Are you seeing much poverty and despair where you are at the minute?

[whereisitgoing]

I'm not sure if I can face doing my volunteering shift this weekend at a street soup kitchen (still have time to cancel) as not sure I can be tough enough and keep my mask in place. It is the first Christmas since my mum died and I'm crumbling.

Usually I love my volunteer shift, it's really brutal though to see the dire straits people are in. So much despair. The numbers needing help have exploded since covid and this winter are considerably higher again. At the moment I just don't think I can do it, everything seems quite bleak.

Sometimes people are at the end of their tether when they get to us and they are understandably and justifiably stressed and irritated - normally I can handle this without any bother, but not sure I can do it this weekend.

The kitchen will have loads of volunteers so it won't matter if I'm not there anyway. But it has me wondering, are you seeing more people needing help where you are this winter? Is there more palpable despair and anger out there, or am I just projecting my own shit year?

For me, it's the open and blatant drug use that I really notice. I watched two men in their 60s smoke crack sitting on our doorstep the other week. We live in a 'nice' suburb of west London. It's not unusual to see people passed out in the middle of the pavement.

Same here, everything is busy and people still seem to enjoy luxuries.

Things such as coats/uniform collections at school seem to go untouched (selling for 10p an item at the school fair) but plenty being spent on tombola, cake sales etc.

Shops are definitely rammed with Christmas shoppers, cinemas full, restaurants fully booked

In my work, I deal with people in debt & it is definitely busier/people owe more money.

In the town where I live, 16 miles from work, there is now a food bank since covid hit. The secondary school my DS attends has 3 upcoming trips: ski trip £1200. 2 night activities break £385. 2025 Cricket/sports week to middle East £1700. He isnt going on any of these, the Ski trip was oversubscribed so it's definitely affecting some but not everyone.

None where I am, South West, lot of building work going on, I'm a tradesman, everyone I know in the trades is booked well into the summer. Tesco, Lidl & Aldi are quiet, everyone is in Waitrose, its rammed!

We have a few "homeless" people in town begging, I say "homeless" because one woman parks her car in the carpark adjacent to her pitch and has a current National Trust membership sticker in the window which she confided in a shop owner was a little luxury she covers from her begging takings, she reckons to pull about 30K and has a council flat apparently, fair enough I suppose! so I'm not sure our little town has much deprivation when even the beggars can keep up their National Trust membership!

Same here.

Not noticed this in my area. It’s absolutely booming & my friend who owns a hair salon is working 9-10pm every day because she’s so busy. Restaurants all booked up for Xmas eve even weeks ago.

Yep,

Our city is one of many who have declared a housing emergency.

In essence, if you are homeless you are told to find a warm doorway, as the local authority cannot provide any accommodation.

We will definitely see people die from the cold, as we do every year (Scotland).

It's a fucking shambles, but I don't blame the local authority. Central government, the Scottish Government and particularly the Home Office have screwed them over royally.

Those who are saying they don't see it - how often do you walk through a city centre (as opposed to a suburb etc.)? I can't believe anyone who regularly walks through a city centre area can have missed the obvious increase in destitution.

The city I work in (which isn't unusually deprived, it's a large northern city with plenty of jobs) has had visibly increasing numbers of homeless people over the last 10 years. There is someone begging/destitute every 20 metres or so on the main city centre streets. The arches under the railway have permanent tents under them these days - that wasn't the case 15-20 years ago.

Hair salons are booked up in the city I'm talking about too. Doesn't mean there aren't lots of destitute people.

You do know it's possible for both to be true? The affluent are shopping and booking beauty appointments, while increasing numbers of people are sleeping in the doorways of those same shops and salons.

It seems people still have lots of money to spend, but not on pets or looking after them. Rescue organisation are overflowing and have long waiting lists of pets being given up - including those whose owners can't afford the insurance or vet bills.

That's so sad. Seems the homeless are the forgotten ones in society.

