Street Sleepers

It is many years ago now that I walked through "cardboard city" in London (no longer there) with a couple of friends, one friend said always keep a few coins in your pocket so you don't have to get your purse out, I would never have walked through there on my own.

Sight I will never forget was leaving a meeting at 4.30pm in Winter & seeing young people bedding down in doorways, that was over 20 years ago

I have always supported Salvation Army & my clothing donations go to them, what isn't fit for resale etc is sent for rags for which they receive payment.

It is a sad state of affairs where there is so little support now for the homeless, more shelters are needed & housing also support for addicts & mental health issues

Notanan makes a very valid list of ideas and reasons why there are unfortunately so many homeless people. It is terrible to think of anyone without a warm bed and a meal for the night ...maybe we are too complacent but it is difficult to know what to do. When I lived in the UK I would always follow a family tradition of donating to the Salvation Army as I think they are an organisation that tries to do all they can for the homeless ...unfortunately even they cannot help everyone. I read every day in the UK press of empty houses, warehouses, etc that could be made into overnight warm accommodation and provision of a hot meal but as usual the Councils say they do not have the money to open them and heat them ......do they think it is better to have more people dead from the cold ?

Here in France people who rent accommodation out are under a law which says you cannot turn anyone out between the end of November and the beginning of March ....I have not seen any figures for anyone who abuses this though..I would hope not many, but maybe I have too much faith in human beings !

I give what I can to the Church who collect clothing, the Emmaeus charity that collects clothing and bedding and the food bank who collect with shopping trolleys at the entrance of supermarkets on certain weekends throughout the year. This is of course not enough, but if everyone donated just something it would be an enormous difference

As you say , there but for fortune ....and I am conscious of the fact that with a hard Brexit (ok it always creeps in somewhere) we may well be joining those 'sans arbri' sometime ! I saw in the press also those huge queues of migrants with only an unheated warehouse to sleep in...but I suppose they feel it is worth escaping a war zone (those that genuinely come from a war zone !) for. I also feel concerned for the elderly living in houses they cannot afford to heat or cannot afford to eat, in what, I heard from the TV yesterday. is 'one of the wealthiest nations in Europe'......try telling the homeless, the hungry, the cold and the elderly that whilst they go without ! AT least here in France (as in Spain when we lived there) they tend to look after their own first ....when is the UK going to adopt this policy !?

A few years ago DH and myself volunteered at a winter night shelter preparing an evening meal for them. When they were let in for the meal and a bed for the night their eyes were glazed over with cold. Chatting to some of them it was clearly not the life they had chosen but more about things just going wrong and them finding themselves on the streets. Very sad.

I used to be quite unsympathetic to rough sleepers, but I now think that no-one would choose to be homeless in bitterly cold or wet weather, and they are not all alcoholics and drug takers. There are 5 churches in my area that open their doors at night, provide food and drink, and a good breakfast for these people, but of course during the day they have to find warmth and shelter. I wish there was an easy solution.

What's your point Widgeon? that homeless people can have the full range of personalities that people in houses can have and some aren't honest?
Lots of people in houses aren't honest.
Maybe he wasn't honest about being homeless?
What are we supposed to deduce from your tale that's relevant to this thread? That the rise in homelessness is due to unwillingness to do garden work?
If that indeed were the case, what about the correlation between disabilities and homelessness?

A homeless ex-army man knocked at the door asking me to buy cleaning cloths. It was a bright day.... not too cold. I explained that I needed no dishcloths but could offer him a paid job weeding under the hedge. Before I had drawn breath he had packed up his bags and was running across the road to the pub. He called back to me that he felt, at that point, a need for coffee

One homeless woman I had a long chat with said she wouldn't go to a shelter because she would be back on drugs pretty quickly if she did. She also said she had been in hospital recently but discharged herself because she was safer on the street. The response of our council is to close another shelter.

