Beirut, Lebanon – Ali, 26, and his friends approached an abandoned hotel, surrounded by an exhausted and desperate crowd in Hamra, a bustling district in Lebanon’s capital Beirut.
The crowd waited eagerly as his friends took a hammer and banged the lock and chain off the sealed door.
As soon as it was open, displaced families quickly settled in the dusty, smelly rooms of Hamra Star, a former hotel that had been closed for more than 10 years.
They were tired and hungry after sleeping on the streets and were desperate for a roof over their heads. While this seemed like a miracle to them, they didn’t expect it to bring along a new set of problems.