Edik Baghdasarian and I stumbled upon some more homeless on (Western) Christmas Eve. The photos can be viewed online at:

http://www.hetq.am/eng/photostory/2004_december_homeless_0001.html

BTW: It's interesting to talk about homelessness in Armenia because there is as yet no legal definition in place. However, by the terms of other legal defintions adopted by other countries and the UN defintion itself, homelessness is more than just people living on the streets.

For example, only 10% of the "homeless" in Europe sleep on the streets or in public places / buildings on a temporary or permanent basis. Instead, the bulk of the "homeless" live in temporary sub-standard accomodation that is not suitable for inhabitation (in Armenia, I would include domiks and families living in run-down hostels, dilipidated hotels that have yet to be privatized, public and derelict buildings etc in this definition).

Therefore, I consider that the problem is quite serious in Armenia from the past few years of looking into poverty here.