Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 28
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Over 15,000 people in Iran's capital are homeless, Social Services Deputy at the Welfare Organization of Tehran Municipality, Reza Jahangirifar said, Iran's Mehr news agency reported Oct. 28.
Jahangirifar said that about 80 percent of these people are drug addicts, Iran's Mehr news agency reported Oct. 28.
The homeless population of the capital city is mostly 35 to 40 year old, Jahangiri said, adding 15 percent of these people are women.
Homeless persons are living in all districts of the capital, in particular in the southern neighborhood of "Darvazeh Qar" as well as "Farahzad" and "Khak Sefid" districts, he said, adding that these people also sleep in some parks in the capital.
Tehran suffers from various social problems including homeless people, and drug addiction.
There are also stray children in the capital, and there's no accurate statistics on their amount. The officials claim that there are "only" 14,000, while non governmental organizations put the number of children living on the streets at 200,000, with some half of them thought to be Afghan refugees.
The official statistics also suggest that there are about two million drug users in Iran.