Winter on the Streets of Tehran

The following piece was written by an Iranian citizen journalist on the ground inside the country, who writes under a pseudonym to protect her identity.

Autumn has arrived in Tehran and the cold is on its heels. For many residents of this crowded capital, this is good news, especially with its promise of rain in the midst of severe water shortage. But it is the worst kind of news for thousands of homeless people in Tehran, known as card-boarders. They spend days and nights on the sidewalks or in the parks, with earth as their mattress and sky as their blanket. In spring and summer sleeping is the only thing they have that is relatively trouble-free, but when the cold comes and the ground becomes drenched with rain or is covered with snow, this one happy expectation eludes them.

The exact number of card-boarders living in Tehran is not known. Tehran’s county officials had estimated it to be around 10-12,000, but in July this year, Babak Dinparast, vice-president of Iran’s Drug Control Headquarters, put the number at about 28,000.

Addressing a meeting about the continuing problem of drug abuse, he said that in the 2011-2013 period, a total of 51,800 homeless drug addicts were admitted to shelters, of which 25,600 were in the province of Tehran. He added that in 2014 this number has increased by about 500.

Every year in Iran, and especially in Tehran, a number of card-boarders lose their lives with the onset of the cold season. Statistics about fatalities among the homeless first hit the headlines in 2004, leading to an outcry among the public. A newspaper reported that in just one winter night, 40 card-boarders had frozen to death.

Officials denied the number at the time, but, since then, various institutions in Tehran, including the State Welfare Organization and the city, have set up warm shelters to take care of homeless people on cold winter nights. But the fatalities among card-boarders have not stopped. In 2009, an extremely cold winter, municipal officials registered the deaths of 22 homeless people. A year later, in 2010 the Iranian Legal Medicine (Forensics) Organization reported the death of nine card-boarders.

Currently in Tehran, there are 17 warm shelters operated by the city with a capacity of about 2,000. There are also NGOs and charities that, on freezing nights, gather the card-boarders from the streets and place them in shelters. State Welfare patrols and city employees also ensure people are taken in to the shelters, which provide warm food and a place to sleep.

Some of the homeless go to the shelters by themselves. But not all card-boarders will go to the warm shelters in wintertime. They prefer to stay away, spending their days and nights under bridges or in ruined buildings.

According to a study by the city’s Research and Planning Center published in October 2014, homelessness results from three main factors: Drug addiction, physical and mental disabilities, and inability to adopt to a new environment after migration. The Welfare and Social Services Organization of the City of Tehran puts homelessness as the fourth urban blight after drug addiction, panhandling and street kids.

The cold season is getting closer and closer and many of Tehran’s card-boarders will continue to spend their days and nights in various parts of the city. How many of them will die is anybody’s guess.

Shima Zanjani, Citizen-Journalist, Karaj