25 elderly, formerly homeless people have been provided living accommodations by the Municipality of Budapest. In a Facebook post, Budapest mayor and prime ministerial candidate from the opposition Gergely Karácsony announced that the individuals will now be the tenants of “small, but comfortable and affordable rental housing.”
Quoting former Hungarian president Árpád Göncz in his post, Karácsony voiced his wish for Budapest to be a city which does not look down on or punish its most vulnerable citizens, but instead helps them get back on their feet.
Karácsony brought up the municipality’s goals to help reduce homelessness in Budapest, aiming to provide even more homeless people with housing opportunities.
Today we welcomed 25 elderly Budapest citizens as our guests at City Hall, who, after a difficult and laborious life, were unable to pay for the skyrocketing rents of Budapest with their pensions.”
Between 2010 and 2020, homelessness in the European Union grew by 70 percent. After a majority of the European Parliament agreed that housing is a fundamental right, the Union set 2030 as the deadline to end all homelessness within its borders.
The 2020 Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe recorded 700 thousand homeless people in Europe, with around 8,568 living in Hungary, based off data from 2018.
Considering that Housing prices in Hungary have doubled over the last 10 years, the issue is one which cannot be ignored.
Featured photo via Gergely Karácsony’s Facebook page
