Homelessness in Mexico

Mexico, whose official name is  the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. It is the 10th-most-populous country and has the most Spanish-speakers. In many ways, the Covid-19 pandemic only heightened the homeless crisis, which has been an ongoing issue for this Latin American country. In early 2020,  according to France24, approximately 12 million Mexicans stopped working in April after quarantine measures were introduced by the government to curtail the spread of Covid-19. Unfortunately, this led to an estimated 2.8 million people to be out of work in June. According to Mexico's National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy, it was expected that the number of people living in poverty could climb to 62.2 million in 2020. Which is admittedly almost half the population. Across this region, the pandemic was expected to impoverish 45 million people, raising the total to 231 million, or around 37% of the population, according to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America (Pandemic deepens Mexico's homeless crisis, 2020).

While it is hard to truly quantify the homelessness situation in Mexico, it is estimated that  more than 53 of its 130 million people lack the financial means to buy or build decent housing. Around 16 million people live in inadequate housing with dirt floors, roofs made of tin, cardboard or debris, and mud walls (Habitat, 2020). This is even more prevalent in rural areas, but metropolitan cities such as  Mexico City, Tijuana or  Ciudad Juárez are hit just as hard. Moreover, another 25 million  according to the Homeless World Cup website, have reported to have no access to drinking water, sanitation, electricity and fuel for cooking or heating food.  Homelessness in Mexico is thus heavily tied  to poverty.  As if Mexicans didn’t have enough problems to deal with, poverty and by extension homelessness is tied to the uneven distribution of wealth and resources sponsored by economic and political agendas to favor the rich and powerful. As a result, many Mexicans struggle living day to day with a paycheck. 

Something that is seldom talked about is just how strongly entwined homelessness is to the high rates of domestic violence in Mexico, which is not properly dealt with by the legal authorities. This in large part has to do with the country’s  corruption problem, which leads to many criminal gangs and drug cartels  to exploit women for prostitution and human trafficking. Which in turn  makes homeless women particularly vulnerable (Women Under Siege, 2022). 

But not all hope is lost, so if you want to learn more about how you can help, from anywhere in the world click here.