Um Hassan moved to Tarik Al Jadidah in 1982, when she was an 18-year-old mother of two. She came from the south and married a relative who was living in Beirut. Em Hassan is now in her 50s and lives in the same neighborhood in Tarik Al Jadidah, but in a new house after being evicted from her previous house three years ago. Between her old house and her new one is a small open space, sheltered from the sun and rain by a cloth awning no larger than 2 meters per side. This open space represents the past, present, and future of Um Hassan’s housing. You can find her there every afternoon, drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette. To her right is a window of the house she lived in for 34 years, which is no longer hers. Directly in front of her is the door to a house that, by purchasing it, offered her a chance to stay in Beirut. During a series of chats in this space, we come to know Um Hassan’s story and the neighborhood’s residents’ struggles to stay here in the face of real estate pressures.

Read more details in Arabic here.