Reducing inequality: this is the goal at the heart of the tenth chapter of BG4SDGs

According to OECD data, there are more than 2 million people in advanced countries without a home and a roof to shelter under, experiencing and facing one of the most extreme forms of social exclusion every day. A number growing by about 10 percent each year, with the U.S. leading and then Northern Ireland among the advanced European countries with a high incidence of homelessness, a phenomenon induced by the not-so-distant 2019 housing crisis.

After many years when the rate of households with owner-occupied homes was among the highest in the world, the situation in Ireland has turned around after first the financial crisis and then the Brexit, with rental costs nearly quadrupling in the past 5 years causing a considerable increase in evictions and a complex situation to manage, characterized by high levels of inequality within the country.

It is precisely social exclusion and the struggle to reduce inequality that are the themes at the center of the narrative of the tenth chapter of BG4SDGs - Time to Change, the project created in collaboration with Stefano Guindani to delve into the state of the art of the process of achieving the 17 goals of the UN 2030 Agenda. On this occasion, Stefano Guindani's lens lingered to investigate the situation regarding Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 10.

To analyze the situation, the photographer went to Belfast to photograph the conditions in which many homeless people live today with the aim of raising awareness and bringing the experience of lives on the margins of society in complex contexts, where to the already present daily difficulties are added those dictated by the need for survival. That of inequality is in fact one of the greatest obstacles to sustainable development and the fight against poverty and thus to the achievement of several goals present in the United Nations Agenda.

A contrary direction to this is the one taken by the Helm Housing institute with the launch of the pilot project "Housing First Belfast" in 2013 dedicated to all those people who have been homeless for many years and therefore need more support. The goal of this project, recounted and documented by the photographer, is in fact to combat this phenomenon through the placement of homeless people in individual independent apartments, with the aim of fostering a state of dignified well-being and with forms of social reintegration.

In fact, housing placement is not the only problem facing the most destitute people, but only the starting point. The other major challenge is the instrumental and emotional support to the person carried out by multi-professional teams with meetings dedicated to listening to different needs such as housing management, health care or finding employment.

"A principle that I agree with and believe should be strongly promoted is that ethical choices can sometimes go a long way toward positively affecting not only the conscience but also the economy. The Housing First project is an example of this: it aims to find housing for people in need who are homeless, encouraging their reintegration into society while simultaneously weighing less on the costs of public administration. A person who succeeds in reintegrating into society will have less impact on the justice system, committing fewer crimes, and on the health system, maintaining psycho-physical health. A complex and virtuous project but also a different and pragmatic way of seeing the world, where the good of individuals and the common good become one." said Stefano Guindani, photographer and author of the BG4SDGs - Time to Change project.