Homelessness in the UK
I used to be homeless for over five years when I went to live in England. I’d fallen in love with a homeless man I’d met on vacation and that was that. The man I fell in love with turned out to be a con artist and a monster, but that’s not to say that all homeless people are con artists and monsters.
I became homeless due to mental illness and falling on an incredible string of bad luck. That’s why people become homeless. One bad thing happens, then another and another and you just can’t catch up with trying to fix everything that’s broken in your life, as this homeless man explains:
Fianlly, it’s all you can do just to survive. You think of where to get water, food and warmth. That’s all you can manage because it takes up all of your energy just to rustle up those three things. Just to get a shower and a bit of food, I had to walk a round trip of three miles several times a week. There was a fresh water spring near my camp that was a mile round trip away.
Even after being homeless, I don’t recommend giving money to anyone who asks spare change — not unless you personally know the person. There are a lot of addicts who will use the money to get drugs. There are those who use the money to get food or over the counter medicines or candles but yuo never know who are the addicts and who were homeless like I was. You’re better off just giving the food, over the counter medicines and candles (or whatever) directly to the homeless persona and cut out the money middleman bit.
Here’s a short documentary on homelessness in Portsmouth — because I couldn;t find on on homelessness in Somerset.
February 1st, 2009 at 6:00 pm
[...] I was homeless in England, suicides in the homeless community were a common event. Usually, the preferred method of suicide [...]