Croatia

CROATIAN HOMELESS NETWORK

The Croatian Homeless Team is a project run by the Croatian Homeless Network, which works in coordination with many homeless shelters across Croatia. The Croatian Homeless Network is a platform that connects and coordinates all organisations and working for the improved situation of homeless people.

The team and project draws a lot of media interest and therefore raises awareness of homelessness in Croatia. They stand for the right to dignity and social inclusion, and achieve these goals through the positive influence of sports.

ORGANISATION DETAILS

Website

Facebook

PARTICIPANTS

Men, mainly under the age of 50, who are homeless, socially disadvantaged, and excluded from society.

LOCATIONS

Zagreb, Rijeka, Split, Vinkovci, and Vukovar.

Country statistics

43 out of 189 in Human Development Index rating (UNDP, 2019)

$14,530 Average annual salary per person (World Bank, 2021)

18.3% of the population live under the national poverty line (UNDP, 2019)

With a population of 4.2 million, Croatia is located in Southeastern Europe, boarding the Adriatic Sea, between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia. More of the population lives in the northern half of the country, with about ¼ of people residing in and around the capital of Zagreb.

Croatia is currently in a population decline, with an ageing population and many educated young professionals leaving for higher salaries elsewhere in the EU. Currently youth unemployment, between the ages of 15-24, is 21.1% (females 25%, males 18.7%), with overall unemployment rate in 2019 being 8.07%. (CIA Factbook, 2020)

The rate of people at risk of poverty has consistently hovered around 20% since 2013. With approximately one fifth of population at risk of poverty, the risk of homelessness grows too (Borgen Project, 2020).

Between 2015 and 2021, there were an estimated 732,698 refugee and migrant arrivals to Croatia. This slowed considerably in 2017, but Croatia is still considered a transit country industry (CIA Factbook, 2020). In 2020 there were 42,000 new displacements and 5,200 total internally displaced persons (IDMC, 2021)

According to the Croatian Network for the Homeless, there are more than 2,000 homeless people in Croatia, half of them located in Zagreb.

This number refers only to those homeless who use the accommodation of the Homeless Support Centre, launched by the Croatian Network for the Homeless.