I have been living in Geneva, Switzerland for about 5 years now. This city(actually considered a village) has one of the world's highest cost of living. For example, CHF 5.- ( around $ 4.00) won't even buy you a single hamburger at McDonald's. Sometimes not even a peace of bread.
A lot of immigrants are arriving to Switzerland - specially to Geneva - in a hope of a better life and high paid jobs (minimal wage is around CHF3,500, or $3,000 USD) if they get lucky enough.
But 80% of them end up on the streets. Luckily for them, here there are a lot of social help for those in need. Here you won't go hungry, without a shower, not even without clothes. The hardest is to find a place to sleep. Not much infrastructure for that. The city struggles with the overflow of homelessness/immigrants from all over Europe and have been trying to hide from the media and the world it's ugly problem with homelessness, since Geneva it's a diplomatic city with headquarters from all major associations, NGO's and Giants from the pharmaceutical and food industry.
This year, with the COVID-19 situation, the village of Geneva together with a few associations in which the ine I volunteer also is included, used a old military base to accommodate 214 people from the streets and there at least 200 more people without a place to sleep.
Le Caserne des Versets - Homeless Shelter
