ABSTRACT
At 9:00 sharp, someone calls out that the doors are opening and within a few seconds the large, somewhat sterile room changes. Five men are placing their belongings alongside the walls. Blue IKEA bags, a backpack with a tent and sleeping bag on top, held together by a thick rope, a grocery bag filled with clothes. The first guests are moving around the room, some serve themselves to coffee. A man who comes in with the next group of five immediately sits down by one of the tables. He almost falls down, in fact, in the chair and closes his eyes. Two men (looking like they came together, chatting) approach the soup station where I am standing. They each carry a backpack, carefully placing them underneath the altar-like installation. The two men are neatly dressed in white sneakers and jeans, one wears a long dark-blue coat. They cannot be more than 18, and I would never have guessed that they were homeless.
