Everyone should sign up
The Rescue Hangar is very easy to find. This is the center of Moscow, Tagansky district. There are people standing at the green gate that turns into a fence. Some are dressed very poorly, some are better dressed, others are completely exemplary. Almost all of them are very tense, stooped and as if a little crushed or depressed. Everyone lost a roof over their head. Now they want to get to the famous Hangar, which appeared in 2014 and for many has already become the last transit point.
– There used to be a bus from the Mercy service. Homeless people who froze at night in the winter warmed themselves in it. Then there was no longer a need for this bus - the city authorities launched the “Social Patrol,” recalls the head of the “Angara of Salvation” Roman Skorosov. - That's thirty buses. They cope with this task.
We go into a large military-style tent. It's warm, spacious and echoing here. Hangar employees unpack instant soups. Lunch will start soon. Two men are talking animatedly, gesturing with their powerful hands. Some people read sports news. The man in the last row was immersed in a book. Many are half asleep.
Everyone who needs help registers. Photo: Vyacheslav Mitin
“This is a stationary camp,” says Roman, “here they help solve social issues and needs: eat, get first aid, take a shower, get some rest. Open from ten in the morning to six in the evening.
Everyone entering the tent must first sign up. In the questionnaire, he indicates the purpose of the visit: food, haircut, clothes, bathing, medical care. The administrator asks to sign and invites the visitor to take an empty seat. There are 65 of them in total. If there is a large influx, and this happens in cold weather, people are compacted a little. But no one is complaining.
This is what ovens are designed for. They run on gas. Now we are saving a little, so for now only one stove is working,” Roman points towards the exit. – Up to a hundred people pass through the Hangar every day. Many come every day because they have nowhere else to go.
A unique practice that I heard about for the first time. People who came to Moscow and want to return buy tickets here. All you need is a passport and the desire to return home to start your life again.
“We recently bought a ticket for one grandmother, but she had nowhere to stay. They sent her to the Lyublino CSA to wait for the train.
Photo: Pavel Smertin
CSA is a center for social adaptation for persons without a fixed place of residence and occupation named after E.P. Glinka.
It is located on Ilovaiskaya Street and can accommodate 450 people. – Is Ponomarev here? – comes the voice of the Hangar employee.
A very young, well-dressed guy sits in the corner. He came from Chuvashia. I ended up in the Hangar by accident, someone suggested it. Now he is looking for another job, but wants to return home.
- How did you end up here?
- I got dumped at work.
-Where did you work?
- On guard. I worked at the Bogorodsky shopping center, but I was thrown out. They promised 1300 rubles per shift.
– What is your specialty?
- Programmer.
– What programming languages do you know?
–MS-DOS, Pascal.
– And where do you live now, after you were abandoned?
– Today I will spend the night at the station, tomorrow I will try to return to Cheboksary.
Each guest of the Hangar can call anywhere in the country. Photo: Vyacheslav Mitin
The hangar saves you not only from cold and hunger, but also from yourself. The street teaches you how to survive, and in order to survive, sometimes you have to get out of it: cheat and steal.
– You communicate with him, and he can easily steal. For him this is not a violation, it is part of his worldview. This also needs to be worked on,” Dmitry Lyalin shares his experience. At the Rescue Hangar, he is responsible for the tent and showers. – They do not experience personal development. This requires very serious work by a psychologist. The people who ended up here, who ended up on the street, need the help of very large specialists. This is a complex job.
A paramedic works in a separate room next to the tent. He provides pre-hospital medical care. In some cases you have to call an ambulance.
They start handing out hot food. People come to a large table, take brewed instant soups, bread and sit down at their place.
Rescue Hangar
Homeless people wait in line to enter the social center. On the left is the bus of the Orthodox service “Mercy”
During the operation of the heating point, more than 4.5 thousand homeless people visited here
Every Moscow homeless person knows firsthand that the hardest and coldest days of the year occur from November to March. You can no longer spend the night on the street, they are being kicked out of warm passages and station buildings... Where can you go if you have neither registration nor documents? Where can you wait out the cold night without freezing to death? On January 21, 2014, the Russian Orthodox Church gave a life-saving answer to these questions by opening the only warming center for the homeless in the capital.
