r/europe • u/xCheezyCZ • 16h ago
Picture Every country stressing about homeless people, meanwhile Poland with double side benches:
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u/tchofee Lower Saxony (Germany) 15h ago
I once laid down on a bench in Poland (Toruń, back ache, waiting for the Ibuprofen to kick in) – and in less than 10 minutes, I had a police car next to me asking what I was doing there...
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u/qrak01 Poland 15h ago
Probably checking whether you're drunk, dead or just homeless. Either way, I'd say it's not surprising behaviour from our Police.
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u/tchofee Lower Saxony (Germany) 14h ago
Totally agree. However, once they heard about the back ache, they suddenly became very friendly. Like: surprisingly friendly.
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u/winecherry Spain 13h ago
back pain unites us all
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u/Eagl3ye91 13h ago
It's the worst
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u/Ketadine Romania, Bucharest 12h ago
You have yet to have a kidney stone yes ? That is good.
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u/MiniCoupOrRevolution 11h ago
Literally recovering from one right now...went to ER last Friday at 1 in the morning when the pain woke me up. Second time I've had them. Worst pain I have ever had and that's coming from someone that's had broken bones in my arm as a teen and partially cut a finger off at work. Kidney stones are the worst!
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u/ontarianlibrarian 11h ago
My husband gets them regularly. He has been told to cut out the salty meat and drink more water, yet his diet contains a lot of smokies and root beer. Approximately every two years he is in the ER with the pain from the stones.
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u/i__love__bathbombs 6h ago
Omg! This is my husband too! Every 2 years like clockwork, he doesn't eat meat though and they don't know why it keeps happening. Docs suggested they remove the kidney that was producing stones. He denied saying he'd rather have 2 kidneys and kidney stones than 1 kidney incase something went wrong with it.
Turned out to be a good decision because 2yrs later he got kidney stones again - in the opposite kidney. They now both produce kidney stones.
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u/MiniCoupOrRevolution 5h ago
Jesus....what?? Remove a kidney? Naww...ill pass. Your husband made the right choice in my opinion.
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u/neuralek 9h ago
What would you say it the best way to avoid this situation? Should I ultrasound my kidneys to check if I have any yet? I am NOT good with pain. Thanks for the help
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u/Plastic_Exercise_695 9h ago
Drink a lot of water. Kidney stones are sand like at first and normally you urinate them, but they can grow when dehydrated for a while and then they become stuck
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u/MiniCoupOrRevolution 5h ago
Water and lots of it apparently is the best way to stop kidney stones. You are technically supposed to be drinking 12 glasses a day. If you drink alot of dark sodas and sodas with fructose that can escalate things quickly. The dr also told me that to much salty foods can lead to their delevelopement. But again, if you're drinking alot of water or lemon juice in water the chances those stones are broken up before they get out of hand. If you drink tea or sprite alot, you should be ok as long as you do try and drink water everyday. Hope that helps. 🙂
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u/neuralek 5h ago
My SIL had a bad case, and she's one of those people who drink way too much water. Which I presume means that water here is too hard. I drink bottled, so I guess if I ever have any they'll come out plastic 😂 Thanks, I'll make a habit of drinking more lemonade :) Good luck to you! 🪨
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u/Elegant-Two5447 8h ago
I just got out of the hospital with one. WORST PAIN EVER. Doctors HATE giving narcotics and will only give out as little as possible. I went from ibuprofen.. to morphine.. to Dilaudid and Ativan combo in 12 hours. It hurts THAT BAD. I remember one night the meds wore off and I went from full sleeping position to full standing position beside the bed next to the nurse.. IV, catheter and all in one swift motion. The size of her eyes when I leapt out of bed so quick lol.
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u/79983897371776169535 13h ago
If you don't have back pain are you even middle aged?
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u/SoilIllustrious6587 12h ago
I’m in my early 20’s
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u/Gentlemoth Sweden 11h ago
Don't worry, it gets worse.
For a more helpful tip, start learning core exercises and do them semi regularly. They'll help you tremendously. See a physical therapist for some advice
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u/Much-Jackfruit2599 10h ago
Curiously enough, for me it got better. In m late twenties I got excruciating back pain, like the one described.
It all went away. Though getting a better bed and chair probably helped.
Closing on 60, but no back problems whatsoever safe the one time where I had a really nasty fall.
