It’s all happening for Big Issue vendor Oprea, 48. Originally from Romania, he has just moved to a new selling point – at Bristol’s Temple Meads train station as part of a partnership with Network Rail – where he is perfecting his sales technique, and he has a new card reader to offer digital payments. He is studying a business course at university too.

Ljilja Plackovic sells Ulične Svjetiljke in the Croatian city of Zagreb. She has experienced loss and hurt unlike many people. And yet, even with meagre means, she gives back to the people she sees on the streets of the city, reminding her of how things changed around for her.

Perceptions of people on the streets with pets are often uncaring and narrow-minded. Bodo vendors Ralf and Mario, who sell the street paper in the German city of Bochum, are prime examples of the mental health and social benefits of having a pet on the streets can be. Their dogs – Maja, Tyson and Cassey – are their pride and joys.

Anita Rinkovec’s life has been a journey through many forms of darkness. She is a survivor of sexual and psychological abuse, addiction and numerous suicide attempts and has outlived three of her four children. Now, aged 79, she has found meaning and enjoyment in life and thrives on her work as a Faktum vendor. Here, she talks about moving through the darkness and about the light she has discovered in the twilight of her life.

Serbian street paper Liceulice’s vendor Mirjana Vasić escaped from Kosovo twenty years ago and came to the northern Serbian city Novi Sad. It wasn’t easy for her to get used to a different environment and way of life but, thanks to the magazine, she made friends again and got the support she needed.

“I have a job, I have food, I have an apartment, I have my passport.” This is Friday Akpan’s response when asked how he’s doing. Friday, a migrant from Nigeria, arrived in Austria in late 2014 and has worked hard to build a life in Austria. He is thrilled to call Salzburg home. Now, the 33-year-old Apropos vendor, who always has a friendly smile on his face, is working hard to secure the right to remain for his youngest son.

9 May marks the anniversary of a speech by Robert Schuman, a French statesman who was one of the founders of what we recognise today as Europe, where he called for solidarity across borders. In this time of political division, and one even more divided by pandemic-imposed lockdowns, remembering this helps highlight efforts and achievements across Europe which contribute to making it a more inclusive, more democratic, more culturally aware, better place to live. The European Cultural Foundation is hoping to turn 9 May – what it’s billed as Europe Day – into a continent-wide holiday of togetherness. Few groups represent this kind of cohesion and unity as the street paper network.

Vendors in Kikinda, Serbia have taken a hit to their ability to sell the street paper Liceulice due to the COVID-19 restrictions in their city. Svetlana Kalinov shone during the height of the lockdown restrictions by selflessly encouraging a cohort of her vendor colleagues to donate their savings from selling the magazine to those struggling in the town of Novi Sad. She has also found herself helping out at a local day care centre. Liceulice, she says, makes her feel useful in a world where that connection has often evaded her.

As the European Parliament elections approach this week, Hus Forbi spoke to Freek Spinnewijn, director of FEANTSA, the European organisation fighting to end homelessness. He talks about the importance of the coming vote in relation to tackling homelessness across member states, and why this particular European election matters more than ever.

New report by EU homelessness organisation Feantsa shows homelessness and housing exclusion on the rise across Europe – except in Finland.