I remember reading a report not that long ago, about how many ordinary people in the U.S. are two months away from homelessness as a result of not having any savings.
Should they lose their jobs or due to a change in circumstance they too could find themselves on the street.
It's a very scary thought and one of the reasons I have told my son to always have enough money saved to cover any eventuality for at least 6 months should the worst ever happen.

the situation has gone beyond helping individuals though (not that anyone should stop doing that too)

There are a number of issues IMO:
- Benefit cuts

- Cuts to mental health services

- Lack of council housing

- Lack of range of council housing: addicts, recovering addicts, people with serious mental health issues.. all need housing, but can't necessarily always be expected to function in a block of flats alongside families. We need wet houses for active addicts, we need REAL dry houses for recovering addicts (not "on paper" dry houses that end up with a mix of active and recovering addicts). Proper supported living,

-Estate agents prohibiting anyone who doesn't know any high earners from renting (the guarantor thing is getting ridiculous now! Some local estate agents to me ask for TOW guarentors even if you pay 6 months rent up front, is that not an oxymoron? and what do people do if all of their family and friends who are working are only on national average wage? IMO they should accept guarentors from anyone earning national average salary otherwise it's barring a large chunk of the population from mainstream rentals)

- Dodgy zero hour contracts that keep people living hand to mouth and never able to build up a rainy day fund incase they have to move

- we need to get rid of the "intentionally homeless" category, where people cannot apply for help unless they are forcibly removed from a property

- a better deal for tennants AND landlords. At the moment because people are advised by CAB that they'll get no help unless they're "unintentially homeless" etc, it's really hard for decent ordinary people to be landlords, the only landlords who the current situation is working for is the bad landlords.. that in turn makes renting rubbish for good tenants.

Has everyone seen the Ken Loach film "I, Daniel Blake"? It is a sad and frightening illustration of how government policy has affected ordinary, hard working people. If you go, take a box of tissues.
I think the best ways to help are by supporting a charity by direct debit (they can plan ahead better if they know the money is coming regularly), buy food and drink for the person rather than give them cash, leave a legacy to a relevant charity in your will.
If you are worried about admin and management costs of a charity, try typing "Which charity should I support" into your search engine for a range of sites giving information and guidance.

Streetlink have an excellent outreach service, if you are worried about someone sleeping rough and want to do something concrete, you can register where they are on the Streetlink website and someone will go to them:

streetlink.mobi/tell-us-about-a-rough-sleeper

I sometimes hear people say that they don't want to give any money to the homeless as they might use it for alcohol or drugs. If I was homeless I too would want alcohol or even drugs.
Friends of ours who had been house hunting in Chester came across a lady in her 50s who had recently been made homeless after a marriage break up (husband had accumulated debts) My friends offered to pay for a McDonalds meal but she said she felt too sick with fear to eat; they offered to pay for one night's B&B, she thanked them but said it wasn't worth wasting their money as she'd be back on the streets again the next night. In the end she accepted a cup of hot chocolate. I think of that poor soul often. She must have even been fearful of using a loo as she wouldn't have been able to leave her cases.
Our council is persecuting the homeless, even spending £9000 to board up a car park where they seek refuge because 'upstanding' citizens have complained. I write to the council regularly and tweet them but of course it makes no difference.

The number of people living on the streets is increasing. For many of them it is not a choice. It is a total disgrace that this is the situation in a supposed first-world country.

The really frightening thing about all this is that as a society we seem to care less and less about those who need support. Many local councils are considering FINING the homeless £100 for sleeping on the streets - as if they choose to do so and could afford to pay the fine! Fortunately a local campaign prevented my council doing this when it was put forward last year. But just the suggestion of it is totally immoral.
My daughter works for the CAB and tells me that we have about 50 bedspaces for the homeless in the city but that this is nowhere near enough to cope with the demand. And we are supposed to be a new thriving (but small) city!!!