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u/Gentlemoth Sweden 10h ago
Yeah you probably learned to handle your posture and back better as you grew older. I think it's something we all go through as we approach our 30s, when we realize we can't sleep on a bed that makes our spine curve like a cheeto anymore.
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u/clovis_227 Brazil 9h ago
My first back pain was one year ago, at 27. I've been hitting the gym five times a week since, and I've never felt it again
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u/Huge_Leader_6605 12h ago
Did you get a massage?
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u/Gustav_Sirvah 8h ago
It was Police or Straż Miejska(Town Guard)? Because it sounds like something to do for those second (unless that town don't have it). Straż Miejska is like... Petty crime police - bad parking tickets, loud teenagers, stray animals or situations like this - someone seemingly passing out on bench in park.
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u/FederalDeficit 6h ago
We should all have "petty crime" police departments and "scary crime" police departments
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u/h0rny3dging 12h ago
At least they check up on you, depending on the weather that can genuinely be life saving (not defending polish police at all, but like in Japan theyd just let you die to not cause trouble)
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u/caiusto 12h ago
Japan likes their high percentage of solved cases so they would take note of you first so they could solve the cause of the death as soon as the body got cold.
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u/h0rny3dging 12h ago
cop just standing there with the thermometer as you pass away so the paperwork will be less of an issue
obv joking but I worked there and if you ever take the train home after a night out, you see so many, as we say in German "liquor corpses" and no one gives a shit, you could be projectile vomiting and no one will bat an eye or offer any help, its fascinating
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u/undecimbre Hesse (Germany) 7h ago
For (non-German) people who want another quirky German word in their vocabulary besides Schadenfreude, Kummerspeck and Fernweh: a "liquor corpse" is Schnapsleiche.
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u/_Mistmorn 4h ago
I think that’s the way police should be. Because in many countries the law protects people too much, and some people abuse laws and rights to their advantage. Example in Netherlands, police can’t chase you if youre driving scooter/bicycle without helmet. And spoilt children take scooters and drive over the speed limit, MUCH FASTER than the speed limit and when the police start chasing them, they just take helmet off and throw it away, and police stop chasing them. That’s law abuse. And I think that the way police work in Poland is much better, you can’t abuse police and law as easily. Obviously some rules might be to strict, but in return you get much safer and cleaner city, I think it’s worth it
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u/ComeOnIWantUsername 14h ago
When I was on university, I had 2 hour gap between lectures, so each Monday I was just circling around the campus to not sit in place. After half a year of doing that I shaved my head and was bald. The very next time few police cars was searching for me, because they were sure I want to steal something there xD
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u/asznajder 13h ago
In Poland there’s a high correlation between the length of hair and how likely are you to cause some problems (shorter the higher).
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u/AGI_Not_Aligned 12h ago
Oh boy. I'm dark skinned and shave my head.
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u/Poiuy2010_2011 Kraków 10h ago
That'd be way less suspicious. They're referring to the stereotype of a dres/sebix/patus.
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u/folk_science 11h ago
That could actually be better, as people in Poland generally associate thieves with lighter-skinned people.
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u/Gullible-Lie2494 12h ago
But surely really long hair means hippy and therefore cannabis user, no?
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u/PM_Best_Porn_Pls 12h ago
In eastern europe a lot of folks will assume long hair = metalhead unless it's something like bun or dreads.
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u/HerMajestyRennala 12h ago
Using is rarely a crime, afaik. Usually production and distribution are criminalised with end user considered somewhat a victim.
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u/habag123 Poland 12h ago
Using is always a crime. However, if you prove your use had no negative impact on society (usually involves proving that whatever you had was only for personal use) you can get the case dismissed.
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u/Galaxy661 West Pomerania (Poland) 6h ago
Tbf I don't think the Polish police gives a damn about weed if the weed user in question doesn't cause any trouble or do it ostentatiously in public
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u/dat_9600gt_user Lower Silesia (Poland) 12h ago
Given what football hooligans tend to do and what they usually look like, I'm not surprised they had their suspicion.
(not that you are one of course)
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u/xCheezyCZ 15h ago
I was just sitting in Krakow with my girlfriend and like 20 people were just staring at us like we was sitting where we shouldn't be sitting.
