Gaderummet Group 2

Today we visited Gaderummet (The Street Room) a place for homeless people. It’s a unique place that is the only place like that in Denmark. We got to talk to some of the homeless people today and it was very interesting. They talked about were they lived before they got that house, they told us they lived in a small room in a house upstairs, there were many of them staying there and there was no room for them to sleep it was a very hard struggle. It took them 10 years to get a proper home so they could sleep and eat properly. The new house they are staying in now is bigger and more open with many rooms so there is a lot of space to use.

The door is always open for people who need to sleep and get something to eat. There are a few rules in the house. There are no hard drugs, no steeling and no violence.They are allowed to smoke hash and do bongs to relax. But no hard drugs. There has been a conflict with the authorities that Gaderummet allows people to smoke hash because it is illegal in Denmark. This makes them very unique because for people living in other institutions no drugs are allowed.

In Gaderummet they are very open about hash and because of that they can smoke it everywhere in the house. They don’t have to hide it and because it is allowed they don’t do hard drugs. They accept the 3 rules of the house and they take care of each other when it is needed and they also take care of the place and they take turns of cleaning up.

Everybody from other countries are welcome to stay there and it wouldn’t be a problem. They fell very safe there and it’s a anti-racial place. There are a few conflicts in the house but nothing serious. The only big conflict there is the ones between the two male dogs in the house who are fighting over a female dog. All animals are allowed.

Every Sunday there is a meeting around the table and if there are any arguments they will sort them out. Conflicts are very easily solved here. When there is a staff meeting they are allowed to join in and have their own opinion and there is a book in the main room that they write everything into it so there is no secrets and everybody can read it and know what is going on.

There is prejudice of fear from people outside. Some of the people in the house have been throw out of shops because the look poor and they think they are thieves because there looking at the food.

If they want to help themselves getting out of homelesness it’s not an easy job. If you were to get an apartment it is 3500 kr. and they only get 6000 kr. a month so its hard to live in the month because you have to buy food and other stuff.

There are 25 people living in the house at the moment but other people come in once and a while to get some sleep and food. 5 of the people go to school and they have there own room so they can get some sleep at night because they have to get up early in the morning and 7 have a part-time job.

We were talking to one of the boys there, he is 20 and has been coming there for half a year. He comes and goes when he wants. He likes it there and gets on with most of the people there. He has been homeless a few years and has been in jail for 4 years for violence and other stuff. He has family but his mother doesn’t talk to him. His father is the only person that talks to him.

Another guy was thrown out by his girlfriend and therefore he had no place to stay. At first he stayed in trains, laundries and under stairs. He heard about Gaderummet from a friend from Christiania who told him that, that was a place where everybody was welcome.

The workers that work there are trusted by the people because they don’t trust the authority. The age group is 18-30. There are no under 18 people there because its not allowed. The volunteers that work there have stayed there before themselves and now that there on their own 2 feet they come back to help the others.

In the house there are 4 showers and 4 toilets so it’s not a crush to get showered. Most of them share room there is about 5 or 6 to a room it’s very busy.

In our opinion its very sad to see people like this because we have it much better than them. It really makes you think about how good we really have it. And we shouldn’t take things for granted.