People shortly after the eviction. Photo used with author's permission. Click to enlarge.
Nicoleta is a hard-working 32-year-old woman. She has just given birth to her second son, Iosif, soon to be the playmate of his brother, 5-year-old Silviu. Their father is a young man who works every day for a local business. Together, they might resemble one of those families living in a spotless apartment, eating fancy food and smiling all day, like the ones portrayed on countless Bucharest street advertisements. However, they have no fancy food, no apartment and – apart from the arrival of the newborn baby – no reason to smile.
Nicoleta is one of the 100 people evicted from their homes in a street called Vulturilor, near Bucharest’s city centre, on 15 September 2014. Since then, throughout a terribly hard winter and a tropical summer, half of these families have been dwelling on the street in front of their old homes. It is to that street that Nicoleta came back, once her minimum stay in hospital was over, and it is there that young Iosif will soon learn the harsh life of being a second-class citizen of present-day Romania.
