Santiago is 70 years old and receives a minimum pension from the Argentine Social Security (Sistema Integrado Previsional Argentino) so, for more than two years, he has had to sleep in his car, a blue Honda that he has parked next to the Parque Centenario in Buenos Aires.
In an interview published by The Nation (2022) explains that his daily life is quite boring. “We people who are on the streets spend most of our hours sleeping, we try to make time pass,” he pointed out. He also explains that it does not have a fixed place, but rather changes, because “letting time pass is a form of resistance for those of us who have fallen into poverty in old age.”
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Before, I had a small, rented apartment. But he caught Covid and began to suffer chronic health problems. He had to leave his job as a parking attendant and when he started collecting his pension “he couldn’t pay the rent.” And he looked for a desperate solution which was to sleep in the car, although at first, “I thought it would be something temporary.”
“I use my retirement money to try to survive”
At the age of 14, he started working in a construction company, where over time he became manager. “Now, I use my retirement pension to survive.” He receives little more than the minimum pension, which ranges from 37,525 pesos to 43,353 pesos. “I receive a little more,” he explained.
And even if more money comes in than that, “it’s still not enough to be able to pay for a home. Nobody chooses to live on the street, I have had no other option than to stay in my car.” The first night, he admits that he had a problem when the manager of a McDonald’s called the police after discovering him sleeping in the parking lot.
This story of Santiago is not the only one that has been known in Argentina. A few months ago, it was Roberto Cordal, 70 years oldwho was looking for work to improve his economic situation.
A report from the Argentine Social Debt Observatory reveals that one in four people over 60 years of age is in poverty. In those over 75 years of age, the proportion becomes 1 in 5.
Zulema, 72, cannot find a job
A 72-year-old woman, Zulema, is trying to return to the labor market, although, so far, without success. Throughout her life she has been caring for elderly and dependent people. But now she has no one to take care of her. “I barely survive on the minimum pension and a subsidy they pay me to buy food,” he told the aforementioned media. “Therefore, my idea is to go back to work, but first I need to have a roof over my head.”
Jaime Coromina, 70, has had informal jobs his entire life. But now, that he is in a small company with a modest salary, he can pay for a room although without a receipt. He goes to church to get help with clothes, food and “for support,” he says.
“I’m ashamed that they see me like this”
Santiago remembers how he appeared in an interview they did for television. He immediately remembered that both his children, with whom he barely has a relationship, and his wife, from whom he is separated, could see him. “I’m ashamed,” he confessed.
At six in the morning he is already up, listening to the radio and preparing a mate. Sometimes he works with the association that feeds him. “I’m like an Uber,” he jokes. “I had never thought of seeing myself in this situation, not even in the moments when I have been at my worst.”