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u/Alternative_Gur_2100 15h ago
OR you were just there and they were Poles. I'm from that area and the way people stare at you intently for no reason affects even me. It can totally give you an impression that you're doing something/looking the wrong way at any moment. My mother's been living in a different country for a decade now, and it seriously pisses her off when she visits. I imagine it must be troubling for many foreign visitors. Admittedly, it appears to be less of an issue in Warsaw.
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u/divadschuf Baden-Württemberg (Germany) 14h ago
Hey, it‘s the same over here in Germany. Americans make videos about the German stare.
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u/TorrentsAreCommunism 13h ago
In Germany (and Austria), it’s just curious or neutral stares. Poles (and Ukrainians) are different. They stare as if you are doing something wrong and they judge you. Just like the guy above described.
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u/MathematicianNo7842 11h ago
nah, you're probably german and don't notice it
i've had older germans stare with a disgusted look on their face multiple times for no reason
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u/TorrentsAreCommunism 11h ago
Nah, I’m Ukrainian. Probably German disgust looks like neutrality after Ukrainian stares.
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u/MathematicianNo7842 11h ago
you guys are friendly and i never had any issues with people staring or stuff like that when in ukraine
the germans however will stare at you with a frown and won't break eye contact once you notice them. kinda creepy is you ask me
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u/TorrentsAreCommunism 11h ago
I guess I lived in another Ukraine for 30+ years. 🫣
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u/unlearned2 8h ago
The "creepy German leer" - I can second having seen that, even if it is only a part of Germans who do it
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u/Alternative_Gur_2100 13h ago
Exactly. Very judgemental, scanning (literally eyes going up and down) looks. And the stare doesn't break even if you catch them and stare back. Like you're a character on a tv screen, unable to perceive the audience. It might sound dramatic, but it often feels downright violating. Especially if you're a girl/woman. The onlookers have no gender, though. Everyone does that.
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u/TorrentsAreCommunism 13h ago
Yeah, I hate it and my girlfriend hates it much more. We are from Ukraine and it was a huge relief to move to a country where NOBODY stares.
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u/bialastopa 8h ago
I live in Poland my entire life and I have never even noticed that, it feel like this entire conversation is made up.
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u/boxinsider14467 3h ago
It's actually a bit weird staring too long at a stranger (probably still acceptable for longer in Poland than in most places) but if you look back then it's mutual and you can stare with no time limit (and no expectation to smile lol)
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u/heavy-minium 14h ago
Never heard of a German stare (foreigner living in Germany).
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u/Warwipf2 Kingdom of Württemberg (Germany) 14h ago
Apparently Germans look at you very intensely in public transport for no reason. I mean sometimes some people look at you, but I don't think I've ever had it happen where someone would look at me and I looked back and they didn't avert their gaze instantly. Maybe I'm just very ugly, but I think it's highly exaggerated online. There is a YouTube scene of English-speaking foreigners in Germany talking about funny, odd or positive things Germans do and they like to exaggerate a lot for content. Germans really enjoy the attention so now many have started to heavily lean into these stereotypes and don't even bother to consolidate what they are told by people on the internet with their 14+ years of life experience in this country.
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u/divadschuf Baden-Württemberg (Germany) 13h ago
I think there‘s a spark of truth to it but they definitely exaggerate. Also I believe many Americans are only stared at because they‘re way louder than we‘re used to in public.
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u/jmarcandre 10h ago
Yeah, the stare is a bit of a, "Please shut up why can I hear you?'"
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u/DigitalAxel 12h ago
I heard of it before coming to Germany but if anything I'm the one staring or looking around. Not at their faces though, my autism doesn't really "like" that.
Half the time I'm just genuinely trying to look out the train windows because I get a terrible spot with no view.
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u/Iranon79 Germany 12h ago
As a German - we find it impolite to ignore people, but we don't really go out of our way to be warm and friendly.
This can be uncomfortable to people who expect to be ignored or schmoozed up - "Why are you talking to me if you don't want to talk to me?". The nonverbal equivalent is staring at them with dead soulless eyes until they return it.
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u/Lina0042 13h ago
Yeah but that's mostly because Americans are incredibly loud and we stare hoping to shut them up.
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u/unsulliedbread 10h ago
Seriously I am Canadian of British/Irish descent. The only place I've ever felt 'exotic' was Germany. Like an animal at the zoo or was interesting. I chose to take it as a compliment.
