How does a space become a space?

Amanda Kelders

The basic essentials for homeless people: Space and place are familiar words denoting common experiences. Place is security, space is freedom. We are attached to the one and long for the other.

Non human animals also have a sense of territory and of place. Spaces are marked off and defended against intruders. Places are centers of felt value where biological needs, such as those for food, water and procreation are satisfied.

What are basic essentials? What is the need for a home? Talking with people who are homeless. Is their a difference between homeless and roofless? Maybe your home is only a place you make up in your own mind. Something you dream about and sing about. Maybe it’s not a place on the map at all, but just a story full of people you meet and places you visit, full of books and films you’ve been to. Not afraid of being homesick and having no language to live in. I choose to work with people who live on the streets. There are many in the city circle, with different backgrounds and reasons. They are the eyes and ears of the street. Does the streets become a home?

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