Homeless

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In Amsterdam

Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, has 700,000 inhabitants, 3 to 4,000 of whom are homeless. They live on the streets, under bridges, in old little boats, rundown little rooms, on the bank of a highway viaduct. But also in guesthouses, with friends or acqaintances, in a squat or in a little tent hidden away on strips of green around the city. They are not only from Amsterdam or the Netherlands, but from all over the world.

Ruud also is a Z vendor. In the morning at his shelter, Ruud goes to the coffee corner to chat, in the afternoon he has an appointment with someone from the welfare service about his benefit, and then he is expected at his day project: he is a busy man. This evening it is rice and chicken. On Friday the new Z is released, and he will see his regular customers again.

Outside at 'Makom' about a dozen people are already waiting, inside, the last rolls are prepared and big pots of soup are on the fire. Then the door opens. The food is good, the volunteers are sweet little dears and there is also a plaster for a sore thumb. Many of the homeless who come here sleep outside as long as is humanly possible and avoid official assistance. Andy has hidden his sleeping bag and put the rest in his backpack. He has put his towel in a plastic bag to prevent the magazines from getting soaked and consequently unfit to sell. In an hour he will again sell his magazines at the entrance of a supermarket.

In this way there are more stories to tell about the circa 200 vendors of the Amsterdam homeless paper. The paper is released and distributed by the Z Foundation. The Z organisation consists of a lot of volunteers, a small editorial board of freelance journalists, a few paid staff, as well as trainees: about 60 people in all. The distribution department is open on a daily basis. The sale of the magazines to the vendors forms the financial basis of the Z Foundation. Z does not receive any subsidy and invests the profits in projects and activities that cater for the needs of the homeless.

Z-Magazine opvulling. A successful initiative by Z is the housing-work project, where sellers can get a place to live and a paid job at the same time. Another initiative is the so-called BADT, a platform for the homeless themselves, an interest group that serves as a counterpart for the big institutions. The latest project is the site dakloos.nl ('dakloos' means 'homeless') where you can book a room in a hotel worldwide. Of the booking fee 3% goes to dakloos.nl The proceeds are divided between Z and BADT and used for nights at shelters for the homeless.

Z started in 1995, in October 2004 the 5,000,000th copy was reached and celebrated. But Z is only one among many organisations that are active for the Amsterdam homeless. In total there are about fifty institutions that are often subsidised by the authorities, churches or other organisations. They take care of night and day shelter, accompanied housing, social work, medical aid, debts, care in case of addiction, day projects, job projects, et cetera.

The two biggest organisations in Amsterdam for taking care of the homeless are HVO-Querido and the Salvation Army. Besides these, there is a plethora of smaller organisations. An example is walk-in shelter 'De Kloof'. It is always crowded and not everybody can get in always: packed is packed. Besides having a roll, coffee and tea, you can have a shower and trade your old clothes for new. Anthony comes in especially today for the hairdresser, who gives you a free haircut once a week. We all want to look good, don't we?

This morning Marius only comes in for a cup of coffee and a chat with 'the boys'. After having been homeless for two years, he finally succeeded in obtaining a house of his own again. He works as a volunteer for the BADT Foundation, an organisation for and by homeless people. Marius is working on an up-date of the Social Card, which BADT publishes every year. It is a handy booklet with practically all the information a homeless person in Amsterdam may need.

Maurits lives in 'De Veste', a guest house of HVO-Querido, containing 105 rooms for fifteen women and ninety men. Thirty percent of them are over fifty, forty percent are alcoholic, and about one third is drug addicted or addicted to whatever you can become addicted to. According to Maurits most people have been harmed physically, mentally or sexually early on in their lives. The people age younger and die at a younger age than people on the average. Homeless people seldom die on the streets, fortunately. In winter, when it is really freezing, there is extra night shelter available.

The average homeless person does not visit funerals very often anymore. 'I have accompanied too many people to their last resting place', is often said. Not so Maurits, who faithfully pays last respect to the deceased of the circuit. The latest funeral was Sonja's, like Maurits a member of the writing club 'Kantlijn', where homeless people write poems once a week. A selection is published in Z, on the back page most of the time. At Sonja's funeral colleagues of Sonja read out their own prose or poetry and that of Sonja too, among which the following poem:

Mist

My life is like
a barren flower
short of breath and
without petals

Yesterday is like the fog
sometimes it stays
sometimes the sun
shines it away

Tomorrow it
will be different

Sonja

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