07.10.2025 | UNHOME - A virtual reality experience from GoBanyo
Homelessness is omnipresent on the streets of Hamburg: people are asked for change on the train, sleeping bags are lined up along the roadside. Although physically visible, many city dwellers manage to block out this reality and distance themselves cognitively. The VR experience UNHOME aims to change this by putting users in the perspective of homeless people for twenty minutes.
From Sainabu Fye
Since 2019, the Hamburg-based initiative GoBanyo has been drawing attention to itself with the slogan "Washing is dignity". It is particularly visible in the form of a former public transport bus, brightly painted and converted into a mobile bathroom inside. Homeless people can shower here free of charge. One of the founders, Dominik Bloh, lived on the streets of Hamburg for eleven years and experienced how much self-esteem depends on hygiene. The shower bus is therefore not only a physical but also a mental support for many people in need. However, homelessness is an issue that must also reach those who are never on the shower bus themselves:
"In order to deal well with the social challenge of homelessness, we need understanding and comprehensibility," says Chris Poelmann, co-founder of GoBanyo.
With the help of virtual reality, GoBanyo wants to penetrate precisely where homelessness often remains invisible: into society's consciousness. Together with the Curious Company, a Hamburg-based production company for immersive media, the project "UNHOME - Survival on the Street" was created.
The VR glasses enable an immediate change of perspective: users experience the everyday life of a homeless person at first hand: "I am sitting myself in my flat, which I am losing for reasons. I have to ask for money on the street or look after food. And perhaps also learn why it's not so easy to get out of homelessness again."
The experience begins in your own home, where everything still seems fine. Then everything changes: job loss, unaffordable rent, no money - suddenly there is no home anymore. And although you can stretch out your virtual hand with the controller, reach out and make decisions, you are powerless and helplessly at the mercy of the further course of your fate.
Visualising experiences is a challenge in itself - even more so for a marginalised group that hardly has a voice in public. For GoBanyo, this meant an intensive research and conceptualisation phase in which an appreciative approach to the people on the street was paramount. Dominik Bloh contributed first-hand experience, as well as impressions from shower guests and dialogue with social workers and street workers. Poelmann likes to compare the approach to a coffee filter "where all the experiences have gone in. And the essence of this is what is shown in VR: an exemplary story that shows how people end up on the street and the challenges they have to overcome."
The research work has paid off. Poelmann explains that the experience was shown to shower guests and feedback was obtained. "And they also told us that it was very close to reality."
The locations of UNHOME are also realistic. Whether Park Fiction, Sternbrücke or the S1 towards Wedel: the VR experience localises homelessness in places that Hamburg residents know.
The hardware posed a particular technical challenge: the VR experience runs on the Meta Quest, whose processor is about as powerful as that of a smartphone. For this reason, it was necessary to weigh up how much detail was possible for each scene - and without additional computers, in order to make the project as flexible as possible.
In addition to directly conveying experiences of homelessness, UNHOME also opens up new perspectives for the education sector. Young people can not only watch the VR experience or read about it, but also experience the situation for themselves. Through the glasses, they are hyper-focussed on what is happening, there are no external distractions and the emotional access makes it easier to understand the topic.
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Poelmann sees enormous potential in this: similar to UNHOME, VR experiences can also be developed for other social or professional topics: from the everyday life of an educator in a kindergarten group to situations in the care sector. Poelmann is certain that virtual reality can become a powerful tool to enable learning about emotions and facilitate access to complex topics.
GoBanyo is already actively utilising this potential: together with the State Institute for Qualification and Quality Development in Schools, a 90-minute workshop has been developed for schools and educational institutions. Prof Dr Tim Middendorf from Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (Faculty of Social Sciences) provided scientific support. In a qualitative study, he analysed how the participants perceive the VR experience and what effect it has on their understanding of homelessness.
The results of the study with over 100 participants aged between 15 and 56 years show: The users develop a deeper understanding of the complex realities of homeless people's lives and at the same time reflect on their own attitudes and options for action.
Further information on GoBanyo is available here.
Information and learning materials on UNHOME are available here.
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