City Mission: Less and less money for beggars

- Look at a mortgage!

Grafian Ciuraru triumphantly holds up the plastic bottle in the air. Every removable container he can find in Stockholm city is vital. He is 27 years old and already sick from the stress of not managing the economy.

Together with his wife he has to get 100 SEK a day to get together for the two daughters' food, school and living in Romania. There is rarely anything left for them anymore.

- Now we make no money at all, mortgages are harder to find, we haven't had any real work in a long time. I don't really know how to handle this, says Zinika Ciuraru.

She and her husband eat once a day, or when people give them food.

- We need the money we make for the children. But in the evenings we can sometimes eat at the soup kitchen at Caritas, says Zinika Ciuraru.

This year it has become extra difficult to manage the food. And during the summer, some of the begging in Stockholm moved in from the street to the dining tables at the restaurants. Beggars turn to guests who leave food on the plate. Anyone who wants to give away the remains can ask the staff for a change.

This informs both pubs and guests of SVT Nyheter, often at restaurants that already help the vulnerable. But confronting diners sometimes creates both conflicts and dilemmas.

- The guests feel uncomfortable, everyone becomes uncomfortable. Of course, every guest has to choose for themselves how they want to do, but I don't think any pubs think it's so fun that their guests end up in that situation when they sit and eat, says Annelie Telford, CEO of Debaser in Stockholm.

She wants to continue helping homeless people, albeit in a more effective way, as when they have many sandwiches and wraps over from conferences. She doesn't get that today. The municipality requires that food that is donated organized is in unbroken packaging and has been kept in the refrigerator all the time.

- It means that lots of food that could have been donated instead is thrown away today, completely unnecessary, says Annelie Telford.

The Association Hem states that more vulnerable EU citizens go hungry today. No one knows how large the group is, but the City Mission in Stockholm County, which is believed to be most vulnerable, was in contact with 900 people in the fall of 2018. Many of them cannot afford to shop even at the Food Mission, where donated food with short dates is sold for a third of the price.

- Fewer people give money today, partly because fewer want to give, I think, but also because we no longer have cash with us in the same way as before. And then there will not be enough money to buy food. More vulnerable EU citizens are to a greater extent dependent on help with food from voluntary organizations, or getting it in another way, says Marika Markovits, director of the Stockholm City Mission.

Zinika Ciuraru says it is difficult for her to ask for food, especially in restaurants, many discourage them from the outdoor seating. The mood for Roma is worse than when they first came to Sweden in 2014, she says.

And the future does not look so bright for them when more municipalities discuss imposing a ban on begging.

Grafian Ciruraru thinks this is bad for the donor's will throughout the country.

- If someone wants to help someone else, I think they should be able to do it. And this by making everything difficult for us, it would be more sincere to say straight away that there is nothing for you here to do. Say it to me straight in the face: "You have nothing here to do!".