This morning was an early morning for all of us. We departed the hotel at 8:45 am to head for Amstel Station to catch the train into Utrecht, one of the Netherlands major cities. I was mainly excited about the train because it was the first time I had ever ridden on one, but also because I wanted to see what the terrain looks like outside of the busy city. Pulling into Utrecht reminded me of taking a step back in time. The buildings were what comes to mind when you think of traditional Dutch architecture and it is amazing how clean and well taken care of the city is. We headed towards a large structure that reminded me of a church tower, standing just a few hundred feet away from our first stop at the University of Utrecht for a guest speaker.
I was so relieved when we walked into the lecture hall to discover coffee, tea and cake out for us to enjoy during the lecture. I quickly grabbed a cup of coffee and settled in for the three hour class session. I’ll be honest, the guest speaker wasn’t quite what I had imagined. I was thinking that we would be discussing more of what it is like to be homeless in the Netherlands, what populations are most impacted and what the root causes were. I was not expecting to have the opportunity to have a PhD thesis on Dutch policy presented to us. I really appreciated how the professor gave us the policy and the point of view from people, the government and non-governmental stakeholders. I particularly thought it was interesting how the Dutch prioritize housing above everything else for the homeless population as a first step towards stability.
There were a few very interesting moments I did catch during the presentation. The first was the discussion centered around the LGBTQ population and how at risk they were of experiencing homelessness. The speaker seemed a little bit thrown by the question and almost brushed it off as a population they really just tolerate and don’t know much about. For me, this is another example of where the idea of Dutch tolerance doesn’t necessarily match the American ideal of tolerance. For me, the typically idea of tolerance includes working with individuals like the LGBTQ community to be better educated, understand their needs and understand how policies and things such as homelessness will directly impact them. While the Dutch claim to be one of the most tolerant societies in the world, there is definitely a difference between ignorant tolerance and being educated about minority communities.
After a long lecture, the University was nice enough to treat us to lunch with some of the best soup I have ever had in my life. After stuffing ourselves with a couple of sandwiches in addition to the soup, we set off into the city to find our next site visit and explore the area a little bit. We arrived at the Salvation Army homeless shelter and were soon escorted inside the shelter. While our presentation was brief, our guide gave us some of the history behind how their shelter had come to be, why they chose a location in the middle of the city, and how they continue to work with the government to provide services for the homeless population. One of the things that I thought was most incredible is the fact the building housed nearly 15 organizations focused on providing services to the homeless and social workers on site to help those who are homeless navigate the processes and policies to finding stable housing.
After we wrapped up our class sessions for the day, a group of us slowly made our way up the canal to the downtown area of Utrecht. It was filled with thousands of little shops, street performers and boats jetting up and down the canals. After stopping in a few shops, we noticed that you could rent pedal boats to take down the canal for the afternoon. After loading our group into two boats, we set off down the canal to enjoy the scenery. The thing that is so different about the canals in Utrecht is that they are low enough that businesses and homes are actually built under the main street above and open up right onto the canal. We peddled ourselves into a peaceful residential area with beautiful homes before deciding it was time to turn around and come back. We made a quick stop for dinner before hopping on the train back to Amstel Station just in time to watch the United States and England play in the Women’s World Cup Semi-Final.