Kunst meets Hubert Ostendorf
“We have good
solutions against homelessness”
The street magazine fiftyfifty, founded in Düsseldorf, is known far beyond the region and has many prominent supporters. VIVID editor Rainer Kunst spoke with managing director Hubert Ostendorf about entrepreneurship, the current Housing First project, civic engagement and the future of fiftyfifty.
fiftyfifty was founded in 1995. Why is there still so much homelessness in the region?
The problem is the unfair distribution. We generally have a good social system, which we have to defend, but it also has many deficits. In Germany, social background is still the decisive factor in determining social prospects. As far as overcoming street homelessness is concerned, I have to say that we were more optimistic 26 years ago because the housing market was not developing so drastically then. Together with the current developments, such as the zero interest rate policy, the housing market is now tighter than ever before. That’s why there are more and more people who are poor and who are excluded from the right to housing.
“We generally have a good social system, which we have to defend, but it also has many deficits..“
How have you managed to remain successful as a publication for such a long time?
I think we still exist because we are seen as credible, because we have high profile supporters and because we take appropriate measures to respond to current developments. Let’s look at digitalisation, for example. The big national newspapers have all lost an enormous amount, up to 90 per cent of their circulation. We, too, have lost about 50 percent of our circulation, but we have introduced digital subscriptions successfully. It’s not a replacement or a competitor for the print edition, our very core, but it supports it. The digital subscription allows us to maintain cost recovery and also to reach customers outside our circulation area who cannot buy the street magazine in person - 60 per cent of digital subscribers are not from the region. With our gallery, for which many well-known artists volunteer their works, we are also able to raise money nationally and internationally. For example, an edition by Thomas Ruff is always also in demand in New York.
In October 2021, your project “Housing First Düsseldorf e.V.”, which is funded by the city, was launched. Can you briefly outline what Housing First is about?
fiftyfifty has been using the Housing First approach since 2014 to show that there are good solutions to homelessness, even though the gap between income and rents is widening. To do this, we obtained a lot of theoretical knowledge beforehand and also evaluated the idea scientifically. In short, the concept of Housing First is: We buy flats for the homeless in the normal housing stock so that we can set the rents ourselves. We generate the money for this with the sold artworks from our benefit gallery. The money is thus invested in an inflation-proof way, because the flats increase in value - which is also an attractive support for the artists. And above all, we have ensured that homeless people are provided with housing for as long as these buildings stand - 50 years at 2 percent depreciation. In the meantime, more and more private individuals like the idea of investing their money well and doing something good at the same time. In October 2021, the association was launched. The concept was developed by fiftyfifty, Michael Busch, the managing director of Thalia, the notary Armin Hauschild, Michael Harbaum, the managing director of the Düsseldorfer Drogenhilfe and Prof. Dr. Anne van Rießen from the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf, and the city finances two full-time social workers as well.
How successful has the project been so far?
We have created living space for 60 people in five years. That means we have been able to reduce the number of homeless people from about 400 to less than 350 in Düsseldorf. We have achieved this despite the current conditions, with hardly any flats in the city and flats being very expensive. We have the advantage that we don’t have to finance the flats, but can buy them directly and it happens quickly. And the estate agents then also see things are going well and in return often offer us the flats before they are even put online. It’s a win-win situation.
Can you describe some of fiftyfifty’s other current projects?
“Underdog” for example is a mobile veterinary practice for dogs of homeless people. It’s not only an animal welfare project, but above all a street work project, because it allows us to reach people we wouldn’t otherwise reach. Because they would do anything for their dogs. At “East-West” we take care of poverty migrants from Eastern Europe. For years there has been a discussion about whether, for example, a Romanian family now belongs to the clientele of the homeless. There were no work permits for these people and thus no assistance. We said: If a mother sleeps with her child in the Hofgarten, then she is homeless. With East-West, we created a counselling service for people from Eastern Europe with mother-tongue support and made sure that they got housing benefit. And by registering them, we have made a valuable contribution to integration. That is unique in Germany.
Hubert Ostendorf (Founder of fiftyfifty) with Rainer Kunst (Publisher of VIVID)
How do you experience civic engagement in Düsseldorf?
Düsseldorf is a city with many people who are not disadvantaged. Many of them say: “We want to give something back, do something for poor people. Thanks to our gallery, we have contact with many of these people. And I believe that we have opened up these target groups through art, which we would otherwise not have reached through street sales.
What challenges do you see for the future of fiftyfifty?
I don’t think print media will survive in the long term. But with the circulation we have now, it makes sense to fight so we can delay this process as long as possible. The second challenge will be the abolition of cash. That’s why we have already equipped our sales assistants who have been with us for a long time with EC payment devices on a trial basis. It works and that will be the future.
What do you wish for fiftyfifty?
I hope more people understand they are not just throwing 1 euro into the cup, but that they are saying: we are buying a newspaper. We have almost 700,000 inhabitants in Düsseldorf. If every 20th person bought a newspaper, we would have no problems at all. And that’s what we hope for. •
“We have almost 700,000 inhabitants in Düsseldorf. If every 20th person bought a newspaper, we would have no problems at all. And that’s what we hope for.”
About fiftyfifty
Founded in Düsseldorf in 1995, published monthly since then
Price on the street is 2.80 Euros, the sellers pay 1.40 Euros for the purchase, the difference is the profit.
Not all sellers are homeless, the offer is generally aimed at people affected by poverty.
The sellers are supported by social workers, also with the help of translators.
The magazine is only sold in areas where there is no other street magazine.
Area of distribution: Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Neuss, the Bergisches Land, Bonn, Essen and Mönchengladbach, occasionally Frankfurt am Main.
Homelessness - what does it mean?
The goal should be for people to have a place to live and not just a shelter. There are no precise statistics nationwide on how many people are homeless. The figures are based on estimates and surveys by the Federal Working Group on Assistance to the Homeless. According to these, about 650,000 people are currently homeless nationwide - and the number is rising.
Words Tom Corrinth
Pictures CELINE AL-MOSAWI