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Homeless in Greece

June 01 2026

Behind the apparent success of Greece’s economic recovery, rising costs and a lack of social housing are pushing many into the shadows of the street. By Kostis Kotsonis

Greece is finally emerging from the turmoil of the 2008 economic crisis. However, GDP growth cannot mask increasing inflation. Numbers published by the Ministry of Development show food prices, over the last five years, have increased about 39% and housing costs have risen by 31%. As a result, the purchasing power of Greeks remains the second lowest in the European Union, according to Eurostat.

These facts, combined with a lack of social housing policy in the country, have made housing costs impossible for many people. Some of them lose their homes and find themselves on the street. Yet no one can say how many homeless people there are in the country, as there is not an organised state mechanism for documenting them.

The only organised effort by the Greek state to record homeless people took place in May 2018, through a pilot study. The study was conducted in seven urban districts and recorded a total of 1,645 homeless people – widely acknowledged to be an underestimate.

To learn more about homelessness in Greece, I contacted Klimaka, a non-profit organisation providing valuable support services to homeless people, such as soup kitchens, shelters, street outreach, psychosocial support. According to Eleftheria Koumalatsou, scientific coordinator of the Dipylon Day Center for Homeless People managed by Klimaka, service users are mainly Greek men over the age of 45, though there are also people from other countries.

Katerina (not their real name), who used to work at the homeless shelter run by the local city council in Thessaloniki, says the guests shared a common characteristic: they ended up homeless after an unfortunate “turning point”. Some were substance users, some had mental health issues, some lost family networks, or simply lost their jobs.

Maria (not their real name) became homeless due to some “very serious family problems” and has been living on the streets of Athens for about four years.

In winter, she sleeps at the airport or in indoor car parks; in summer, she stays in parks. She claims that many people who sleep outside end up in a vicious cycle of crime, including drug dealing and sex work. The city council of Athens operates a homeless shelter, but she prefers to sleep outside because the conditions there are not good. The most unbearable thing: the bedbugs.

There were also bedbugs at the Thessaloniki shelter, Katerina claims. Furthermore, she remembers that the facilities were old and often broke down: “Some days, only two showers worked for 30 people, and people would fight over who would bathe first.”

Refugees and migrants also face an increased risk of homelessness – alongside prejudice – in Greece. Katerina reports that some Greek residents at the shelter expressed racist views about their refugee or migrant roommates. She adds that many employees had no training in managing multicultural groups and held stereotypical views about these people too.

Shedia is the only street paper in Greece. Spyros Zonakis, a journalist for the paper, has encountered several stories of hidden homelessness, many of them in the idyllic landscapes of the Greek islands.

One remarkable case he recorded was in Santorini, where teachers ended up in tents or on sunbeds because landlords evicted them to rent the houses to tourists. In Mykonos, some newly appointed teachers were put up by colleagues, as it was impossible to find a decent home on a salary of just €770. On another Cycladic island, workers at a luxury hotel were forced to live in the pool’s machinery room.

“We come across cases of hidden homelessness more and more often in urban areas, mainly among women,” adds Koumalatsou.

All this uncertainty obviously has an impact on the psychology of homeless people.

Maria describes her mood as an emotional roller coaster. She might find a job for a short period and get back on her feet, but when her contract ends, she is back on the street. “Some friends of mine have simply accepted that they will live on the street forever,” she says. She also admits that she has become more solitary and finds it harder to forgive people. “After all, whatever bad happened to me, it was caused by people,” she comments.

Katerina observes that people staying at the Thessaloniki shelter often end up in a state of institutionalisation and don’t look for a job or a place to rent. “They are not provided with any specialised care or guidance to help them find work. The staff treat them in a purely procedural way,” she adds. “Most of the time our guests are not just deprived of these things. They are also deprived of something much more basic: hearing a kind word from someone.”

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