The Sheltersuit Foundation aims to change the representation of the growing group of people experiencing homelessness around the world, while improving their everyday lives.
To date, Sheltersuit has produced and donated over 15.000 Sheltersuits and Shelterbags to keep people warm and dry while living on the street. While handing out our products, we realized it gave us a unique opportunity to get close to people who are unseen by most of us.
In this magazine, you’ll meet a few of them. Their stories stand for those of whom we hear too little.
Colophon
Photography + interviews: Tony Dočekal
Graphic design and hand lettering: Rosa de Jong
Tony and I distributed hundreds of Sheltersuits and documented the stories of the people we’ve met. I believe telling their stories is the first step to making a change.
Bas Timmer, founder of Sheltersuit
Sandra (60) has lived in Montana with her husband and 2 children for most of her life. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, it changed everything. Her marriage of 33 years came to an end, and she was put in a protection program in Portland. Thereafter, she moved to New York and has been homeless for almost 7 years.
“The hardest part of being homeless is exhaustion. I call sleep ‘the gift of sleep’ because it’s so hard to get.” – Sandra
Inge and her husband Björn were evicted after the unexpected death of their foster father and mentor. The couple, former sailors, are resilient and strong. But after almost 3 years of illegal camping, they long for a roof over their heads.
“We came back from the cremation and were unable to enter the house. We weren’t even allowed to take our stuff out. ” – Inge
Meet Alexandre. For the past four years, Alexandre has been homeless on the streets of Paris. For a while, he found safety and security in a social housing estate, but after the building was sold, he had nowhere else to turn. Many years ago, Alexandre was a mariner who traveled around the world.
“I didn’t care much for New York or London… Rotterdam, I loved it! But, Paris is my home, this is where my heart is.” – Alexander
Tony Dočekal (Amsterdam, 1992) graduated from ArtEZ Enschede in 2015 and won the Olympus Young Talent Award in 2018.
Tony captures social situations in a way that invites further interpretation. Her work refers to the larger social issues of our time. After meeting our founder Bas, in 2019, while doing an artist residency at KALA Art Institute in Berkeley (CA), she has worked as a photographer and storyteller for Sheltersuit Foundation.
Tony has made both journalistic and autonomous work, constantly exploring the boundary between observation and perception.
Check her website for more.
Parked in the neighborhood of Miracle Mile, Los Angeles is Eva. Eva, a Hungarian born in 1950, has travelled across the United States eight times in her car, which she now sleeps in at night. It is her home.
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Panhandling at an intersection, we met Brian, a 36 year-old army veteran who served his country for 10 years and had three combat tours; two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. A native of Dallas, Texas, Brian has been living on the streets in Tucson for nearly 5 years.
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