November Blog

There was a time when visitors to Sweden marveled at how clean it was everywhere. No cigarette butts or wrappers on the pavement and no garbage or abandoned cars out in nature. Sad to say this is no longer true.

Similarly when I was young there were no homeless people in Sweden, except for a vagrant or two who rejected the nice apartments they were offered by the social services, choosing to live a freer life instead. Now this has changed too, and in Stockholm I see people digging into garbage cans in search of cans and bottles.

Now besides this anecdotal evidence, I also have the statistics. There are between 3 100 and 3 200 homeless people in Stockholm. Almost a quarter of them are women.

In these tough economic times the Department for the Homeless in Stock-holm is dealing with 30 percent more clients, at a time when it is facing a million kronor cutback in its budget. It is a terrible dilemma says one of the social workers as the clients "have nothing, no money, no food, nowhere to live and hardly any clothes".

The concept of homelessness is no longer foreign to Swedes and this is evident in the psychological thriller Missing that we wrote about in SwedenNow the other month. The book is by Karin Alvtegen and the main character is a homeless woman by the name Sybilla in Stockholm.

"Born into a life of privilege, Sybilla has spent the past many years opting instead to live on the streets of Stockholm, cadging a bed, a bath, a meal, where she can. Her favorite technique - one she permits herself only as a special treat - plays out at the Grand Hotel, where with luck and persistence, she can usually charm a lonely visiting businessman into buying her a dinner and a room for the night."

This is a fascinating read where you follow the fate of a woman who has been sheltered by her anonymity but who suddenly becomes the most wanted person in Sweden after the businessman whom she has lured at the Grand Hotel is murdered.

Besides being full of suspense, Missing presents a very real-life picture, survival techniques and all, of a homeless person in the Swedish capital.

Have a nice November!

Anders