The many faces of homelessness

This blog post has been in the pipeline for a while, but I've been waiting for the right time to post it. 

On Monday, I was in Bath city centre, and was walking down one of the quant side streets lined with boutiques and independent cafes, when I walked past a homeless woman sat in the shelter of an archway. I carried on walking past her, and heard her coughing quite loudly, and I fully stopped walking and hesitated, wondering whether or not to go ask if she needed anything. Worried about approaching her, I went on my way to buy my mum a (belated) mothers day card and present. I had a budget of maybe £15, but after I'd bought her a card, something in my mind was still niggling away at me about the homeless woman. So I walked back to where she was sat and asked if she wanted anything to eat, to which she replied she would like a burger king (great choice I know). So I bought her a meal from there, and then when I gave it to her I asked if she had anywhere to stay that evening. I suggested Julian House, but she said she was hoping to get £8 in order to stay at a hostel on Bathwick hill, so I went to a cashpoint and gave her the money for the hostel. 

Now even as I was taking the cash out, doubts kept lingering in my mind. 

"Eve you're already pretty damn broke, and well into your overdraft". 

"If you do this, you can't justify buying Mum a present as well".  

But then I suddenly just felt super ashamed. I realised that all those excuses I was making were such privileged problems. At the end of the day, even the fact I have a no-interest overdraft is because I am fortunate enough to be a student in full-time education. The government loans me money so that I can afford my rent whilst I study. My student loan is the government's money, not mine, so why shouldn't I spend it on someone who needs it more than me. (Especially considering the government's budget for issues such as homelessness leaves much to be desire anyway).

Earlier on twitter I saw this Bible verse:

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves for the rights of all who are destitute. - Proverbs 31:8

And I just thought, how bloody cool is it that a verse like that is so central to the Christian faith. Jesus constantly went out of his way to meet the needs of others, completely unselfishly, and to the complete surprise of many others who would have perceived the son of God to be above that, like some sort of celebrity. 

So in light of my experience on Monday, I figured now was a good time to release this blog post about a documentary I watched last month entitled "Hidden and Homeless".

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The people presented in these 5 pictures all have something in common. That something, is that they are all homeless.

When we hear the word homeless, it is so easy to picture someone with unkempt hair and fingerless gloves, lying in a sleeping bag covered in cardboard, much like the homeless woman I met. However, thanks to a documentary on BBC3 by professor green entitled "Hidden and Homeless", that stereotypical view of homelessness has been blown out the water, and a distinction between sleeping rough and being homeless has become much clearer.

Statistics regarding homelessness tend to focus on rough sleepers, but the reality is that there are around 38,500 hidden homeless around the UK. The hidden homeless are individuals who do not have a home of their own, instead sofa surfing, staying in council hostels or sleeping in squats and derelict buildings. The rough sleepers that you might see on the streets of Bath, or London, or any UK city are more often than not, just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the homeless.

Redundancy and bankruptcy can often lead to homelessness. Through losing a job, and not being able to pay rent, bailiffs can evict whole families from their homes, often without much notice. From the point of being made homeless, the council can place people in temporary housing, but this accommodation is not always in the same area as where you have been evicted from. Many homeless individuals are reluctant to use the provided temporary accommodation because it may end up being hundreds of miles from their families, friends, schools and support networks.

Not having a house of their own makes it even more difficult to find and hold down another job, which has financial impacts that mean even the rent for temporary accommodation may be unaffordable. This downward spiral is indicative of a series of vicious circles that homeless people can get stuck in.

At the more extreme end of the spectrum, for individuals who end up squatting in derelict buildings, drugs, alcohol, crime and sexual violence makes the circle that much more vicious, and even more difficult to get out of. The documentary on BBC3 made it quite clear, drugs don't necessarily lead to homelessness, homelessness leads to drugs. It becomes a coping mechanism for individuals to deal with their situations. Death is common amongst these homeless circles. Once these individuals fall into this death trap of drugs, alcohol and crime, the problem escalates. It is no longer a battle to find them housing, it becomes a battle with addiction, psychological issues and being able to support themselves on their own.

It saddens me that at the centre of this issue, is lack of governmental and social support. Whether the cause of homelessness is unemployment, or rent arrears, family breakdown or crime, I believe that having sufficient social support and government regulations in place can act as an effective buffer for a large majority of these issues. There are numerous incredible Charities that are helping the homeless currently, whether they are hidden homeless like the individuals in the documentary, or are homeless like the woman I saw on Monday. But at the end of the day, it's all very well addressing the symptoms of a broken system such as homelessness, but real change lies in bringing about change to the system itself.

Take a look at you and I. Because of our socioeconomic status, access to education and general privileged lifestyles, we tend to have a bigger chance of being listened to by people in power. Contrary to people who are made homeless and so often dehumanised by the media, our privileged position by default also means that we are generally considered much more highly than they are. It is so important that we recognise the fortunate lives that we lead, and use that platform to achieve some sort of positive change. Because if we don't speak up for those less fortunate than ourselves, then who will?