Thread by @katywatson

A 🧵on São Paulo’s homeless: Yesterday we met Padre Julio Lancelotti, a priest who helps São Paulo’s homeless population. He’s been doing this job for 40 years.

Here he is taking food and clothes to a soup kitchen. He says he’s never seen it this bad. The homeless population in #saopaulo has risen 31% since the pandemic began. Official figures put the number at 32,000 on the streets but the real number is thought to be far more.

This is Tiago and his dog Ted. He’s been on the streets five months. This week the nights have been freezing he says, as #saopaulo has gone through a cold snap.

When we arrived at the soup kitchen a man had come in from a cold night on the streets, collapsed and died. Then another man came in with suspected hypothermia. Father Julio says you can see the sadness in people’s eyes, wondering ‘will I be next’

In the cathedral square, long queues of hundreds of people waiting in line for some food, a blanket and ideally a bed in a shelter. But demand is high.

Day in, day out. The same queue, the same miserable life on the streets. It’s brutal and it’s made worse by the cold this week.

This is Paloma. She's from Minas Gerais. She moved here with her husband to find work but so far no luck. She left her children with her mum. She can't stay in a shelter because families take priority, but she's got the most organised tent I've ever seen.

I’ve had a big reaction to my thread - and Padre Julio is on Twitter as @pejulio if you want to learn more about him

Here’s our piece about @pejulio and São Paulo’s homeless bbc.com/news/av/world-… @LucasDumphreys @jhe_cruz @colmonews