Homeless taste 'luxury' at Geneva hotel during pandemic
21 April, 2020
Sofiane Rahmani can hardly believe his luck. After several years of living on the road and bouncing between shelters, he now has his own accommodation, personal bathroom and all meals provided.
"It's true luxury," the 16-year-old Algerian unlawful migrant told AFP at the three-star Bel Esperance Hotel in Geneva.
Last month, as the hotel faced a cascade of cancellations, it made a decision to turn over the whole establishment to house homeless women and youths and help have them off the streets through the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the hotel in the heart of Geneva's Old City, 20 rooms have been provided to homeless women, while 11 have already been directed at unaccompanied minors like Rahmani who have no usage of seeking asylum in Switzerland.
"It just happened fairly naturally," hotel director Alain Meuwly told AFP, sitting in the breakfast room, where tables have already been spaced far apart and built with only 1 chair each.
When Switzerland commenced cancelling all public events and closing restaurants and shops to halt the spread of the virus in early March, "a lot more than 90 percent of our bookings were cancelled," he said.
The hotel, a profit-driven business run by the Salvation Army, was empty.
Simultaneously colleagues within the Christian charity told him these were looking for safe methods to house a number of the estimated 1,000 homeless people in Geneva.
Good for business
Switzerland, which to date has reported practically 28,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and a lot more than 1,100 deaths, doesn't have a national policy against homelessness, with each one of the confederation's 26 cantons implementing their own approaches.
In Geneva, the Salvation Army and other organizations have long provided emergency overnight shelters with a few dozen beds, but nothing you've seen prior anything with 24-hour service.
Meuwly said the transformation process was fairly simple.
The hotel's regular staff were all positioned on short-term unemployment, and a team of social workers were brought in to support the new residents, who'll be permitted to stay until June 1.
The dining area was spaced out, masks and disinfectant were provided and only one person was permitted per room.
"Since this is a slightly different clientele we removed some devices that you would usually find in a three-star accommodation, like tablets and coffee-makers," Meuwly acknowledged, stressing that the "comfort and ease is the same."
"There will be the same beds and bedding, TVs, and especially wifi. That is something everyone really appears to appreciate."
Ironically, the building served for a lot more than 60 years as a shelter for vulnerable women, however in 1996 it had been transformed right into a hotel, which today offers elegant, plush rooms that through the high season can choose up to 600 Swiss francs ($620, 570 euros) a night.
Meuwly said he was not worried that housing the homeless might harm business after the crisis ends.
"Never," he said, adding that he previously received numerous messages from regular customers congratulating him for the initiative and asking how they may help.
"I think it might even be an asset to the business."
'Total comfort'
Rahmani is certainly pleased with the arrangement.
After making a treacherous boat crossing from Algeria to Spain three years ago, making his way to the streets of Paris, and lastly to Geneva last month, he said hotel life was "total comfort."
"We need not think about food, we need not worry where you can sleep, or if we are cold," he said.
"I'd like to stay here forever."
Geneva provides migrants who are unaccompanied minors with special provisions, often officially registering them with organizations and giving usage of food and shelter.
Hafida Marsli, a 42-year-old woman who made her way from Morocco to Switzerland ten years ago in search of a much better life and then eventually find herself homeless in Geneva, agreed.
"It is actually good here," she told AFP, adjusting her headscarf. "It's all good."
Valerie Spagna, who heads the Salvation Army's night shelter program for the homeless in Geneva, said there is a world of difference from the regular shelters, where people can enter in the evening to settle large dormitories or shared rooms, and also have to leave early each morning.
At the hotel, "they are able to finally relax, take care of themselves, sleep as long as they need," she told AFP. "They have finally gotten a little taste of a more normal life."
She said what she feared most now was "the return to reality" once the homeless residents are asked to leave on June 1.
"They are going to have to get back to real life at some point," she said.
"It will hurt."
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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