Statement by JRS Malta on homelessness

Jun 5, 2025

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In light of yesterday’s highly disturbing decision by the authorities to charge twelve people experiencing homelessness, with loitering and begging, JRS Malta re-affirms its commitment to faithfully stand alongside people, especially those pushed to the margins and deemed to be an “inconvenience”. We also reiterate our resistance to all economic and political dynamics and interests which discard people with frightening ease.

In recent years, JRS Malta and other organizations such as homeless shelters and soup kitchens, have repeatedly raised the alarm regarding the exponential increase in the number of people facing destitution and rooflessness. And yet, instead of tackling the structural issues which entrench cycles of poverty and exclusion and providing real solutions to people facing rooflessness such as low-threshold shelters, we shamelessly prefer to “clean” up the streets and treat homelessness as a matter of public order and cleanliness.

A health society cannot be built on “not-knowing” and “not-seeing” unpleasant or difficult truths. On discarding those who have been constantly and repeatedly failed by systems intended to protect them, so that we are not reminded of our failure to address their needs.   As JRS, we also refuse to accept as “normal” that, because of such actions, for a significant minority of our population, the relationship with the State is largely defined by fear, mistrust and anxiety.

However different, uncooperative and difficult people may be, no one deserves to be treated like unwanted waste. Instead of criminalizing the needs of those at the margins, let us prioritise their needs, tackle the roots causes of rooflessness, provide them with the specialised services they need and deserve, and learn to treat people with basic dignity.

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