Like many people I am desperately sad about the plight of the homeless but I tell my self I do what I can in my own small way. But do I really do all I can? The harsh reality is no I don't. I am moved to tears by what I see and read of the plight of others. As a result I usually reach for my credit card to make a one off crisis payment, give a pound or two to those on the street and set up another small direct debit to help a charity. This helps me feel a little better but in all honesty I don't really miss these small payments. My husband and I are not financially well off by any stretch of the imagination but as mentioned by others, we have riches in abundance compared to the homeless. I got into a conversation in town one evening with a young man begging. I asked what had led to his homelessness. His story was one of family break up, remarriage and a fall out with his mothers new partner. He had lost his home and family and also had to leave his college course as he moved from sofa to sofa. Eventually, the sofas ran out. It was a very sad story but not an unusual one. I gave him a few encouraging words and a few pounds and went home. I told my husband about the young man and said I felt terrible about not offering him shelter for the night in our garage. My husband looked shocked and asked why would we offer him a bed in the garage when we had 3 spare bedrooms. He was right. I have often thought about this and wonder what happened to him. I am embarrassed to say that when I look at how I really help others I am found wanting. The bigger picture scares me.

I've heard it said that everyone one of us is only ever a few steps away from the street. As other posters have said it only takes a few twists of fate.

James Bowen, writer of the Bob the Cat books, is open about his own experiences of addiction and homelessness. Reading that, it's easy to see how someone can take a few steps along the wrong path then find there is very little chance to go another way.

Its easier for people to think that they're better than the people on the streets, and not the same as them but for a few twists of fate.

People just like to think that they have what they have because they worked harder for it, or because they made better choices, or because they're more driven/moral etc…..

I read a heartbreaking story recently about a homeless heroin addict:
He was a sucessful young professional newly wed and his wife died as a result of a very voilent random street crime. Nothing was managing his resulting mental health problems until he found heroin, it was the only thing that gave him any relief from the awful flashbacks.

He's not a homeless heroin addict because he's a weaker less driven person who didn't work hard. Something awful and random happened and he lost everything.

People really really don't want to think about things like that (because it's really awful), but that could be any of us.

My god if something awful and voilent happened to my kids I do not think I could hold down a job and function enough to keep my house ticking over & paid for!

It is shocking that people accept things like homelessness and food banks as part of the fabric of our society. It is political and unnecessary and political and people have to take responsibility for the consequences of how they vote and stop making excuses for things like homelessness - it is also shocking how judgmental some people are when they see people in these situations.
Most of us spend a large part of our days going to and from places, the shops, home, visiting etc. Even in the Summer when there are no 'going to' places in your life, it is a very long day.

I used to manage a large, operational venue in the south including line managing the 24/7 security teams.

The venue was in a town where there were high numbers of sleepers many of whom found their way to our building, sleeping in the numerous doorways and load in docks.

Rather than take the attitude of 'why do you all come here' as many might, the guys (and it always seems to be men, not so many women) were once asked why was our building their place of choice.

Because they knew we had CCTV, that there was 24/7 security cover with regular patrols they made sure to sleep in view of the cameras; feeling safe as a result.

If we ever had to open up the building early, security guys would go round and do as they called it, 'their early morning alarm call'

The sleepers were always respectful, got up, packed up, moved on and left the place clean and tidy, knowing they had a safe place the following night if needed.

It certainly makes us grateful for what we have. Why cant Councils open up unused places, for these poor people to at least have a roof over their heads and having some warmth, nodody should be out on the streets in this day and age, something must be done.

Homelessness is a symptom of the society in which we live. It is so easy to be smug that we are the goodies because we have worked and saved but we are responsible for all this. We have a vote so we are culpable. How many of us are guilty of inaction until something happens. What if our currency fails? We ( well most of us ) have not experienced war but then we have been "friends" with the people of Europe for most of our lifetimes. What now? Our warm beds are just a few steps away from a cold doorstep or worse. It does seem that we need fundamental change before it is too late.

When I was a kid the local tramp was picked up twice a year by the police, given a cell for the night, a good meal and a warm wash.

I have serious problems with homelessness and poverty - I live on a huge mainly council estate in a very deprived area. Two local tenants hang around the local shop begging and I always say I never take my purse out and no haven't any spare cash with me. The town centre has homeless people on every corner, sitting by bank ATMs. As a "saver", I feel guilty not giving them anything, but have a nasty feeling that giving them money will only encourage them to carry on drinking/drug taking etc. That said, DS's best friend was Sally Army and the officers always told him to leave donating to those most experienced who know how best to help.