'Hotel' offers the homeless experience

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, March 25 (UPI) -- A Swedish "hotel" is offering customers the chance to sleep in "rooms" including a dirty mattress under a bridge and a sleeping bag in a public park.

Faktum Hotels in Gothenburg said the $15-per-night accommodations, which it began offering in November, are designed to highlight the hardships facing the city's homeless population, The Local.se reported Monday.

"We asked several of our homeless contacts where they often slept, then we set up our rooms," said Aaron Israelson, editor of Faktum magazine, which runs the business. Faktum is sold on the street by poor and homeless in Gothenburg

The "rooms," which include a dirty mattress beneath a bridge, a sleeping bag in a park and a floor lined with newspaper at an abandoned mill.

"Few actually make it through the night and we had a very cold, harsh winter. But some really tried, with one woman managing to stay for about four hours," Israelson said.

Israelson said the aim of the project is not to make money.

"Our primary mission is to spread the word about the homeless situation in this city. Gothenburg is a tough place to be homeless," Israelson said.