Jonathan Gómez sweeps the pavement diligently, he lays his mattress and lights up a heater to fight the cold on a street in the Argentine capital, where destitution has doubled in a year while half the population in the country is poor. “I collect cardboard in a very difficult economy, which is increasingly complicated”, said Jonathan, aged 30, to AFP. He has worked in the food industry and construction until last year, but jobs starting getting fewer and farther between and his life fell apart.
Two tins and a stove lighter double as his improvised kitchen, a cart is all he owns. “We have three blankets and a hug” against winter, laughs Jonathan while he holds his partner María de los Ángeles López, 33 years old, who calls herself a “housewife”. Both are lying down in a mattress a few metres away from the luxury buildings in Puerto Madero and the most exclusive restaurants in Buenos Aires.
After the first three months of the government of ultra-liberal Javier Milei, the Buenos Aires statistics bureau reported that the destitution rate hit ceilings since it began being measured in 2015. The rate doubled to 16 percent from the first quarter of 2023. Four homeless people have died of hypothermia over the last few weeks in Buenos Aires amid a cold snap.
Many refuse to sleep in state shelters for fear of assault. “The police sometimes brings you a mattress, blankets, for you to go to a shelter that looks like a prison and for people with money to turn a blind.