One of the many homeless people left behind by a wave of modernization in Greenland, living rough in the bitter Arctic winter, has been living in a makeshift tent under a snowdrift for almost two years.
Anders Maqe uses cardboard boxes to insulate his tent, heats it “with one or two candles,” and then puts it inside a sleeping bag to be warm in an area where nighttime lows can reach -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) in the winter.
This 57-year-old man, who has a bushy beard, is originally from Tasiilaq, a small settlement in eastern Greenland. He has been homeless for a number of years after losing his job as town council treasurer and the accommodation that came with it.
He set up his tent behind the Salvation Army headquarters in Nuuk, the island’s capital, one year and nine months ago.
When he told AFP, “I need it, I need it very much,”
“It hurts on the inside. “Inside, not in my head,” he remarked, gesturing to his heart.
According to a 2022 count, there are about 500 homeless individuals living in Greenland, an autonomous Danish region that US President Donald Trump has desired and that will vote in parliamentary elections on Tuesday. This is nearly one percent of the territory’s total population.
It is the result of the island’s fast urbanization and modernization in recent decades.
By 1980, Nuuk’s population had doubled to 19,000, and by 2030, the town hopes to have 30,000 residents.
It now has a golf course and, as of last autumn, an international airport, and is dotted with building cranes. There are 150 homeless persons there as well.
“What we call indirect or invisible homelessness is typically more prevalent throughout the Arctic,” said Steven Arnfjord, a social sciences researcher at the University of Greenland.
He told AFP that it can show up as “multigenerational families living together, congestion in typical dwellings.” Containers People who are dependent on others for assistance typically reside in shelters, stairwells, or, in rare instances, tents like Anders Maqe’s, which can at least offer some warmth.
The Salvation Army claims to feed between 50 and 110 individuals every day in its blue wooden building. Nathanael Munch, the leader of the organization’s local branch, emphasized that homelessness is a social issue as well as a financial one.
“Disputes arise when there is an issue, when a relationship splits up, when you lose children, and occasionally there are instances of incest.
Therefore, it is true that some people arrive with mental health conditions or challenging baggage,” he stated.
Even though there is a lot of building going on throughout the community, the new homes are too costly for others who are less fortunate.
In comparison to several European nations, Munch stated, “it is perhaps one of the largest distinctions between the situation for homeless individuals here.”
He claimed that a sizable portion of the homeless in this area are employed or occasionally work and would likely be classified as poor laborers in other nations.
The town council has started offering housing solutions for the most vulnerable people as a result of growing awareness of the issue.
Some of them currently live in barracks constructed from containers used during airport building a few kilometers (miles) outside town.
One of them, Aage, is outside his new home shoveling snow.
The 54-year-old, who was born and raised in the southwest town of Paamiut, received a present from heaven in the form of a tiny one-room apartment that is just 10–15 square meters (107–161 square feet) and has its own bathroom.
He was formerly a shelter resident.
He remembered, “I had to try to get some sleep if one of the five other guys in the bedroom where the bunk beds were snoring.”
“The next day, I might have had work. If I was exhausted in the afternoon, I would lie down and relax, but there was always someone playing a guitar or whatever else,” he remarked.
He proudly displayed his new home and remarked, “You do not have this kind of privacy when you live in a shelter.”