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u/Exciting-Opposite-32 12h ago
Ah fuck just got back from Wroclaw and was so gassed up thinking 'wait am I attractive here or sth'
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u/folk_science 11h ago
An anecdote: I wore a somewhat elegant-looking turtleneck a few days ago because it was colder and suddenly got more stares than usual. I get less stares in a gray hoodie and jeans.
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u/mahboilucas Poland 10h ago
I have social anxiety and it's always worse in Poland. I lived in the Netherlands and Austria for months on end and when I came back it felt almost too intense at times
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u/ArtClassic8808 13h ago
in the late 2000s i visited krakow with my ex-girlfriend who was asian (i'm white) and we rode the tram out to the suburbs out of curiosity. the staring was intense lol
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u/agent_fuzzyboots Sweden 14h ago
this summer i was in Brno, and there was a guy sleeping on a concrete slab beside where the trams stopped, saw the police check if he was dead and when he sat up you could clearly see that he was drunk, they made him stand up and when he did the three policeman just went on their way, and the guy just went back to sleep 😂
in Sweden it would have ended another way.
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u/Marager04 12h ago
how would it have ended in Sweden?
I think in Germany the police wouldn't have even checked on that dude except he did something beforehand.
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u/ContributionSad4461 Norrland 🇸🇪 12h ago
Drunk tank for his own protection probably, it’s dangerous to be around trams when drunk.
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u/Marager04 12h ago
Oh I didn't even thought about trams or something like that in the picture. was more talking about a normal bench in the city or something like that
but even at the small stations people are sleeping in Germany lmao
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u/ContributionSad4461 Norrland 🇸🇪 11h ago
The comment you replied to talked about trams so that’s where my thoughts went! Honestly don’t know what happens if someone falls asleep on a normal city bench, I’ve never seen it happen. If it’s cold outside (so like 80% of the year) you’d probably be moved somewhere safer though.
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u/myringisbling 12h ago
Sweden - Taken straight to the drunk suite, 8 hour sleep then rehydration and massage. Possibly a light swim in the pool, maybe a steak and a lift home plus you get a days pay transferred to your bank account for the inconvenience. Followed by a home visit from the government happiness team where they paint your rooms if they are in sad colours. Maybe install new kitchen.
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u/AngriosPL 13h ago
I mean its their job to attend any person that might need it*, right? Idk if we should receive it as a bad thing. Regardless of whether it turned out to be drunk person, homeless, maybe a lost child or an elderly person, or a suicidal one, or feeling unwell, or a psychopath dangerous to their surroundings. Like, they are there to serve and keep the public space clear/clean and in order. I think it's perfectly appropriate for them to do that. Of course, they might have sounded harsh at first even tho they shouldn't start off negatively, but they are used to 90% of such encounters being drunk people, so it's kinda understandable(?)... At the end of the day we can say you felt taken care of, right? I hope this wasn't uncomfortable for you in any way ultimately.
*I understand it as even a homeless or drunk person is in need of such attention. I've never been in such a state, but I imagine if I did, I would want someone to simply check on me and decide what to do, and not just let me rot in public.
As long as it doesn't include police violence or any sort of abuse/misuse of their position, it's a positive thing, I hope its not controversial or anything.
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u/Edduppp 13h ago
I think you have a very optimistic outlook on it, and I don't necessarily disagree... But also it sucks for someone to have to justify their reason for existing places to authority
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u/folk_science 10h ago
For many years I heard on TV that someone went unconscious and died (because of diabetes for example) with no help received because everyone thought they were drunk. TV constantly emphasised to check up on people or call the police to do it. Probably that's why police is checking up on people - either of their own initiative or perhaps someone called them.
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u/AngriosPL 11h ago
It's all about the general agreement and culture. In Switzerland, you have police called on your ass if you shower after 10 pm (despite everyone living in single houses, so no neighbor of yours is listening to it through the wall??), ofc thats a rather unfair example, but yeah, places differ between order and freedom, and it's up to people how they like it.
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u/opinionate_rooster Slovenia 15h ago
Finland: "Hold my beer." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_First
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u/nihir82 15h ago
When you said Finland, I thought you were talking of our one person benches
https://images.sanoma-sndp.fi/a8ee7979a2ed2fb6dcca14e6e149c94c.jpg/normal/658.avif
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u/zxof 15h ago
Lol my kind of people.
