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I can’t stop thinking about homeless people in this weather!

28 replies

Imknackeredzzz · 08/02/2021 22:33

Just that, I went to take the bins out earlier and I can’t back in with hands that looked frostbitten. I imagine there must be a huge number of rough sleepers still out and about at the moment, how on Earth are they not dying of hypothermia!? These poor people

OP posts:
yaboo · 09/02/2021 00:27

When the weather gets bad, most councils have 'sleeping space' type accommodation you can access; usually a camping mat and sleeping bag on a floor in a shared room with a variety of 'characters'.

Yes, that all sounds very jolly, and not too much of an inconvenience until you realise these people are...

unstable, aggressive, alcoholics and heroin addicts, or people with untreatable personality disorders who lack the ability to be civil or socialise, there's junkies who steal your shoes off your feet when you're sleeping, there's people with serious mental health issues paranoid that you're part of the conspiracy, ex-offenders recently released from prison who still have their dog eat dog jail heads on, pimps looking for vulnerable 'fresh meat', drug dealers looking for new customers, violent sex offenders, paedos on the run from vigilantes, prostkitutes looking for new girls they can turn out so they have to work less, and international war criminals on the run from the authorities. You think I'm joking, maybe, but that's just a brief synopsis of the 'characters' I've been accommodated with when I was homeless and in hostels.

Seriously, sometimes it's actually safer to sleep in a doorway.

'There's no need to sleep rough, there's so much help available'. Well, actually, there isn't as much real help as you think there is. Some of the help is not very helpful or is massively conditional, and some of it is provided by privately run organisations who give no fucks for the homeless and treat their situation as a nice way to make money, mainly from housing benefits and what was called 'supporting people' budgets back in the day but which can also include drug dealers RUNNING hostels, hostel staff sexually exploiting prostituted women and using any able-bodied men as an illegal and poorly paid workforce, usually in the construction and security industries. These organisations often get paid by the State to provide 'services' for their 'clients', such as 'counselling' or 'support' and yet people get nothing of the sort. Often they employ 'staff' to run the places who, because of the client group, find that using intimidation and violence and 'turning over' of rooms keeps people in their 'place'.

There's other help provided by 'charitable' organisations, mainly religious groups, who give their assistance with varying degrees of religious indoctrination on the side and who expect you to be very grateful for the religious bullshit they try to force you into swallowing for a bed in a shared dormitory and some cheap past their sell by date sandwiches donated by the local branch of Sayers. You're not guaranteed a bed; you have to get there at 6pm, and line up outside to be given a bed where you might wake up to find there's lice residing in your donated clothes, your shoes have gone, or maybe your cheap mobile phone or purse has been lifted. You probably have to sleep in your shoes and use your bag as a pillow if you want to leave with your measly belongings still in your possession.

It's not surprising that some people choose a cold concrete car park to sleep in over all that.

Yes, there's so many people who wants to 'help the homeless'. But there's also a good few who actively target such people and exploit them as a resource, and that includes a lot of soup kitchen weirdoes who are dishing out that free soup just so they can recruit for their religious cults.

The average age of death for a person who's street homeless in the UK is 40 for a man, and 43 for a woman.

Nobody really wonders why, when they really know how it is out there.

33goingon64 · 10/02/2021 14:44

FFS "a lifestyle choice"?? Do you tell yourself that to feel less guilty? There are as many reasons for living on the streets as there are people living in the streets. Yes, some refuse what we might see as help but they might not. Shelters might not be preferable for whatever reason - maybe they've been attacked, maybe they feel judged, maybe they are scared of being sent somewhere they escaped from, maybe there's no shelter near them, maybe they are under control of criminals or toxic relationships ... the list is literally endless. No-one is disputing that some homeless people don't accept an option that's presented to them - but to do that they must desperate to a degree you nor I can imagine. The fact is that there are humans living outside in bitterly cold weather whatever the reason.

Yousexybugger · 10/02/2021 16:24

yaboo thank you so very much for your insight.

I came on to say similar, but less clearly: having done voluntary work with vulnerable people, that the benefits of having a roof over a person's head in some of the hostel and short term accommodation provided unfortunately do not outweigh the anxiety and risks to them from some of the fellow residents (sometimes through no fault of their own if they've slipped through the cracks of mental health services or been unable to engage) and service providers. The sad fact is that sometimes a freezing cold street feels like a safer option as at least the person has a higher chance of being left alone.

Please make no mistake, this is a 'lifestyle choice' for very few, if any. It is far more often a weighing up of risk or perceived risk to personal safety, and sanity.

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