Up To 70 Roofless People Helped By Ħamrun Drop-In Centre Everyday
YMCA Malta’s Ħamrun Drop-In Centre supports at least 60 roofless people each day, the NGO’s CEO Anthony Camilleri told Lovin Malta.
The centre provides roofless individuals with their basic necessities – such as food and a shower – while they await placement and enrollment in one of the NGO’s homeless shelters. Some days, the number of people seeking help in this centre alone climbs to 70.
This is just one of several sobering figures revealed by the YMCA’s data. The Drop-In Centre is currently tracking 644 active cases – 150 of these people are sleeping on the streets.
Additionally, 159 of these active cases involve people who have housing but sought assistance either due to poverty or because they were at risk of becoming homeless.
Last year, 453 people were referred to YMCA for shelter – 244 of whom were Maltese nationals. Most referrals were made by the Foundation for Social Welfare Services (FSWS). That same year, 30 families were affected by homelessness including 72 minors whose lives were uprooted by this growing issue.
Camilleri added that the non-profit organisation handled an average of 38 requests per month in 2024.
With the rising cost of living significantly impacting housing and rental prices across Europe, more and more people are struggling to survive.
In fact, data collected by Correctiv found that 37,000 people cannot afford adequate heating in Malta – just under 7% of the country’s population. It further discovered that more than 47 million people in the EU, Switzerland and Norway could not heat their homes could not heat their homes in 2023.
Have you noticed an increase in homelessness in Malta?
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