history.
According to the latest statistics, 4.2 million homeless citizens live in Russia. This is a rather rough estimate, since it would be difficult for obvious reasons to conduct a complete census of persons without a fixed place of residence. The error, according to experts, should be allowed to increase, but the official figure is comparable to the size of the Russian army.
Previously, an official worker of the Housing Office used to deal with garbage, but he was expelled because he illegally rented basement premises to people of Caucasian nationality for a warehouse of oranges and other perishable products. The inhabitants of the house simply could not bear the presence of "restless" people in their yard and wrote an angry letter to the higher, let's say, spheres. So, the official worker was fired, the merchants also disappeared - there was no one to clean up the garbage. It happened a year ago. And then there was Konstantin. Somewhere, he expropriated a large iron cart from someone and, having settled in the basement, began to earn a living.
The main part of his daily income is the proceeds from the delivery of empty bottles. They are given to him by the restaurant's janitor in exchange for the following service: Konstantin takes out the restaurant rubbish on his cart.
On bottles a day, Konstantin earns about a hundred rubles. The housing and communal services pay him some pennies for the removal (all on the same cart) of garbage from the basement - this provides Konstantin and his friend-colleague Sasha with a relatively calm existence in the basement. It is beneficial for the authorities to pay a penny to a person without documents for work that should be paid quite high.
In addition, the meat department of one of the grocery stores gives him so much meat waste that sometimes he, as he puts it, "has nowhere to go from them." They eat part of it with Sasha themselves, and give part to their friends - "lodgers", as they call them, that is, poor alcoholics with a residence permit. The “tenants” come from the neighboring houses to chat and drink vodka with Kostya and Sasha in their basement. They drink almost every evening. And after drinking, they fight, as a result of which their faces often appear as an indistinguishable blue mess. More often than not, Konstantin wins these "power battles in the basement" because he drinks less.
Konstantin was born in 1964 in the town of Balakhna, Gorky region. In Gorky, according to him, he graduated in absentia from the State Military Pedagogical Institute. Then he served and worked in Cherepovets, Khabarovsk, Ayan, Chimkent. His position was - deputy military commissar (he led the mobilization and conscription for military service). In the city of Chimkent, he started a family. But he did not reach retirement and was fired. He still has the habits of a boss, so he knows how to negotiate and make a good impression on the housing authorities. So, he begged for orange overalls and from the outside looks like an official janitor. He was given the keys to the basement, "so that no one wanders there." And all sorts of people roam. But as soon as someone else appears in the basement (except for Konstantin and Alexander), a drunken “battle for power” takes place, and there are two of them again.
The main thing for them, as they themselves say, is to “relax the soul”, “pass out”. It means, as a rule, one thing: drink a lot of vodka. In this, of course, they are similar to the heroes of the play "At the Bottom". In general, they look at life optimistically, although Sasha sometimes threatens to hang himself.
Stone to the bottom
A man lived for himself - he worked, had a family. And suddenly something happened. Konstantin believes that everything went wrong for him after his dismissal from the army. Each time he speaks about the reasons for dismissal in different ways. “I got laid off in the army,” he dismissed for the first time. And a few days later, being drunk, he told a romantic story about how his wife arranged a showdown with his next mistress at his work. The following story seems to be accepted as the true story of the dismissal.
The interregional network "For Overcoming Social Exclusion" has released a portrait of the average Russian homeless person. It turned out that people living on the streets are very different from those who lived on them 10 years ago. Not only has the level of education or age of the homeless changed, but also the reasons why they found themselves homeless.
“Well, vodka ruined me. There is a district center where I served in the military registration and enlistment office, it consists of officers of the military registration and enlistment office, employees of the military registration and enlistment office, which means that the border outpost is there, fishermen and goldsmiths. So what is their routine? Like sailors - they constantly go to sea, like gold miners - they work for six months, rest for six months. When they return, they have, in short, there, the local tavern (grin) switches to round-the-clock operation. Well, and, accordingly, it turned out that they returned and began to spend this money. I was a deputy military commissar, a respected person, as they say, and a young one, so, well, they dragged me into their circle.
