RUUSULANKATU 10, Performance about Home and Homelessness

What Factors Influence How a Home is Perceived as a Home? What Does It Mean to Lose It? When Does a Residence Stop Being Just a Place and Become a Home?

These questions seem self-evident when one has a home. Hence, a home could be considered a fundamental human need. It is often only when this basic need is at risk that we truly understand how crucial it is for survival.

Meetings of the Ruusulankatu 10 “theater group” began in January 2013. At that time, the young men in the group all lived in a supported housing unit (Ruusulankatu 10) in Töölö. The Sininauhasäätiö’s Ruusulankatu housing service unit began operations in September 2012, with the first residents moving in from October 1, 2012. Most of the residents are young adults born in the 1980s and 1990s.

The significance of home is filled with emotional aspects, often rooted in childhood homes. When meeting these formerly homeless men, I have also observed that home is also a mental state. It’s as if a home first resides within us, and only then can it be physically and concretely built. If this internal sense of home is shattered, it’s impossible to construct an external one. Thus, it is crucial that such supported housing exists. Residents receive social and health services according to their needs while living in the unit. It goes without saying that building a coherent home for a fragmented mind is impossible. A home is one of the most important, if not the most important, elements for a person’s well-being. Although the physical aspects of a home are material, many non-material elements are associated with it. Personal experiences significantly impact perceived well-being. Experiences related to freedom, self-direction, autonomy, and self-determination to live according to one’s and cultural values are crucial for well-being.

When such supported housing is opposed, how often do we really understand that it could be a new beginning for someone? Perhaps it is an opportunity for a life that has been unfairly destroyed due to reasons beyond one’s control. I have often thought, while working with these men, about how it would feel to live in an apartment knowing that there was a petition with 1600 names opposing my move to that location. How would it feel to walk down the street or greet neighbors? No, I can’t even imagine it. I am bewildered by how easily we adults hide behind generalizations.

The Ruusulankatu unit has 93 apartments. Each apartment is home to a person. The individual stories and fates of people with their sorrows and joys often remain invisible. It is certainly true that there are occasional disturbances, but the only way to resolve such disputes is to get to know the other person. It is, of course, impossible to conduct research retrospectively, but it would be interesting to know if there would have been as much disruptive behavior if the neighborhood had warmly welcomed these people instead of preemptive opposition and petitions. In this case, we have been very far from empathy and understanding. We have not been able to encounter the “real” person with their background and sorrows.

In this process, I have had to confront my own fears and inability to understand. The fears of the surrounding residents are more abstract. There is a fear that something original and worth preserving will be destroyed. The familiar spirit of the place is at risk. The neighborhood develops social control to prevent deviation, aimed at making deviant behavior conform to norms, i.e., acceptable. For some reason, this deviation provokes anger and fear in “normal” people. We feel safe when everyday life is predictable and understandable, whereas insecurity represents a lack of control over life. Urban fears often live their own lives and may not necessarily be in realistic proportion to the actual number of threats. Despite statistical probabilities of risks, insecurity is always a problem for those who experience it. Defining fears is considered difficult, as the feeling of fear is often unconscious and vague anxiety. The proximity of the marginalized is also considered distressing because it reminds us of how we might experience the same fate.