Homelessness During the Covid – 19 Epidemic

Z razglasitvijo epidemije COVID-19 v Sloveniji marca 2020 so brezdomni ljudje postali izredno vidni. Bili so namreč tisti, ki so v času ustavitve javnega življenja in večkrat slišanega slogana »ostani doma« svoje dneve in noči preživljali na ulicah. V magistrskem delu sem s pomočjo kvalitativne raziskave raziskovala, kako je bilo v času epidemije COVID-19 poskrbljeno za osebe z izkušnjo brezdomstva. Med drugim me je zanimalo, s katerimi izzivi so se srečevali brezdomni, kako so se spoprijemali z njimi, kakšnih oblik pomoči so bili deležni, kakšne oblike podpore so bili vajeni pred epidemijo, pa je bila slednja zaradi epidemije prekinjena, in kakšni so predlogi ter želje oseb z izkušnjo brezdomstva za v prihodnje. Vzorec je bil namenski, obsegal pa je 6 moških z izkušnjo brezdomstva, uporabnikov društva Kralji ulice, ki so bili v času epidemije na ulici. Rezultati so pokazali, da so se osebe z izkušnjo brezdomstva v času epidemije srečevale s številnimi izzivi. Izstopata predvsem zaostrovanje ukrepov ter otežen dostop do centrov za socialno delo in zdravstvenih storitev. V času epidemije je v ospredje prišla predvsem pomoč v obliki odprtja zavetišča na Rimski ulici v Ljubljani. Kljub oblikam pomoči, ki so jih bili deležni v času epidemije, ostaja nekaj predlogov in osebnih želja oseb z izkušnjo brezdomstva za v prihodnje: nanašajo se na boljšo pripravljenost na epidemijo v smislu novih nastanitvenih programov in večjih kapacitet za prenočišča ter boljši dostop do centrov za socialno delo in zdravstvenih storitev.With the declaration of the COVID-19 epidemic the homeless people in Slovenia became extremely visible. Namely, they were the ones who lived their days and nights in the streets during the public life shutdown and the universally heard slogan »stay at home«. With the help of a qualitative study the master\u27s thesis researches, how it was taken care of the persons experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 epidemic. Among other, I was interested in which challenges the homeless were facing, how they were dealing with them, what forms of help they were receiving, what forms of support they were used to before the epidemic but were left without because of the epidemic, and what are the suggestions and wishes of persons experiencing homelessness for the future. I used the purposive sampling which consisted of 6 men experiencing homelessness, users of the Kralji Ulice Society who were on the street during the epidemic. The results have shown that the persons experiencing homelessness had been faced with several challenges during the epidemic. In particular, the tightening of measures and the hindered access to social work centres and health services stand out. During the epidemic, help came to the foreground in the form of the opening of a shelter on Rimska ulica in Ljubljana. Despite the forms of help received during the epidemic, there are still some suggestions and personal wishes for the future remaining from the people experiencing homelessness: they refer to better epidemic preparedness in the sense of new housing programmes and more capacities for lodging, as well as better access to social work centres and health services