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u/War_Fries The Netherlands 14h ago
Exactly.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Finland/comments/1494mm/how_to_wait_for_a_bus_in_finland/
Gotta love it.
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u/Archer007 13h ago
Do they have to post warning signs that strangers will be friendly to you if large groups of Americans meet up?
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u/Assupoika Finland 12h ago
I don't know about that. I tend to avoid social situations.
The start of the covid era was bliss. No people anywhere. But then things got way worse when our personal space was shrunk from comfortable 4 meters to suffocating 2 meters according to the covid guidelines.
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u/War_Fries The Netherlands 11h ago
The start of the covid era was bliss. No people anywhere.
Oh, man. The peace and quiet. I loved it. And I'm not even Finnish. People look at me weirdly when I tell them I thoroughly enjoyed the covid time.
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u/bigorangemachine 5h ago
If this was Toronto the bus would assume you didn't want a pick up and would just drive by
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u/NavyBoy03 15h ago
Why all the COLD countries are that antisocial?
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u/nihir82 15h ago
History of sitting in a log cabin for 4-5 months straight during the winter does that to a people
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u/Pheet Finland 14h ago
I’d like to think it’s pro-solitude instead :p
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u/OddlyRedPotato Finland 11h ago
Especially since antisocial means people who actively work against society. Like terrorists and serial killers.
Asocial is what 99.9% of people mean when they say antisocial.
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u/whatever462672 14h ago
To be fair, getting stuck outside in Finland is a very quick way to die to exposure. That place is COLD.
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u/ask_carly 13h ago
I don't think this is relevant to the OP, though.
I once wanted to overnight at the bus station in Helsinki (the underground one at Kamppi) to get an early bus to Tampere the next day. I put my stuff in one of the storage lockers, and my my plan was that as soon as that area was unlocked in the morning, I'd get it and jump on the next bus.
At around 1am, security found me there half-asleep on a seat, and asked me what was going on. He then noticed there was a bus to Tampere in about 15 minutes, and very kindly unlocked Kamppi for me so I could get my suitcase, and he escorted me onto the bus to make sure I definitely left. Sitting on a light in the pavement in Tampere in the middle of the night to stay warm wasn't what I'd planned.
Still the only time I've actually been moved on from somewhere. I wouldn't say Finland isn't also hostile to people doing the wrong thing in public, even if they have decent homeless policies apart from that.
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u/dat_9600gt_user Lower Silesia (Poland) 12h ago
Heard it's actually cheaper to do than giving them welfare.
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u/katyfail 8h ago
We actually do this in the US too!
The largest veteran housing program is/was based on this principle. In the US we just don’t have the political willpower/funds/capacity to extend it to all citizens.
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u/HugeHomeForBoomers 14h ago
Yet there’s still freaking homeless people who uses benches public beach benches and pee on them. I can’t understand some of them.
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u/Bainshie-Doom 11h ago
Because "Housing first" is an idea that reddit wanks over, because most redditors are morons with no life experience, as most countries have a similar approach and it doesn't work for the visible minority of homeless people.
Most on the street homeless are such, because they literally lack the ability to adult enough to have a place to sleep. And I'm not talking "Can't pay rent". I'm talking "Can't stop ripping the wiring out of the walls to sell for drugs".
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u/aHOMELESSkrill 8h ago
I have a question. How come when it comes to things that happen in other, usually European, countries is a ‘look at what this country did’ even if it’s a local policy but the US gets judged harshest based on maybe only one local policy?
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u/t-to4st Baden-Württemberg (Germany) 12h ago edited 12h ago
My takeaway is that there's a city called "Medicine Hat" in Canada
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u/Adri4n95 Poland 15h ago
30 years in Poland and I've never seen this shit. Bigger cities have tons of anti-homeless benches like all around the world
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u/ForkingHumanoids Bavaria (Germany) 15h ago
Yeah this is just Big Bench pushing its agenda on reddit
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u/Darwidx 13h ago
You get them near the sea in Poland, I think Rewal have them for Example. Also, practically every not "bigger City" have no anti-homeless benches, maybe because there are practically no homeless people.
