I am here... Do you see me?

A unique experiment during the Covid crisis challenged the uncaring view of people in a situation of homelessness as scroungers and showed what can be done when people come together in a situation of trust, where their individual stories are respected.Wealthy countries have the means to solve social problems but are reluctant to fund projects that work.

Homelessness is a worldwide problem and in developed countries it has often been viewed as a moral failing by individuals, who are therefore not worth helping. This was also the view of drug abuse until a shift of perspective towards seeing it as a public health problem was forced by the AIDS crisis and by the sheer numbers of people addicted to heroin. Portugal is recognized as a leader in progressive and effective drug policies, and many people believe that the time has come for a similar approach to people in a situation of homelessness.

During the Covid confinement period the local authority in Lisbon converted a sports centre into a place of temporary residence for homeless people where they received many forms of assistance and a caring community developed, guided by an activist leader in which residents took responsibility for each other and for ensuring as little disturbance as possible to people in neighbouring flats.

Two filmmakers, Dorian Riviere and Zsofi Paczolay were in Lisbon at the time and gradually became involved as volunteers leading to "I am here'; a documentary film, their first full-length collaboration, which was shown at this year's DocLisboa festival in 2024, where I spoke to them about the issues involved in running the centre and making a film inside it over a period of 10 months.

The full converstion with accompanying images can be found here: https://theprisma.co.uk/2024/12/02/i-am-here-do-you-see-me/