My Uncle Doug wrote an email to me recently.  He asked me:  "Is there much or any homelessness in Sofia?  You haven't mentioned that but of course it is not something one would trumpet on a blog."  It's true.  Homelessness isn't very sexy and I haven't written about it on my blog.  Maybe the closest I've come was a post in January on the <a href="http://karolinkabulgaria.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/notes-from-sofia-poverty-and-bulgaria/" target="_blank">cost of living in Bulgaria</a>.

Here's the thing, homelessness in Sofia isn't a topic that I know much about.  I see people who look homeless every day on the streets, in front of Orthodox churches and even sitting on the stairs in the underpasses but I don't know what services or support networks if any there are for homeless people.  I also don't know who to give money to or not when people beg me for change so I don't give anyone my change.

I worked for a year in Washington DC as a caseworker in a nonprofit committed to serving the homeless and near homeless.  I learned a lot about homelessness in the city.  I saw a lot of depressing things in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacostia" target="_blank">Anacostia</a> the neighborhood I worked in.  And, I met a lot interesting people with complex and complicated stories about their long journey to  homelessness.  What I learned is that there is nothing cut and dry about homelessness and what I saw revealed how hard it is to escape the cycle of homelessness once you've entered it.

But the haves and the have nots are a lot clearer in a city like Washington DC.  The differences between a neighborhood in NW Washington and Anacostia are plain.  One can ride the 30-series  from Upper NW to Anacosita though I'd venture to guess that not many people have and watch the city be transformed from wealthy white neighborhoods to government buildings and finally to the crumbling housing projects of Anacosita.  It almost doesn't seem like it could be possible in one 75 minute bus ride but the buildings change, the greenery changes, the number of grocery stores change, the color of the people change and still you are in the same city.

Things doesn't seem to be as cut and dry here in Sofia.  <!--more-->The haves and the have nots are not as obvious--well unless you find yourself walking on Vitosha Blvd--most people have older coats, shoes that are worn down around the edges and tired looks on their faces.  Life is different here.  Does it mean that there aren't homeless people here in Sofia? Of course not, it's just harder to know by looking who is actually homeless and who is part of the living and working poor.

I see people daily digging through the garbage bins in my neighborhood.  I assume they are looking for glass, recyclables or other items of value.  Sometimes I think these people are Roma (if you can tell by looking--I am not convinced that I can), sometimes I think they are older people--pensioners who need more than their meger pension can provide for them and then other times, I think I see truly homeless people picking through the garbage bins.  But what do I know? Not much.  These are all just observations.

So I did what any self respecting blogger would.  I googled.  I found out my uncle and I were not alone in our interest in homelessness in Sofia.  In fact, the Sofia Echo, an English Language newspaper, ran an article on February 6th about this exact issue.  The title of the article is <a href="http://www.sofiaecho.com/2009/02/06/670157_a-homeless-odyssey" target="_blank">"A Homeless Odyssey."</a>

After reading the article, I think the title might be a little misleading. It's not really about any one specific odyssey but about homeless in general and some of the services available to the homeless in Sofia.  This said, the article is really well written and it gave me a better sense of what's happening here in Sofia with the issue of homelessness.  If this is a topic you are interested in you should read the article but also if you'd like to see the darker side of life in the capitol, I'd also read this article. But what I was really struck by was the universality of this issue. The Bulgarian social worker was talking about the same kinds of problems that social workers in Washington DC are concerned with when it comes to homelessness.

Once again, I feel extremely lucky to have a roof over my head, a good education and a strong social network to rely on.  So, Uncle Doug: yes there is homelessness here in Sofia.  Maybe not more or less homelessness than in the states in a large urban city but it looks different here.  The people look older, smell dirtier and break my heart a little bit more than they do in the states.  And here I feel much less empowered to help them.