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Down and out in Athens: Putting faces on Greece's economic crisis
NBC News Clone summarizes the latest on: Down Out Athens Putting Faces Greeces Economic Crisis Flna6C10221427 - Breaking News | NBC News Clone. This article is rewritten and presented in a simplified tone for a better reader experience.
Alexandros, a 42-year-old from Serres in northern Greece, sits in the abandoned car he lives in, at the port of Piraeus near Athens on April 10, 2013. Alexandros owned a plant shop in Athens until 2010 and he became homeless soon after he was forced to close the shop.Yannis Behrakis / ReutersMarialena, a 42-year-old homeless AIDS sufferer and former drug addict who is on a methadone rehabilitation program, sleeps under a bridge in central Athens on May 13, 2013.Yannis Behrakis / ReutersMarialena pushes away her boyfriend Dimitrios who is trying to clean up her self-inflicted wounds, under a bridge in central Athens on May 15, 2013. Dimitrios, 51, was a dancer for a famous Greek folk dancing troupe until he lost his job three years ago and became homeless.Yannis Behrakis / Reuters
By Yannis Behrakis, Reuters
Marialena’s tears ran down her face onto the dirty mattress where she and her boyfriend Dimitrios have been sleeping day in, day out, for over a year, under a bridge in one of Athens’ most run-down neighborhoods.
Marialena, 42, is a homeless AIDS patient and a former drug addict on a methadone rehab program.
Athens is full of sad stories like hers – of once ordinary people with a job and family who have found themselves on the fringes of society after the country’s economic crisis began in 2009. Up until a few years ago, homelessness was relatively unusual in this country of close family ties, but nowadays stories like Marialena’s are increasingly common.
Editor's note: Photos made available June 6, 2013.
Since the debt crisis erupted in 2009, hundreds of thousands of Greeks have lost their jobs and the unemployment rate in the country reached 26.8 percent in March, new figures show. Klimaka, a nongovernmental organization, estimated there were around 20,000 homeless in Greece in 2012
Tareq, a 46-year-old unemployed painter, is reflected in a mirror in the shed where he lives at an abandoned factory in central Athens on May 30, 2013. Tareq, a Syrian refugee, who lived in Greece during the 1990s, returned to Syria, but fled back to Greece in 2012, to escape the violence there.Yannis Behrakis / ReutersA man waits to receive food outside Klimaka, a charity that works with the homeless, in Athens on Feb. 27, 2013.Yannis Behrakis / ReutersGiorgos, 50, sits with his belongings under a bridge, where he lives with a group of other homeless people, in central Athens on May 25, 2013. Giorgos was forced to close down the billiard hall he owned in 2006 and spent time in prison for not paying his social security debts.Yannis Behrakis / Reuters