And it turned out that we were sitting in a tavern, a messenger from the military registration and enlistment office came running: so and so, here, the duty officer said, the commission actually flies to Kamchatka from Khabarovsk, a very representative commission - a personnel officer, a military commissar himself, a comrade from the district. He says: at four o'clock in the morning they decided to land us. And I'm already good, here. Well, I met the commission. Such a commission flies there once every ten years, to this remote village, you understand, and I came in pairs ( with sadness, - A.P.). They told me: "Write a report. So we won't kick you out. Write at your own request." Yes. Well, everyone was fired. The apartment was service. I sold my apartment in Cherepovets. And there was a service apartment - as long as you serve, it is yours. I haven't reached retirement for two years. Because I served constantly for two years, three years. At thirty-two, I would already have the right to a pension - that is, you quit and get money. And an apartment."
Shortly before this, Konstantin left his family, having quarreled with his wife. “In principle, it was possible to return to your wife,” he says. - But there ... In general, the insult has not yet passed. I got another girlfriend, they were already sort of about to sign, back and forth, but then I realized that this was not it ... "
Further, the biography of Konstantin looks like this. After his dismissal, he went to Tula, where his sister lived. He began working as a freight forwarder (delivering yogurts) under the supervision of his sister's husband. However, after some time he quarreled with him. Here is what Konstantin himself says about this: “He is generally like this in character: why, they say, did you come ?. He also has two children, and there were some troubles - there were debts - he built a cottage and went bankrupt there on some business of his own. Well, and, accordingly, a nervous situation: he constantly yelled at his sister, I defended her ... We grappled with him. And then ... He himself went to Moscow on business, brought the goods. And the goods are perishable - especially in summer (dairy products). And he was not able to arrange, because the entire chain of stores and all relations with the managers were mine ... Well, and, accordingly, he brought a loss. He turned around and left ... without a penny of money.
After that, he went to Kolomna, where, together with some Ukrainian, he rented an apartment, for which he once failed to pay: “I was also invited by a friend to live with him. He rented an apartment, and he himself was from Ukraine. We lived, he was spinning there in his own way, I worked at the parking lot. Every month he said: come on, they say, I pay half, half - you, I'll take it. Well, he talked with the owner, he had lived there before. Then he left without saying a word. Well, the cool guys came and started to butsk me. Turns out he didn't pay at all for almost a year. The account was set. Well, the muzzle is not rubber.
As a result, the hero was left without documents (his passport is still kept as a pledge by the owner of the apartment in Kolomna).
While still renting an apartment in Kolomna, Konstantin began working in Moscow (Moscow, in his view at that time, was the most “living” city). He found himself a place in the parking lot near some hotel - he washed cars and thereby earned his living. When he finally had to move to Moscow, he lived at first, as he puts it, "on carriages", somewhere at the Rizhsky railway station. Scuffle, theft, but, as Konstantin said, "sometimes you can sleep."
One day Konstantin found a large military knife on the ground near the parking lot. He believes that the knife was planted by police officers to complete some business. While he was examining the find, he was arrested (according to him, policemen with ready witnesses were standing somewhere “behind the bushes”). In general, he was “sewn” with a case under the article on the illegal possession of edged weapons. The investigation lasted six months, and all this time Kostya spent time, as he puts it, "in Butyrki."
Interestingly, "in Butyrki" the former officer immediately took a "prestigious position." He sat down, as the convicts say, “on the road”, that is, he passed letters and parcels from the window along a string. And whoever sits on such a road, he himself always gets something, "something falls all the time."
foggy distance
Once Kostya and Sasha earned $200 in the following way. Some rich man noticed them and condescendingly offered to drink. Of course, they didn't refuse. Sasha "nobly" drank without missing, and Kostya looked out for "what can be taken from this boss." The "boss" got drunk pretty quickly, and our heroes "brushed off" 200 bucks. “Well, we drank everything in chorus,” says Kostya. - We have a hundred bucks too ... They deceived us for a hundred bucks. And I drank the other hundred bucks out of grief. This money could well become basic capital for Kostya, as he wants to get out of his current position. Why did he drink them? "Because a hundred bucks was stolen - I was upset."
