A repurposed municipal office building is offering a temporary home to Bangkok’s homeless.
Baan Imaji shelter, which opened on Nov. 10, resides in the Pomprap Sattruphai district and can house up to 400 people per night. The shelter used to hold the offices of the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority, but has since been retrofitted with beds, activity areas and offices in an effort to better serve Bangkok’s homeless population.
According the Bangkok Post, the three-story building was leased by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA)’s Social Development Department after the Waterworks relocated its offices to Sam Sen. The BMA spent THB14 million renovating the building, which now offers temporary housing and other resources to misplaced persons in the capitol.
In order to stay at Baan Imaji, one must be a Thai national and have no significant history of drug use or criminal activity. Residents at the shelter must vacate the premises each day at 9AM, but are welcome to return at night to take advantage of the building’s beds, as well as its offerings of free towels, blankets, soap and laundry detergent.
According a report released last year by the BMA, Bangkok serves as a place of residence for 1,093 homeless, the vast majority of whom are men. Even a cursory survey of the city can place that statistic under suspicion, but Baan Imaji offers a small respite for Bangkok’s homeless, regardless their true numbers.
