Agenzia Fides

Santiago de Chile (Agenzia Fides) - In Chile, 12,255 people live on the streets, among them 2,003 are adults and 725 children. 77% of them work as street vendors and parking attendants or do the cleaning in factories. They eat twice a day and suffer discrimination: 22% report assault or harassment by armed groups, criminal gangs, 16% by police and 13% by bystanders. To cope with this emergency, a project "Shared Houses" has just been launched, where people living on the streets can live in a house rented by the Ministry of Social Development, and with the earnings of each they can share the common expenses. In the center of Santiago, where there are currently very low temperatures, hundreds of people wait for volunteer students who in the evening bring them food, bread and eggs, and they queue up to have a warm plate of pasta or vegetables. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 15/6/2012)