Every city, no matter how beautiful, has the shameful burden of homeless people. (Perhaps Prague is an exception because they have laws that kick homeless people out of the city). Budapest seems to have a pretty sizable homeless population, which is not too surprising considering the country’s recent economic troubles.I have begun to notice ineteresting things about the homeless ‘culture’ in the city. For one, very few of the homeless beg openly. By this I mean of all the homeless people I have seen or encountered, only a minority actually make efforts to ask you for money and the ones that do ask do not hassle people. Thus most keep to themselves. But what do they do? I would argue they make a decent sized recycling force as they collect glass bottles and aluminum cans to resell to stores. The older ones tend to have friends and stay close to their ‘bases’ if you will. It is not uncommon to see someone chatting with a homeless person. In fact, some students at another university (where I take hungarian lessons) openly talk to their homeless man and seem to have a sense of pride in having such a likable, conversational fellow on the property. They sleep in the underground walkways and other nooks and crannies in the city. All in all, it seems to me Budapest has extremely well mannered homeless people, but that is also disconcerting. It means the cause of homeless runs deeper beyond the common factors like mental illness and psychiatric problems. The homeless seem to be normal people who have fell into a rut with high, slippery walls. That is, they have lost everything through economic or personal misfortune and at such a time cannot effectively recover. In any case, hopefully things will not remain so bleak for the currently homeless individuals.         

Location: Budapest