Homelessness

Gonna go a bit emo here, but bear with me.

There was a programme on last night called Famous, Rich and Homeless, whose basic premise was taking some rich, 'famous' (loosest sense of the word... The Guardian have gone with the term 'fairly famous', I still think this is a little bit too much creedence... if you know who Les Battersby is, then you're on the right track) folk and dumping them on the streets of London with no money and a sleeping bag, and letting them survive as a rough sleeper. It as gnarly. The Marquis of Blandford couldn't hack it and stayed in a hotel, but the rest of them slogged it out and devised their own ways of making money just to get them through. The Big Issue website sums it up better than I can

Guided throughout by John Bird, the five begin their ten day experience being dropped off in different areas of London, where they spend their days and nights trying to survive on the streets. The physical and emotional toll challenges their preconceptions and prejudices about homelessness, its causes, and the ease with which people can escape it.The participants have 10 homes and a palace between them, Famous, Rich & Homeless focuses their minds and ours on those who don’t.

And it really did focus my thinking. Despite the fact that my flatmate works for The Big Issue (not as a street vendor, as a fundraiser), and I also come into contact with people who sleep rough a lot of the time, I never fully think about how properly awful it must be to actually be stuck out there and having to tell people things in order to get money just to not feel completely rotten and hungry or thirsty for a little while. All I ever think is 'I'm glad that's not me'.
There was a woman on the programme who had perfected a sob story and told it to a girl who gave her all the money she had on her. The girl then came back with £40 she'd just taken from the cash machine for her. Granted, this is slightly mental and I probably wouldn't go that far myself, but it was so comforting to know that there are people out there who are kind, compassionate and caring enough about people they don't even know.

On my way to work, I come across quite a lot of homeless people. I don't ignore them, but I never feel a big urge to help them out, either. A frail looking middle aged lady approached me and gave me her story about sleeping rough and how she used to work the dole, but now she had no job and nowhere to live. She made me feel really sad, so I gave her some money. I almost had a lump in my throat when she was thanking me profusely. I rounded the corner, and the usual woman was selling the Big Issue. I almost passed out with the wave of guilt that washed over me. I bought a copy. It was her last one. She looked well happy, which made me happy. I would definitely rather she had my money than I spend it on some junk, as that is what invariably happens on a daily basis.

Anyway, I guess the ending to all of this is that you should probably just THINK a little bit when you see someone who is worse off than you, and if you can, HELP THEM!

The Big Issue and Centre Point are probably the two main ones when it comes to helping out with homeless issues, as well as Shelter and Crisis. There are more specialist ones like Grand Central Savings and St Mungo's.

You get my sentiment. Here are some causes that I'm quite passionate about and help out when I can:


Macmillan
NSPCC / Action For Children
Addaction / Drugsline / Phoenix Futures
Amnesty International
Dignity! Period.