CLOCHARDS DELUXE is what these three homeless call themselves.
They feel lucky for they have been able to create their own space for living, a self-built shelter on a piece of wasteland in the city center of Ghent, Belgium. They feel comfortable too, for they have used their bit of minimal subsistence from the Belgian State to buy a wood stove, a generator on fuel, and a television. A friendly nearby worker who renovated his furniture donated a large coach. They also constructed a toilet hut, and for washing up they use the city’s facilities for poor people.

Two men, one woman, two dogs and three chicken have been sharing this shelter since May 2013. They cook daily, they talk, joke, quarrel, play, watch DVD’s, drink beer, invite some homeless friends and forbid access to any drug addict.

I met Fons in 2011 at the main railway station where I started my photo project with the homeless. He had been down and out on the streets since six years. A year or so later, I met Liesbet on her very first homeless night. Fons, her elder by some thirty years, took an interest in her and they have been a couple ever since. With ups and downs, but they manage so far. Etienne, E.T. for the friends, comes from the East side of Belgium. He’s 65 and loves his small dog Lady to bits. I met him at the station at the end of 2012.