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When you arrive In the Ålander family in Huddinge in Stockholm, you are greeted by the youngest of the siblings, Luna, eight months old, who crawls forward. Behind the office in the hall is one of the twins who will soon be two years old.
Three years ago, the Ålander family moved from a third to the current apartment, a four-room apartment, through an apartment exchange with an older couple. The family consists of two adults, eight children, and two pets. The family is one of 462,000 living in overcrowded conditions.
– I have been in the Stockholm housing queue for about 10 years. A second-hand contract can be requested, but it is so unsafe to rent a second-hand one, especially with all the children, that we can just as easily be evicted, says Mother Terese.
Parts of the Ålander family sit together in the living room. “You wish you had another room,” says Mother Terese. In total, the family is made up of ten people.
Photo: Nicklas Thegerström
In one of the three bedrooms there is a bunk bed and a single bed. Thirteen-year-old Sanna sleeps in that room, who enjoys living with her siblings, except when she needs help.
– There will never be peace and quiet, says Sanna.
Feels like the first A true autumn day when Sam, 22, walks into a Stockholm suburb. Among the pale gray skyscrapers, Sam lives with his family of twelve in four. The youngest of the siblings goes to preschool and the oldest is over twenty-five.
– I’ve always lived crowded. But the apartment we lived in before the one we live in now was hell. We share a third. Mom and Dad had a room, in the living room and in the bedroom we slept, says Sam.
Even when Sam had video calls with his friends when he was younger, he tried to film so it wouldn’t show that they were living in crowded conditions.
– I didn’t want to show that we had wooden bunk beds from Ikea. So when we were chatting on video, I didn’t turn on the camera or sit in the living room.
There are two desks in the apartment, but there is usually a queue for them. Instead, Sam used to go around Stockholm to find a place to study.
– I have never studied at home because I cannot concentrate. I went to the library but they usually close early. I studied at Espresso house, McDonalds, the gas station and 7-Eleven.
“When you come to school, you don’t want to admit that you live in a crowded place because it sounds poor and it’s embarrassing,” says Sam. Next to him sits his brother.
Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
A typical morning for Sam involves planning to go to the bathroom.
– But we have a schedule so that those who start first can go first. But if it is urgent, of course, you must go first.
Is there a time when it has been more difficult to live in a crowded place?
– Between elementary school and high school it was difficult. It is the moment when you go through a period in which you change. Puberty enters the picture. When we were little we did not understand and we blamed mom and dad.
The new report from the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, CAMM, shows that children living in overcrowded housing often have to take early responsibility for the family. They are supportive of their family and the children see that the parents are having a hard time both mentally, physically and socially.
– No parent wants their child to live in a crowded place. I can’t move either, there are many of us and I want to help with the sustenance. I can’t leave them in that situation.
Sam lives with his family of twelve in four in a suburb of Stockholm.
Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
Sam says he is not ashamed of his lifestyle when he is with friends who are in the same situation.
– But I would never bring home colleagues and friends from the city, because I don’t want them to see how I live.
When sam was younger and went to school often was completely exhausted.
– When you live in a busy area and want to get tested the next day, you need to relax and recover. It is not possible and then the teacher wants you to do well in school.
Another that has grown in a crowded family it is Nour. Today he is twenty but wants to remain anonymous for the sake of his little sister.
– He is 14 years old and at the age where you are very ashamed. But I try to teach him not to be ashamed, he says.
Nour lives with her mother and four brothers in a four in one of the Stockholm suburbs.
– My mother provides for all of us. It’s hard. But she is strong and we can do just that.
Nour notes that many youth centers have closed again and young people choose to be outdoors to socialize.
“I have never been ashamed of how we live, but I am grateful. My parents have built their lives from scratch,” says Nour.
Photo: Bim Jacobsson
– When you live in a crowded place, you have many siblings and you need your own space, you go out. If you are unlucky, you run into bad friends who have a bad influence, leading you to do bad things. You may not be able to pay for sports. You do not have another option.
To be able to talk quietly on her cell phone, Nour goes to the bathroom and turns on the tap.
– You have no privacy. My mother shares a room with my little sister, so she also consumes it.
Both Nour and Sam believes that living in crowded conditions has made them stronger, but hopes their future children will not have to grow up like this.
– I feel better than what my mother and father had. Then my children will improve than me, Nour concludes.
Sam and Nour actually have different names.
Read more: The pandemic exacerbates the housing crisis for Stockholm’s youth