What does Kostya think about his position? How did he - a man not stupid and, in general, not weak - find himself so low? “I don't like this life. I made good money last summer. I need to buy a passport. Or at least make a new one. You understand, in general, when I was alone, I didn’t drink so drunkenly, and, for example, when I worked at a construction site (last summer, before prison, Konstantin worked for some time with a team of Ukrainian builders. - A.P.) , they didn’t drink either… They come for the season, earn money during the summer (there are almost no jobs in Ukraine) and live off this money for a year. They didn’t drink there, but then, you understand, such a composition gathered (a grin) that everyone drinks, and you, you’ll sit and watch if you yourself are also weak. I think this summer I will again find a brigade of some kind.
Konstantin plans to earn money and buy a passport, and then go to his family in Shymkent, "to see what and how." He already needs vodka, he drinks every day and spends most of his daily income on it. Kostya said with half annoyance, looking around the basement in order to draw my attention to the environment: “You also understand, for example, I have not yet fully adapted to such living conditions. To sleep on pipes, as they say, in the cold, back and forth, and in order to fall asleep, you would need a bottle. Even more so after a day at work. To stop drinking, as it seems to Konstantin, more civilized conditions of existence are needed. “And the work is civilized: after all, I have two higher educations.”
It is worth adding that within this social type there is a kind of hierarchy. There are those homeless people who live one day, absolutely not caring about the future. Kostya says: “They don't work at all. They eat pasture, sleep on the street. The basement is the basement, but at least here I have conditions - hot and cold water, toiletries, there is where to put things, change clothes.
Konstantin is inclined to blame external circumstances for his current situation - the sailors who soldered him, the sister's husband, who beat her and kicked him out of the house, the mythical Ukrainian who framed him in front of the owner of the apartment in Kolomna and took away all the money, the head of the housing and communal services, who, although allows him to live in the basement, but pays negligibly little for the removal of garbage from the basement ... But Konstantin, of course, recognizes his undoubted "merit" in the circumstances - at least in words. From the facts of this person’s life already known to the reader, it is clearly visible: every time he had normal living conditions (work, family, apartment), he broke down and “fell” - each time lower and lower. So we can say that he himself is to blame. Or - such a fate ... But a person is still a pity.
And the heroes of this essay were once again expelled from the basement. Konstantin gave the keys to his cart (the only item that still remained his property) to the restaurant cleaner. A round compass hangs on the keys as a keychain - symbolically.
Do not rush to despise the homeless... Becoming a homeless person is easier than you think. I will tell the sad story of a homeless person, which we Lev Myshkin heard tonight.
We were calmly standing at the Kazan Cathedral and discussing the latest news, when a classic gray-bearded St. Petersburg odorous bum approached us with a request to give him ten rubles to improve his health. If you are familiar with the Prince, you can already guess what happened next.
Of course, the Prince solemnly handed the homeless five hundred rubles so that he could drink and eat like a human being today, and also, with sincere participation in his voice, wished to know what brought an obviously intelligent person to such a life.
I am retelling to you the instructive story of the fall of this poor fellow.
Some fifteen years ago, this bum was not a bum, but quite a successful and respected person: a teacher of mathematical analysis in one of the prestigious St. Petersburg universities. His salary was small, but he could take bribes from negligent students: young men paid him money or alcohol, and students, depending on their external data, either money or kisses.
Ivan Nikolaevich lived - that's how I will call our hero - in his own small apartment, completely alone, except for a faithful thoroughbred dog, who was the only friend of the teacher.
One evening, standing at the bus stop and sipping his lawful morning beer, Ivan Nikolayevich made a mistake: he accidentally burned a lady’s jacket with a cigarette, who was hiding with him at the bus stop from the rain while waiting for a trolleybus.