City within a city
The news that a warm hangar had appeared in the courtyard of house number 55 on Nikoloyamskaya Street, where you can spend the night, change clothes and drink hot tea, spread throughout the city in a matter of days.
– One of our services has a bus for homeless people in which they can warm up. A week before the opening of the hangar, we began to tell its passengers that we were launching such a project,” says Ilya Kuskov, head of the homeless assistance department of the Synodal Department for Church Charity. – On the first night, 30 people came to us, on the second – 70, and already on the third – 100. The homeless themselves began to find out about the hangar through their friends.
A unique social point is a whole complex of structures. There are two small huts here: one for a security guard, and the other for a social worker. Once on the territory of the checkpoint, the homeless person is checked using a small metal detector and surrenders all piercing and cutting objects. In the tent, according to the homeless person, his last and first name, as well as his country or city of origin, are recorded. Documents are not checked here, since most of the project’s wards simply do not have them. Assistance in renewing a passport is one of the duties of the social worker at the point. The expenses for preparing the document are covered by the Orthodox help service “Mercy”.
After talking with a social worker, the homeless man goes to a mobile shower. After taking a shower, the tramp goes into the hangar itself to rest and sleep. Inside the PVC tent, into which hot air is pumped using a diesel generator, the insulated floor is covered with tourist “foam” mats—the homeless sleep on them. In addition to providing overnight accommodations, people are given instant noodles and bread and hot tea. In the morning, all homeless people are received by social workers who help in solving a variety of situations in which their charges find themselves.
Initially, the hangar was designed for 50 people, but the flow of people turned out to be much larger, so employees began to let everyone in without restrictions. On the coldest days, more than 100 people spent the night in the tent, and over the entire duration of the project, more than 4.5 thousand homeless people visited the hangar.
Homelessness as a reflection of the country's economic problems
How did it happen that so many people ended up on the street? Is drunkenness and an antisocial lifestyle really to blame? The experience of Ilya Kuskov shows that not everything is so simple. He is sure that homelessness is one of the consequences of the economic situation in the country.
In countries where every city has a job with the same salary as in the capital, there are much fewer homeless people
– Many people from regions where wages are low or there is no work at all are forced to leave their hometowns and go to Moscow to earn money. But, unfortunately, not everyone manages to get a job here; many are deceived by unscrupulous employers. This is how visitors get to know the street,” Ilya Kuskov shares his observations. – Because of the false shame of their failures, people often lose contact with relatives and gradually decline. In my experience, their fault is secondary; first of all, this result is a response to the economic situation in the country. In countries where every city has a job with the same salary as in the capital, there are much fewer homeless people.
Mobile showers. Here homeless people shower and wash their hair. Mobile showers will continue to operate during warmer months
The words of the head of the direction for helping the homeless of the Synodal Department for Church Charity are confirmed by Sasha’s story. This is how one of the project’s wards introduced himself. He is almost 61 years old, he is a former sailor, from the Tambov region, but was forced to come to Moscow to work. Sasha went to the capital with his wife, son and son-in-law. In Moscow he worked at the Kuntsevo reinforced concrete plant until he was promised “mountains of gold” in Dagestan. It turned out that a highly paid job at a brick factory is nothing more than slavery.
“I don’t wish anyone to go there.” “I became disabled, and how many people died,” says Sasha.
It was not easy to escape, but one Dagestani man got into the man’s position and took him out of Makhachkala at night.
– There is no bad nationality, there are bad people. He put me on the bus and told the driver that if I didn’t call him in two days, the driver wouldn’t work anymore.
Returning to Moscow, Sasha immediately came to his native plant, which turned out to be closed.
– That’s why I took “left” jobs, worked as best I could. I found out about the hangar a month ago.
According to Sasha, here they help him “in every way.”
– I don’t break the rules, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. The most important thing is that they treat me well and are very supportive.
Now Sasha’s main goal is to return home. He has something to strive for: a son, daughter and grandson are waiting for him at home in the Tambov region. But first he needs to restore the documents.
