Editorial: We boast of being affluent even as we make despair a crime

In a recent address, Prime Minister Robert Abela proudly declared that Malta has reached a historic milestone: matching Sweden’s national wealth per person. It is a bold statement, painting a picture of a Mediterranean utopia where economic success is shared by all.   

Yet, while the numbers might suggest we are living in a northern-style social paradise, the reality on the ground, or more accurately, in the garage lifts, tells a different story.

Last January’s Storm Harry did more than just batter our coastline; it stripped away the polished veneer of our economic success. As the rain poured, reports emerged of roofless individuals seeking refuge in the common areas, lifts, and garages of private apartment blocks. This image provides a staggering contradiction to the affluent narrative.

The problem in the lack of visibility of this situation lies partly in how we define success. The NSO narrows its definition of homelessness to those sleeping on the streets and ignores the hidden reality of thousands living in inadequate housing, substandard garages, or over-crowded institutions.

The face of the Maltese homeless is no longer just the bearded, dirty male stereotype. We are seeing the emergence of a new class of homelessness: the working poor. These are individuals who, despite having full-time employment, are being crushed by a property market that has shifted so aggressively it has rendered healthy living unaffordable. The reasons for this descent are rarely singular, often involving a toxic cocktail of rising rental costs, domestic trauma, and institutional failures.

Perhaps the most jarring irony of our ‘affluent society’ is how we choose to punish those who fall through the cracks. In one court case earlier this month, a third-country national was handed a four-year prison sentence for stealing a wallet, a desperate, albeit criminal, act of survival.

The severity of this punishment stands in stark contrast to the broader legal landscape. While a homeless individual faces the full might of the law for a theft of a few hundred euros, our legal system has recently seen million-euro tax evasion and money laundering cases dropped entirely due to changes in legislation, where those charged reach an out-of-court settlement with the tax authorities.

This disparity highlights a worrying trend: the criminalisation of being homeless. When we use outdated vagrancy and loitering laws to ‘move along’ or imprison the poor, we are not solving a social problem but hiding it.

We are effectively punishing people for being visible reminders of our economic failures. Is it truly fair to apply the heaviest hand of justice to those with the least, while systemic financial crimes are met with legislative leniency?

Homelessness is a solvable problem. It is not an inevitable side effect of a booming economy, but a policy choice and there are clear solutions to it.

First, Malta needs a national legal definition of homelessness to capture the hidden cases.

Second, we must address the spectre of the rental market; when social accommodation waiting lists exceed five years, the state is failing its most basic duty.

True affluence is not measured by GDP per capita or the height of luxury penthouses, but by the dignity we afford our most vulnerable. We cannot claim the title of a wealthy nation while our social safety net remains porous enough for families to fall through.

Zach Vella’s recent 2,400km charity run from London to Malta serves as a timely reminder of this social reality, successfully placing the crisis of homelessness back on the national agenda.

Until we stop criminalising the desperate and begin regulating the markets that create them, Malta’s wealth will remain a hollow statistic; one that remains invisible to those sleeping in the shadows of our garages.