28 April, 2006

People are just people

Whenever we see someone sleeping in a shop doorway or some subway on our way to work, we look and think my god what a shame. I know I sometimes do and I have lived that way myself for many years but people are only the people and when you become so used to seeing something sad you become desensitized to it. We take it for granted that by some miracle it's not us that sleep out in the cold and rain at night. Most people including politicians think hostels are one of the solutions. Temporary accommodation or is it? There are people still in hostels up and down the country that have been there for years and to be frank have got used to the idea this is where they now live and they not moving anywhere. Is this right? I don't think so but where do you put 380,000 people and what do you do with them once you get them somewhere? Most people that have been on the streets have lost their sense of value because society hasn't valued them and has left them to their own devices. Which have been mostly on how to survive life on the streets and to be honest it's always been, anyway you can. The story of the woman living in her car is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more stories no one gets to read about like a man in Norwich that lives in a building that has half been demolished or the girl in Bristol that lives in a shed these are just a two. We face in this country alone, a massive problem of what we call hidden homeless and these can be people sleeping on friend's floors, hotels, hostels, squats and even with a family that don't want you. The list goes on. Will homelessness ever be cured and what happens if we have a stock market crash as many people I speak to these days are worried that prices are now so over inflated that something has to give. The saying home is where the heart is but if your homeless where is the heart

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jamie it's true isn't it,we get used to seeing things. I walk to the tube from work often with someone and we are too engrossed in ourselves I didn't really register this young girl shaking by the side of the road with a cup outheld. So it was a day later that I went to get some information I could give her about shelters for vulnerable women. When I went back she was gone but she had been there a few days, so I worry what happened and kick myself for being so desensitised not to do something sooner...

Anonymous said...

As a child visiting NYC, noticed the men sleeping over grates or spawled out on sidewalks. So seeing such, was just like seeing something normal.

I used to say my heart is inside of me, so where ever I go is home. Truthfully, not having a place to go sleep at night, your own key to your own door, a private space, kind of wears your heart away to nothing.