Nochlezhka Concert: Moscow hosts a charity festival in support of the homeless

The festival in support of homeless people, organized by the Nochlezhka charity, is being held for the fifth time, but it has become a premiere for Moscow. For four consecutive years it was held in St. Petersburg, mainly rock musicians took part in it: Boris Grebenshchikov, Yuri Shevchuk and other artists familiar with the activities of Nochlezhka. Now Nochlezhka has several Petersburg projects, including helping homeless people with alcohol addiction.

Last year, the organization began to prepare for the launch of its project in Moscow - the fifth festival was timed to coincide with this event. The Glavclub Green Concert Hall, one of the city’s largest club venues, is half full. About a thousand people gathered to listen to Musya Totibadze, IC3PEAK, Nike Borzov, Face and, as it turned out after the start of the festival, the secret headliner in the person of Noize MC.

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The atmosphere of goodness (you cannot say otherwise) is felt almost physically, and this despite the fact that most of the guests came nevertheless because of the musicians, and not for the desire to help the foundation. Two students are carefully interested in a randomly met girl whether she has a warm jacket and a scarf: a few seconds before, she was worried that she would rip off her voice on IC3PEAK and, hoarse, would return home to Volgograd. A smartly dressed young man holds the front door for a guy in a wheelchair. Instead of shocks and stampede at the wardrobe - quite unusual sounding “allow” and “thank you”. Between performances, visitors do not roll back to the bar, but carefully watch excerpts from the documentary about Nochlezhka and their wards.

“One should not neglect the homeless, this is not their choice. If they find themselves in such a situation, then they can have a thousand reasons for this, ”says Face from the stage, preceding the track“ Salam ”.

Noize MC says life can turn out differently. “I haven't played a song for a long time, but I specially rehearsed for this performance,” he adds as an announcement to the hit “No Passport”.

“The format of the festival seems to me to be very successful,” Grigory Sverdlin, director of Nochlezhka, told RT. - On the one hand, it’s easier for musicians to play back half an hour than a full recital. On the other hand, the public has more interest, because you go not to one name, but five at once. The fees at such events are always good. But in addition to achieving fundraising goals, such events are gradually changing the attitude to this topic in society. It’s one thing when homeless people or benefactors themselves speak about helping the homeless, and another thing when a famous musician talks about it. ”

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The artists agreed to perform for free: all the proceeds from the sale of tickets will go to the opening of a rehabilitation shelter and legal counseling service for people who find themselves on the street. Legal advice is needed, in particular, in order to help restore documents, get a job, find relatives, arrange return home, receive medical assistance and cancel fraudulent real estate transactions through the court. In St. Petersburg, the service helps 3,500 homeless people a year, in Moscow, as expected, 20-30 people will go through it daily.

The existing system of homeless rehabilitation in the capital itself often needs help, says Grigory Sverdlin: “There are centers for social adaptation, in total about 1400 places, but these are places where people who have no Moscow registration, that is, papers confirming that you are a former resident of Moscow. In addition, these places are sorely lacking: about three thousand deaths of the homeless are recorded annually in the capital. That is, it can be assumed that tens of thousands of people live on the streets of the city. ”

It is believed that homeless people are necessarily people who have lost their roof over their heads due to addiction to alcohol and drugs, who do not want to return to their previous lives. But in fact, most are on the street for completely different reasons.

“The main reason for homelessness is the uneven economic development of the regions. People cannot find work, and if they can, they get 8-10 thousand rubles each. They are forced to go to work in large cities. And then the law of large numbers works: someone develops, someone does not. Someone leaves home, someone is ashamed to go home, and the person is trying to somehow earn more and get out. Unfortunately, many people find themselves on the street, ”says the director of Nochlezhka.

The second most common reason is family problems (families break up, some relatives make it impossible for others to live at home). About 20% of Nochlezhka’s wards turned out to be on the street as a result of real estate fraud. At the same time, 13% of the homeless are graduates of orphanages. Further, according to Sverdlin, there are fire victims, people released from prison, as well as those who lost their official housing.

The intention of Nochlezhka to open a shelter in the Begovoy area caused serious unrest among the townspeople. Muscovites are most afraid that the rehabilitation center will attract homeless people from all over the city, and instead of a shelter they will settle in the nearest entrances of residential buildings.

The residents of Petersburg had the same concerns, where the first Nochlezhka shelter opened in 2005. Over time, it turned out that no one was going to capture the parade, and that the number of homeless people in the district actually became smaller. After a five-month rehabilitation, according to the organization, a little more than half of the wards do not return to the streets, but begin a new, normal life.

The shelter in St. Petersburg is located 30 meters from the apartment building, and, as they say in Nochlezhka, they manage to coexist peacefully. There are no residential buildings nearby in Moscow, apart from one that will be completed only after a year, the director of the organization emphasizes: there are foundation pits around the building, 100 meters from the railway, Savyolovsky and Belorussky stations nearby, so there were homeless people there before.

“We need to understand that shelters help people get out of the street, and do not help to increase the number of homeless people, as some opponents tell us. Homeless people get divorced not from shelters, but exactly the opposite, ”says Grigory Sverdlin.

There are two main areas of assistance to the homeless: humanitarian projects (giving the opportunity to wash, wash clothes, spend the night in warmth and safety) and longer re-socialization projects, when a person is helped to restore documents, get a job, find housing.

The director of Nochlezhka advises individuals who would like to help not to give money to the homeless, but to buy food or give them old things. If a person is set up for dialogue, then you can talk about charitable organizations, where they can help him. “It is very important to remember that every homeless person has his own story, none of them dreamed of living on the street as a child, many of them want to change the situation, but do not know how,” summed up Grigory Sverdlin.