At first, the lady screamed, but when she realized that Ivan Nikolaevich didn’t give a damn about all her wardrobe items taken together, she quieted down, looked meaningfully into the bully’s eyes, and in a hissing ominous whisper issued a threat: “God will punish you.”
Being an atheist to the marrow of his bones, Ivan Nikolaevich completely ignored the threat. However, the punishment of heaven overtook the little faith in a few days: on the next evening walk, his dog ran off to the far end of the wasteland, squealed briefly there and returned to the owner ... all covered in green paint.
Let me remind you: Ivan Nikolaevich's salary was small, and he never had extra money. Therefore, so that the dog does not stain the carpets and wallpaper with paint, Ivan Nikolaevich decided to leave the dog to spend the night in a wasteland, and in the morning, when the paint dries, cut off all the soiled wool with scissors right on the street. Actually, this is exactly what Ivan Nikolaevich did.
At this moment, fate dealt the teacher the first serious blow. Going out to the wasteland the next morning, he found there the complete absence of his dog. Looking ahead, I’ll say that posting ads and other search and rescue measures were unsuccessful: the dog disappeared forever.
About a week later, when the teacher had already begun to understand that the dog was lost forever, he again saw the same woman prophetess in the trolleybus. Fury boiled in his veins, he followed the woman to her stop and on a deserted street attacked the lady with his fists, demanding either to return the dog or pay him monetary compensation for a thoroughbred dog.
Perhaps everything would have ended very badly, but the woman, fortunately, turned out to be armed with a pepper spray, which she, already lying on the pavement, used against the aggressor, distraught with grief.
Ivan Nikolaevich suffered very badly: he received a lung burn and lay in the hospital for two whole months. In addition, during the ensuing proceedings, it turned out that Ivan Nikolaevich was mistaken: she was a completely foreign lady, whom he did not burn anything with a cigarette, and who had just returned to Petersburg from some monastery.
Luckily for him, the lady turned out to be deeply Orthodox: not only did she not file a complaint with the police against Ivan Nikolayevich, but she also carried him all these two months to the hospital pies and other much-needed gifts for the sick.
It was the second stroke of fate.
Having recovered from a lung burn, Ivan Nikolaevich again began to teach his mathematical analysis. Rumors spread around the institute, and they began to look askance at him. During the next session something terrible happened.
One of the negligent students, whom Ivan Nikolayevich slapped a well-deserved deuce in the exam, quietly leaned over to the teacher and said that the deuce did not upset him, since it was he who doused the teacher’s dog with green paint, in retaliation for the evening of love, to which Ivan Nikolayevich had spent several months bowed back, under the threat of expulsion from the university, the girlfriend of this same loser.
The provocateur's words reached their goal. The bloody boys danced in the eyes of the teacher, with a mighty hand he threw aside the table separating him from the student and began to beat the dirty trick so cruelly that before he was pulled away from the victim, he managed to break several of the student's ribs.
Of course, after that, Ivan Nikolaevich was shown the door, and this was the third blow of fate.
Further, the history of Ivan Nikolaevich is not of particular interest. He barely escaped prosecution for beating, took a bitter drink, got in touch with bad people, got into debt, sold his apartment to pay off his debts ... and, of course, quickly drank all the money from the sale. For some time he lived in a student dormitory, in which he was tolerated for old times' sake, but in the end he was kicked out of there too.
In recent years, Ivan Nikolaevich has been homeless, and the only person from a past life with whom he has retained at least some kind of relationship is the same Orthodox woman whom he then attacked. When he gets really sick, he knows he can visit her for a bowl of hot soup and some money for medicine.
So. Why am I writing this.
Sitting at a warm computer, it is easy to argue: they say, homeless people are the dregs of society, and, they say, if I suddenly found myself without an apartment, I would immediately get a job and start living in a rented apartment. However, life sometimes hits us very painfully, and not everyone has enough mental strength not to fall into the dirt under its blows.
