rightpissedoff
I've done a quick name change to post this because I don't want judgey people to identify me...
I have actually been homeless and lived in a hostel. Believe me, homelessness was not a choice and the people who were in the hostel - mostly parents with young children - were there for all sorts of reasons. There were refugees and there were people escaping from domestic violence, people recovering from mental health problems and people who had had their homes repossessed. The hostel was in a rough part of West London - my home town. I had to sofa surf for 7 months with an 18 month old DC before getting the hostel place. Once in the hostel the average time people waited for accommodation was just under two years.
Squalor didn't come into it. The accommodation was old and crumbling, with damp problems and poor drainage. It stank in there most days. We all had to share bathrooms (three bathrooms for 12 families) and the neighbours in the adjoining property behaved as if we were scum, writing grafitti on the doors of the building, along the lines of 'fuck off homeless druggies'. (I saw no evidence at all of drug use the whole time I was there).
I was very aware that I was only lucky enough to have hostel accommodation because I had a child. If I hadn't, I would have had to fend for myself and would have had no recourse to help from the council. These are the people who may end up on the streets.
I saw a huge amount of poverty in the hostel - not to mention overcrowding. We each had bathroomless 'units' which were one room and a kitchen no bigger than 1 metre square. There was a minimum of two, and maximum of five, people per unit. Each unit was about 12 feet by 10. We had no adequate cooking facilities and no laundry facilities. It cost more than 10% of my weekly income support payment to do my laundry - no washing facilities of our own, just the local launderette. Having a telephone was out of the question, which made me feel very isolated. A car? Don't make me laugh. We did not have television, computers, etc. and I did not feel the lack of them really. I took my DC to the park and the library almost every day and for DC's sake did everything I could to retain my sanity.
I was also very aware that people like you held people in my situation in complete contempt and disdain.
Fortunately, I had a fantastic Lone Parent Adviser at the Job Centre and a great psychiatrist, who kept me going. After 8 months of hostel living I got a job in another part of the country and began to rebuild my life. If it hadn't been for tax credits I wouldn't have been able to afford to work.
Please don't say there's no such thing as poverty in this country. Just because you choose not to see it, doesn't mean it isn't there.
Sorry for the long post.