Homeless Drug Users in Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Profile, Way of Life, and the Need for Assistance

Abstract

Decreasing the number of homeless drug users is one of the main characteristics of inner city drugs policy. The present study selected an urban-ethnographic perspective (the subculture theory) in order to explore why one drug user is homeless and another 7 not, and to attempt to describe and define the homeless and their immediate social environment. These issues were formulated into the following research questions:

1. What are the sociodemographic characteristics of homeless drug users in Rotterdam, and do they differ from domiciled drug users?

2. What are their living conditions?

3. What are the reasons for being homeless?

4. Does the period of homelessness play a role in the need to change one's lifestyle?

Five research methods were employed for this study: a literature search, interviews with key persons, field notes from community fieldworkers, a survey among drug users (n = 204), and photographic reports from six homeless users. Data were collected in 1998/1999. The results document that in our study population there were more women, more illegal persons, and more foreigners than among domiciled drug users, and that the homeless group used heroin and cocaine on more days. A large proportion of the homeless users had no identity papers and no health insurance. This did not, however, lead to more self-reported sickness or a higher prevalence of infectious diseases compared with nonhomeless drug users. Easily accessible (low threshold) social care centers and assistance are very important. Few of the homeless had voluntarily chosen a homeless life—most describe an event that was a trigger for their homelessness. The average duration of being homeless was 17 months, and the longer someone had been homeless the less inclined they were to change their situation. This paper also discusses policymaking implications.

• Homeless
• Homelessness
• Marginalized drug users
• Subculture theory
• Trigger
• Problem zones

Notes

^aThe Rotterdam Drug Monitoring System (DMS) is research system that collects data on drugs, drug use, and users. The DMS research methods include a biannual drug user survey, interviews with key informants, and ongoing fieldwork by community fieldworkers

^bRelated to the five main themes of the Drug Monitoring System: 1) buying and selling of drugs, 2) housing, 3) work and income, 4) health, and 5) social relationships

^cAccording to the definition of Van Waveren ([1990]): “homeless people with no fixed abode are those who may have a fixed place to stay the night, but are unemployed and have no regular contact with family, friends or neighbors on whom they can count.”

^d(temporary) employment agency for and organized by drug users

^e‘Homelessness’ is a complex, dynamic, multi-dimensional phenomenon, process, condition and status which is bounded (culture-place-time, etc.). Traditional liner notions of ‘predictability’ and ‘control’ can be and are misleading when associated with nonlinear phenomenon and are likely to create problems for necessary intervention planning, implementation and assessment (process and outcome). (Buscema, 1998, SUM, 35:1–3.)

^fIdentity papers are sometimes sold to illegal persons

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ankie Lempens

Ankie Lempens, M.A. (NL) She studied both journalism and cultural anthropology. She is currently working as a researcher for the Addiction Research Institute Rotterdam, studying users of ‘hard drugs” in the city of Rotterdam—a project she is currently continuing in the city of Utrecht. In 1994 she started working as a research assistant, and later as a researcher, for the Utrecht University Department of Criminology, investigating aid to victims among ethnic minorities. She also participated in a research project that was part of the Dutch Parliamentary Investigative Committee ‘Criminal Investigation Methods’, making an inventory of organized crime in the Netherlands, within a team of four criminology professors. In 1998 she started working at the IVO. Her areas of interest include qualitative research on drug use and criminology.

Dike van de Mheen

Dike van de Mheen, Ph.D. (NL) is Director of Research and Education at the Addiction Research Institute Rotterdam. From 1986–88 she worked as researcher with the Rotterdam Area Health Authority. This was followed by an appointment as researcher and assistant professor at the Erasmus University Rotterdam (Department of Public Health) from 1988 until 1999. During 1998 and 1999 she was senior advisor at the Rotterdam Area Health Authority. From 1999 to date she is working at the IVO. Her areas of interest include public health and alcohol and drug research.

Cas Barendregt

Cas Barendregt, B.A. (NL), a trained social worker who is currently the coordinator of community field work at the Addiction Research Institute, began his career as an outreach AIDS prevention worker in Rotterdam's “hard drug” scene. He participated in the European Peer Support Project, when working at the TrimbosInstitute from 1993–96. The focus of this work was training activities for drug users and social workers. His current work focuses on the phenomena of the heroin and cocaine market at the retail level.