A new project – The rough sleepers’ project
07-07-2010

projekt UDENFOR has given birth to a new project – the rough sleepers’ project – aimed at the most exposed and marginalised homeless foreigners. People who are reduced to living in the street without access to help from the public system.

The purpose of the project
The situation of the homeless foreigners has not been closely examined. That is why projekt UDENFOR  has decided to start a 3-year project in order to remedy the immediate needs among the most vulnerable homeless foreigners, to uncover their particular conditions and  pass the gathered knowledge and experience to the active and interested partners  both at the national and international level.

The project is to be financed through private means and since fundraising for the project is being worked upon at the moment, the project is accordingly in a pilot period.

The target group of the project
In accordance with the articles of projekt UDENFOR the rough sleepers’ project is aimed at the most exposed within the group, which means those who live most isolated in the street who often suffer from a mental disease or abuse who are unable to take care of their own lives and who need an acute action to solve the most basic needs.

Relief of immediate needs
The most urgent problems of the individual homeless person, which can be of a both social, legal and health-related character are remedied through an investigative effort of an acute and supportive character.

The experience of many years of projekt UDENFOR with investigative and outgoing relation work forms the background of the direct work with the foreign rough sleepers. The keywords are time, patience and focus on contact and reduction of damage.

However, the foreign rough sleepers distinguish themselves from the group of Danish rough sleepers as far as their legal status is concerned and consequently their possibility of getting support from the public system. The street-level co-workers of projekt UDENFOR will therefore be limited in their possibilities to act and only in a limited way be able to offer the individual homeless foreigner a sufficient help. The experience of projekt UDENFOR is that the most marginalized homeless have a special need of contact, support and damage reduction in the street.

This is what is offered in this project.

- We do what we have many years of experience with in projekt UDENFOR: to build up relations and to reduce the damaging effects among the most exposed in the street. Being restricted in our possibilities of action, we cannot get them into the public system. But what we offer is something we know works, and which often is vital in the single human being’s life, says Bo Heide-Jochimsen, who is a street-level co-worker in the project.

The starting point is the individual person’s situation and need of help. The most important is to build up a relationship based on confidence between the homeless person and the co-worker who can support him/her in taking care of his/hers own existence. If the user wants help for a rehabilitation in the home country projekt UDENFOR will see that support is given to the home journey and contact with the relevant institutions in the home country.

- Of course we take care of the homeless who want to return home so that they get the necessary help. But we also support those who for different and understandable reasons do not want to or are unable to return home, says Maj Kastanje, who is a street level co-worker in the project.

The experiences of projekt UDENFOR up till now show that the homeless rough sleepers distinguish themselves from a strictly cultural point of view from the Danish rough sleepers. Some of them will for instance find it difficult to accept help from a social worker. A fundamental value in the work of projekt UDENFOR is that all people want contact with and support from others. It is therefore a task in the project to develop new and test known methods to reach the target group.

- We must learn more about them in order to develop our methods in the work and offer better help, says Maj Kastanje. There is a lack of knowledge concerning why they come here, what kind of problems they have and how they can be helped to get on with their lives.

Collection of knowledge and communication
The project is going to collect knowledge about the foreign rough sleepers, their vital necessities, and develop methods in the acute and supporting action, partly through the investigative action, partly through international cooperation with organizations in other European towns and also from similar professional institutions. Knowledge which can improve the investigative work and which can be communicated to useful central cooperation partners.

- There are many stories and unconfirmed rumours about the homeless foreigners. Right now it is about their being criminal Rumanians getting up here in busses to beg or steal. We wish to contribute to clarify the debate by communicating the knowledge we receive about the foreigners through this project, tells Maj Kastanje. Bo Heide-Jochimsen adds: - we must tell the general public and the politicians about what we know about these people so that they can take a position and make decisions on a solid basis.

Hopefully the project will meet so big support that donations will permit the much-needed work in the street, and the effort to gather, build up and communicate the knowledge to the benefit of the group of foreign homeless people.