Francis is a homeless man from the Congo, in Moscow hiding from persecution in his native country
Most of the homeless people who find themselves in the tent are citizens of Russia, Ukraine and Moldova, as well as Central Asian countries. But it is not only representatives of the CIS countries who are looking for a way out of a difficult life situation. One of the foreigners who found shelter at the warming center for the homeless is 46-year-old Francis from Congo. In Moscow, he was hiding from the criminal persecution he faced in his home country. Unfortunately, the Russian capital did not greet him hospitably. Last December, a black man was attacked by thugs. They beat him severely and seriously stabbed him. Francis was hospitalized with cuts to his stomach and severe injuries to his arms. After leaving the hospital, he went to an organization that helps refugees, where he was told about a warming center for the homeless. Francis now lives in the hangar. Having recovered from an illness caused by severe injuries, a Congolese citizen dreams of going to live in France. Unfortunately, today he does not know how to do this: he needs a visa and documents to travel, but he cannot contact his embassy for security reasons.
“These people have money and power, they want to kill me,” Francis is sure.
Fortunately, the victim of hooligans now has a chance to realize his dream. The Catholic Church agreed to help their brother (Francis is a Catholic). If the man manages to safely leave Russia and go to France, he plans to finish his education and obtain a diploma as an ophthalmologist, and also find a job.
Day care and choral singing
There is a strict regime in the hangar, and after spending the night in the warmth, the homeless undertake to leave the tent until the next evening. However, for people with poor health, like Francis, there is an exception: they can stay in the hangar 24 hours a day. In addition to resting and recovering at the social center, they are monitored by a volunteer doctor. He makes bandages, prescribes treatment, sends someone to the hospital. Homeless people staying in a tent for the day due to health reasons can take part in... choir rehearsals. The 24-hour residents of the tent liked this unusual type of therapy so much that they now happily sing famous Russian songs.
After singing in a choir, people talk more freely about themselves, and we better understand how to help them
– Singing helps them open up and become more active. We had cases when, after singing in the choir, people began to talk more freely about themselves, and we understood how to help them. This type of therapy really works and brings positive results, says Ilya Kuskov.
Rehabilitation treatment, sanitary inspection and assistance from a social worker
Having become convinced that the shortage of restorative treatment for the homeless is extremely acute in Moscow, the management of the hangar decided to re-qualify the tent as a point of “restorative after-care” for homeless people who had recently been discharged from hospitals. Therefore, the project will not stop working with the arrival of the summer months, but will begin to act in a new direction. It's no secret that many hospitals are prejudiced against homeless patients. They are reluctantly hospitalized, and after the necessary operations are performed, they are in a hurry to be discharged. Thus, they find themselves on the street again, this time in a particularly vulnerable state.
The details of each homeless person are recorded at the entrance.
Now, after undergoing a serious operation, homeless people can go to the hangar: here they will be helped to recover
Now, after undergoing a serious operation, people will be able to go to the hangar. There they will be helped to recover, gain strength and avoid complications. But the organizers will not limit themselves to the medical field. The point will also continue to operate as a sanitary checkpoint.
– The fact that homeless people have dirty clothes and smell bad leads to them being treated poorly in society and making it difficult for them to get a job. Moreover, due to lack of hygiene, they become infected with various skin diseases. Therefore, we decided not to suspend the work of the sanitary checkpoint and continue it in the summer,” said Ilya Kuskov.
By going to the hangar, homeless people will be able to take a shower, have their personal items steamed, and receive new, clean clothes.
An equally popular service for the homeless is assistance in passport renewal. “We have a qualified social worker, he will continue to help with obtaining a passport and finding a job,” emphasized Ilya Kuskov.
Rescue Hangar
Despite the fact that the point has been operating for less than two months, it has already managed to save the lives of thousands of people and give them hope and a chance to return to society.
– Of course, we have positive examples. Often drunk homeless people came to us. After some time, they became sober, began to go to a social worker and work on restoring documents. Many took seriously the solution to their problems,” shared Ilya Kuskov.
If in winter the main task in working with the homeless is to prevent them from freezing to death, then in the warm months other problems come to the fore for people who find themselves on the street. Some people need rehabilitation after an illness, others need to get a job or restore documents... We can only hope and believe that with the help of concerned citizens, the homeless will have a chance to return to normal life with the assistance of a social assistance center for the homeless.
In order to achieve all its goals, the project, which exists solely on donations from citizens, needs financial resources. You can help the project by following the link.
