It is freezing two degrees, the northeast wind creates a feeling temperature of minus ten and it has been snowing continuously in Amsterdam since the afternoon. Fortunately, Mohammed Akdimi (55) now has a place to sleep indoors. With a cheerful “Heee, Mo!” he is welcomed by Bianca Koster, who does the administration at the entrance of the Van Hogendorp Hall in Amsterdam West. They know each other: Koster is a location manager at a drop-in center where homeless people can go during the day, and is good with faces. “Is there somewhere I can dry my shoes?” he asks. Of course you can. “And would you like a pair of dry socks?”
This emergency shelter for the homeless will be full again on Friday evening, expects De Regenboog Groep, which organizes everything here. It is one of three shelters in the city. The day before, the sports hall was set up as a night shelter. The 51 beds that were occupied at the time have already been supplemented with sixty beds in a second room.
Homeless shelter in the Van Hogendorphal in Amsterdam-West.
Photos Saskia van den Boom
The emergency shelter has been fully equipped this week, now that all other locations are full and the cold will continue for days. Every winter, the municipality of Amsterdam already offers 250 beds to people who would otherwise sleep outside; if the temperature drops sharply, another 250 beds will be added. The Winter Cold Scheme, which municipalities have agreed nationally, then comes into effect. The normal conditions for a place to sleep, such as a long-term bond with the city, are then suspended so that all ‘outdoor sleepers’ can report. This extra capacity in the sports hall is on top of that. In this winter weather, no one has to sleep on the street, is the explicit principle of the municipality of Amsterdam.
Baby giraffe
On Friday evening, location manager Janneke van Loo and her colleagues are setting up even more camp beds. “It’s kind of like a baby giraffe,” she says. “At first it looks like a pile of legs, but when it stands, it suddenly looks like something.” There are already dozens of men inside – there is a separate location for women, a minority. There are meals ready in microwave containers, boxes of fresh oliebollen and there is coffee and tea.
“As a city, we have never gone so far over the maximum capacity,” says Van Loo. “We can usually cope with five extra beds here and three more there. But if it is cold for a longer period of time, the number of people arriving per night increases. We now have more than 600 beds and the end is not yet in sight.”
Is this enough? “We can expand. If you really want, you can fit 140 beds where there are now 60, then it will be packed. But then there is another church in North that will open up, or we will put a few people in the meeting room at our office.”
Homeless shelter in the Van Hogendorphal in Amsterdam-West.
Photo Saskia van den Boom
According to the latest counts, from last year, more than 13,000 people are homeless in the Amsterdam-Amstelland region. This also includes people who stay with family or acquaintances; the exact number of outdoor sleepers is not known. But it’s growing. “Outdoor sleepers are really back on the streets,” says Van Loo. “First you had to know where to look, now you have to do your best not to see them.”
Seasonal work
These often concern labor migrants, often from other EU countries, who have fallen by the wayside or were doing seasonal work that was ending, to which their housing was linked.
“Finding work is not the problem,” says Salomon, a 42-year-old Ghanaian who has now been in Amsterdam for three months. “But the process you go through when you want to find shelter is so complicated.” His friend Kennedy (53), who is originally from Kenya: “I have a BSN and an Italian driver’s license, so I could easily go back to work as a driver. But for a house you need different documents.”
The two met in Italy, where they did seasonal work – Salomon in the summer on the coast, selling homemade plastic baskets and braiding dreadlocks; Kennedy as porter and unloader. They are now sleeping in the Van Hogendorphal for the second night in a row, before they slept in “different places”. Kennedy: “Normally, if you can call that normal, in a tent. I commend the Netherlands that we can now sleep inside, in this cold.” Salomon: “This afternoon it was so cold that I could barely operate my phone for navigation. When it started snowing we got lost for 45 minutes. But at least we still had each other.”
Photo Saskia van den Boom
Behind her laptop, Bianca Koster keeps entering new names: “We’re going to hit a hundred tonight.” The Veldwerk Amsterdam van stops in front of the door, which drives through the city and picks up people, for example after a report from the police. Previously they brought in the numb Mohammed, now three men again, including many people who are not yet included in the reception organization system. “We try to persuade people to sleep indoors,” says field worker Marieke Dwars. “It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s more of a matter of not being able to. They dread so many people around them, or know that they don’t do well, for example because they are users.”
“If you now down half a bottle of vodka and lie outside, things won’t turn out well,” adds Janneke van Loo. She just entered the reception hall excitedly. “There, ten more giraffes born!” Although it is expected to be even colder the coming night, the atmosphere is good. “At least we can do something now. As soon as temperatures rise, the need will disappear and we will have to put everyone back on the street. The problem will not go away, but the solution will.”
Homeless shelter in the Van Hogendorphal in Amsterdam-West.
Photo Saskia van den Boom
Homeless shelter in the Van Hogendorphal in Amsterdam-West.
Photo Saskia van den Boom
The homeless shelter in the Van Hogendorphal in Amsterdam West.
Photo Saskia van den Boom
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