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u/ConversationLeast744 10h ago
I was cycling around Warsaw and saw plenty of homeless people sleeping on benches. It's not Seattle, but they're not that hard to come by
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u/kakao_w_proszku Mazovia (Poland) 13h ago edited 13h ago
I saw plenty in Warsaw and Wrocław, mostly around the business districts and new neighborhoods
But in general I always thought this „anti-homeless infrastructure” trend was an American thing. At least I haven’t seen something as actively hostile as this.
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u/EkrishAO Poland 12h ago
Which cities? I live in one of the biggest ones, and I've never seen an anti-homeless bench in my life
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u/secret179 15h ago
What is up with benches with no back support being trendy?
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u/Deathaster 13h ago
Obviously, Poland hates people with back problems more than homeless people.
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u/KarlWhale Lithuania 15h ago
If I remember correctly, Poland and Baltic states have very low homelessness.
There are people that scour through trash bins to collect enough bottles. But they are technically not homeless since they live in old soviet apartments
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u/GovernmentBig2749 Croatian/Albanian/Jewish Pole from Macedonia living in Poland 15h ago
There are public shelters that offer food and a bed, people who choose to live outside are alcoholics, heavy ones.
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u/Lanky_Product4249 14h ago
Nah, those shelters usually have fights each night. Many bums don't want to go there because of that
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u/wouek 12h ago
You need to be sober to go there - this is the reason
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u/Lanky_Product4249 12h ago
Yeah but I do believe people on the streets. Many of thehomeless people have some mental illness or suffer from substance abuse. Plenty are aggresive. So sleeping alone on the street in the city center might be safer and calmer on average
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u/Long_Recording_3876 6h ago
The shelters have rules, some are better than others.
A decent shelter you can have your own room, but they have rules.
No drugs or alcohol, and you need to prove that you are looking for a job
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u/JuiceHurtsBones 13h ago
Also a place is not guaranteed. There are not enough shelters for all homeless people.
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u/GovernmentBig2749 Croatian/Albanian/Jewish Pole from Macedonia living in Poland 13h ago
They are 14 just in Wroclaw metropolitan
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u/Fickle-Analysis-5145 Poland 9h ago
Never been homeless but I’d assume they’d let you in even if they don’t have any beds left. You’d just sleep on the floor
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u/AndryCake 15h ago
I mean the bottle thing is something that is very common in probably all countries which introduced the bottle return "tax". In Romania I saw a guy with like three sacks full of bottles getting off the train. People, especially those with limited income, will not miss a way to get some extra cash.
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u/xXk11lerXx Romania 12h ago
And I think its actually a really good way of reducing plastic waste. Even though none of the people in my small town are actually homeless. You still see most people, especially the elderly, gathering bottles from off the ground and from their homes to take to the drop off. As much as I dislike the need for a financial incentive to get people to recycle properly. It’s undeniable the positive effects its had on reducing plastic waste in the area and I think its a programme that should be expanded upon.
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u/klippekort 15h ago
All the homeless people from the Baltics and Poland are in Berlin then :(
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u/Nicita27 15h ago
This may not be true for Poland or the Baltics but in germany homless people are usally homeless by choice. And for all i know this should be true for Poland also. The safety net is good enough people just don't want to be part of the system.
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u/IWillDevourYourToes Czech Republic 15h ago
Same for Czechia. If you see beggars in Prague, do not give them money. They chose to be beggars there because it's profitable.
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u/4th_Fleet Slovenia 15h ago
Poland and Baltics homelessness looks pretty average for an EU country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_homeless_population
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u/folk_science 10h ago
According to this list, Poland and Estonia have 8.0 homeless people per 10 000 people, Lithuania has 14.1, Latvia has 35.3. This is while Czechia has 22.0, Sweden 25.9, Germany 32.9, Greece 37.1, France 48.7, UK 56.1 (so 7 times more than Poland). To their credit, Italy only has 8.4 and Spain 8.6.
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u/4th_Fleet Slovenia 5h ago
UK is not in EU and you conveniently left out all the EU countries that do better than Poland and Estonia. Malta, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, Hungary, Finland are all below 8.0 and Portugal has 8.0.
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u/KX_Alax Austria 15h ago
Poland only has low homelessness because all the Polish homeless people left to Germany and Austria. There are 15,000 polish homeless in Berlin alone and tens of thousands more in cities all over Europe. If all those people would have stayed in Warsaw, it would be much worse than any Western European city and rival some American cities for homelessness.
