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HOMELESS IN ROTTERDAM

STARTING POINT :

I began with the statement that :

I believe that homelessness in the Netherlands, is more of a problem then it appears to be. That in some sense the problem could be more hidden, or only put away. I wanted to find out if my doubts on how homelessness is dealt with is true, or not.

INITIAL DESK RESEARCH :

To begin, I wanted to find out the statistics of homelessness in Rotterdam & the Netherlands in general.

I found it surprising that, statistically, the rate of homelessness in the Netherlands, is quite close to the statistics in Ireland, although things appear to be more under control here. I wanted to find out why this was, and how people struggling with this are offered support here.

Majority of shelters I went to visit, couldn't give me much information. I got a collection of emails and phone numbers to contact, though didn't get any responces. However, when I went to see the CVD in Kralingen, I had the opportunity to interview Sander Oosterdijk who worked in the shelter.

FIELD RESEARCH - CVD :

Key points from the interview with Sander Oosterdijk :

Full interview :

The location provides :

What are the possibilities for people to get 'help' :

My goal was to also speak to people who were actually dealing with homelessness, although this was way more difficult that I had ever expected. The people working within the shelters were not comfortable with me approaching people in their care, and people on the streets were not interesting in speaking with me directly. Language barrier being the biggest of reasons.

Main reasons or causes of homelessness :

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FIELD RESEARCH :

I decided to ask the people of Rotterdam, how they felt the issue of homelessness was like in the city.
* only two videos I took would upload to youtube, rest of findings will be below *

Breakdown of answers given :

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WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO HELP THIS?

So, I was thinking that if people are afraid to give money to homeless due to a number of reasons, what if people knew where they money was going? What if people could feel safe in knowing where their contribution will end up? What will it help towards? Seeing as debt is this endless cycle people find themselves in what if your space few cents or euro could go towards that??

I would like to discover, if someone knew where their money was going, would they think twice ( or doubt ) and reconsider actually sparing some change or a few cents.

Would people answer less stand offish if they were confronted with the statists and numbers of the debt people who are homeless face?

TOOLS FOR DOUBT ..

HOMELESS IN ROTTERDAM

ALICIA ROTTKE FITZPATRICK 0947153 // SOCIAL PRACTICE WDKA // POWERPLAY // THE ART OF DOUBTING

TOOL ITERATION no. 1 ..

Tool no.1 that I made, was a simple poster, which I help while I interviewed a number of people around the city.
The idea was to first ask people if they ever give money on the street. Then I was to give them some facts on debt in regards to people who are homeless. Then I showed them the board, visualising the number of debt the average person has on the street, and for every person who said they would I brought the arrow down bit by bit. Recording the responses.

My script guideline & results :

TOOL ITERATION no. 2 ..

Critique on tool no.1 :

- I had to say too many of the facts, they should also be visually clear.
- The tool should make people question their decisions without having to say it on the poster directly.
- The visual clue for the amount of debt left is not quite clear enough.
- Should become more tactile, to introduce the element of play.

For the second iteration of the tool, I decided to make it more visually clear the idea of being able to help pay off the debt given to people by fines.

The beads and cups made it more playful.
It also allowed people to see much more of a visual change when they reconsider giving to people.