Mexico
Street Soccer Mexico A.C
Street Soccer Mexico A.C. is a private, non-profit organisation that uses sports as a social tool. They run the Mexico Homeless World Cup Teams in collaboration with Fundación Telmex.
The organisation is aided by national and civic institutions to organise tournaments and training sessions for the children and youth living in shelters, recovery homes, or marginalised communities.
Homelessness statistics
74 out of 189 in Human Development Index rankings (UNDP 2020)
$9,380 Average salary per person (World Bank 2021)
42% of the 130 million population live below the poverty line (World Population Review 2021)
As the largest Spanish-speaking country, Mexico has more than 53 of its 130 million people without the financial means to buy or build decent housing. Around 16 million people live in inadequate housing with dirt floors, roofs made of tin, cardboard or debris, and mud walls (Habitat, 2020). Another 25 million (19 %) have no access to drinking water, sanitation, electricity and fuel for cooking or heating food.
Poverty is an issue that has affected Mexico for decades. Every year families have to leave their homes due to threats of violence from gangs, crushing poverty and environmental disasters (Save the Children, 2019).
Homelessness is also strongly tied to high rates of domestic violence in Mexico, which is not properly dealt with by the legal authorities. Furthermore, many criminal gangs and drug cartels exploit women for prostitution and human trafficking, making homeless women particularly vulnerable (Women Under Siege, 2022).
STORIES from the region