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u/TedDibiasi123 14h ago
Polish people make up around 20% of all homeless people across Germany
If you include all Eastern Europeans it‘s 50% of homeless people in Germany
It‘s about time politicians finally do something about this
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u/nice_usermeme Silesia (Poland) 12h ago
We've been over this, you can't just kill people you don't like
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u/litlandish United States of America 15h ago
Source please, can’t believe it is true
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u/KX_Alax Austria 14h ago edited 14h ago
There you go
Edit:
Since the source is in german, I should probably explain it.
Bis zu 5.000 obdachlose Polen leben auf den Straßen Berlins
There are 5000 polish people homeless in Berlin. This number is, however, a point-in-time count - which means, it's the number of affected people on a single day. In order to get to the annual figure, we need to multiply this number by ~2,8 - 3.
Jeder zweite Obdachlose in der deutschen Hauptstadt ist Pole
Half of Berlins homeless are polish. In total, there are around 30.000 affected people per year so my claim of 15.000 polish homeless in Berlin kinda checks out.
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u/Sure_Sundae2709 14h ago
Just google it, there are dozens of newspaper reports about it. Like this one from the public broadcasting service: https://www.mdr.de/heute-im-osten/polen-obdachlose-100.html
Germany had very few homeless before the EU expansion of 2004 and Poland was by far the largest country that directly joined the Schengen area (Bulgaria and Romania were only in 2014).
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u/hcschild 12h ago edited 12h ago
Here is a source in English:
Germany (~43k) has Polish homeless people and Poland has (~30k and that includes foreign homeless people).
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u/babydontherzme 13h ago
I saw the polish homeless sleep in bushes in Warsaw instead on benches, hidden away from where police would patrol
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u/Yorkicks 13h ago
All Polish homeless are in Germany. Sounds like a joke but it’s not.
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u/uglyxeno 12h ago
Agreed, I lived 10 years in Berlin and was surprised to almost always hear Polish from the homeless and almost never German. And I could tell, I'm Polish myself (not a homeless one though).
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u/AmogusFan69 Silesia (Poland) 13h ago
There are anti-homeless benches in Katowice and probably many more cities
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u/Groundbreaking-Dot41 12h ago
Warsaw actually recently started adding additional railings to the benches at the metro stations to prevent homeless from lying down.
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u/Tonmasson 15h ago
Nah, we also have this anti-homeless stuff. Probably less than in the West bc that costs money and we don't have too much
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u/JimMaToo Germany 15h ago
In Germany homeless people are majority Eastern European, often polish
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u/Roodditor The Netherlands 15h ago
Same here in NL.
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u/sakiwebo 11h ago
There's this Polish homeless dude that always sells newspapers at the entrance of my supermarket. He's always nice and polite to me and my son, so I asked him if he wanted anything while I was in the supermarket. His eyes lit up, and he asked for a half liter can of beer.
For months, everyday I went to the supermarket and saw him, I checked with him if he wanted the same order, and he'd just nod.
After a few months, he approaches me himself, and tells me "You're very nice. But I'm an alcoholic, and you're making it very hard for me to stop".
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u/No-Plankton-4861 12h ago
Ive seen anti homeless benches pop up in my town in switzerland and we never even had homeless sleeping in public to begin with
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u/PlantRetard 11h ago
Our public transport service in our city allows the homeless to sleep under the escalators of the main metro station. It stays warm down there during the winter months, so at least no-one freezes to death
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u/Rosechair 13h ago
Poland is the country of good benches. Ample benches. Comfortable benches. Artistic benches. They know what’s up. People just want to sit, and they give the people what they want ✊
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u/TheAleFly 15h ago
Aww, so they can cuddle with their homeless buddies in a totally non-romantic way?
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u/Terrible_Beat_6109 14h ago
To be fair, in the Netherlands we have a lot of polish junks/drunks here. They won't return to Poland because of how they are (not) helped there. They start drinking after losing their job and housing (coupled). Quite sad.
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u/Crimsonavenger2000 14h ago
We have these in The Netherlands too, an even wider one at the bus station in my city (the one belonging to the train station)
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u/Itchy-Guess-258 15h ago
not homeless but it looks so lovely that i wanna sleep there