My kids father works in a supermarket as a manager. He says this year he has needed to turn more people away at the tills who cannot pay for their shopping as their cards decline. Customers are turning up with a trolley full hoping they can squeeze some extra money out of their cards. This is more than previous years, and lots of arguments are heard in the aisles amongst shoppers over what they can afford to buy, and what they cannot.

We have recently adopted a stray cat. I didn't want another cat as we already have several, but could not see him out in the cold. He is injured and the vet confirms he has kidney disease (treatable with a special, expensive food diet). He wasn't chipped, and he wasn't neutered but litter trained, and quite young. He was a pet and loves human company, and the vet told me that she gets many strays coming in to her clinic that are abandoned pets. She says animal charities tell her they are full to bursting as people cannot keep pets anymore as they have no money for food and care, or they are getting evicted. It is all rather sad really.

Same as you, NW nice area but not super rich at all. Everyone is doing ok, nice lifestyle, holidays, cars, good Christmas. But I’m noticing more homeless, and a mile or so away from home there are tents popping up under a motorway and every time I pass it’s got a little more stuff there.

There are a lot of very obtuse posts on this thread tbh.

Just because restaurants are full and the people you know are going on holidays doesn't mean that there aren't also increasing numbers of homeless people. The homelessness stats make the scale of the problem very clear.

They were just examples. My friend is always very busy at Christmas but this year much more so. I’ve never struggled to get into a restaurant 4 weeks before Christmas Eve.

The homeless people that were in town (bar 1) are not there now (might have moved on though) & my feeling is, in my area at least, there’s not a feeling of poverty & despair.

When did you last walk through the centre of your nearest large city and have a look around?

My local town doesn't have a visible homelessness problem, but the city I work in tells a very different story.

I’m not seeing it. But my small boring not very attractive town in the back end of nowhere has never had obvious homelessness - the town centre is beyond dead and the council actively drive homeless away. Homeless tend to migrate to the nearest big city. I know if I go to the nearest big city I’ll see it more.

Most the people I come across day to day seem to be doing very well for themselves. But I work in an industry where people are affluent so it skews everything. There’s a lot of people with a lot of money to spend still.

The question was ‘are you feeling much poverty & despair where you are at the minute’. Some are, some aren’t. Why is that obtuse?

I see homeless people daily as I live in a city centre area where they tend to congregate. I moved here last year so I don't know how much it has increased - the tents are certainly more visible. They aren't in despair when I see them but they are often sleeping or socialising with other people.

But there is a lot of affluence too. I'm in a bubble as my dcs go to private school and none of the families are struggling there. We go to lots of theatre shows over Christmas and they are all fully booked.

I don't walk through a city centre often. When I have recently though, there are less visible homeless. I don't believe for a minute there are less, but I say so many less than I'm used to.

The only difference I've probably noticed is the odd homeless people sometimes in more suburban malls.

It's hard to tell though as it's known we have professional beggars in our city. People who pose as beggars to be given money.

same here, so much wealth in this country.

I see both sides like others have said there’s loads of new cars, holidays, Botox, home extensions going on, local M&S utterly rammed this morning.

On the other hand Saturday night I’ve never seen so many homeless people sleeping rough, brought tears to my eyes. Also in my job as a teacher, you see it firsthand the deprivation and neglect some children live in and it’s heartbreaking.

Honestly? Little sign where I live (south east commuter belt). shops/cafes/restaurants packed. People have grumbled about mortgage rises but are managing, most i know work in industries where pay has risen. Half the kids in my DC class are off skiing between christmas & new year or at feb half term.

I see the town busy with shoppers and the restaurants and cafes are full. However, I work in a place where people come to ask for help, and yes, there are an increasing number of them. It's easy to look around and say everyone is doing well, but many really aren't - they just aren't always visible. (Not in the UK btw).

I see homeless people daily as I live in a city centre area where they tend to congregate. I moved here last year so I don't know how much it has increased - the tents are certainly more visible. They aren't in despair when I see them but they are often sleeping or socialising with other people.

Do you not think it is possible to be in despair despite sometimes sleeping or talking or laughing with others? I see a lot of black humour with our clients.