60p in the £1
7:30 on a surprisingly warm morning, as I turn my key to open the door– my nose anticipates the night aroma produced by 28 bodies of Rough Sleepers who took advantage of a temporary night shelter last night.
The building originally built in 1890 to house local vagrants once again fulfills its original role.
This scheme: centrally funded until 28th February is one of many up and down the country. Its purpose to provide night shelter facilities only i.e. a warm bed for local Rough Sleepers — open between dusk and dawn.
But this one is stretching well past and beyond this intended aim — it is growing and growing and becoming a little more human and a little more welcoming as each night passes.
The Kindness of local individuals and businesses has seen an influx of food, clothing, books and seasonal messages of good cheer.
Staff have mastered the art of transforming 1 kg of Oat Flakes, a couple of large boxes of Weetabix, Cornflakes & Shredded Wheat, a tin of Tate & Lyle Golden Syrup and a bucket or two of fresh water and a couple of litres of full fat milk in to a sustaining porridge that Mr Bumble would have been proud of. And those who know where we are located would not miss the Irony of that — the former Workhouse, a mere stone’s throw away since converted to Luxury beyond most pockets.
Alongside that porridge: 4 loaves of bread 2 kg of slide and a 7Ib tin of apricot jam are soon demolished and washed down with the darkest shade of copper tea you are like to see and of course each with a minimum of 5 sugars!!!
Electricity is busy charging the mobile devices which may allow some to reach out this Christmas and might just add something more than passing cheer and hope to someone.
Day staff today will turn rolls, blocks of cheese, tins of meat, pasta, vegetables and other assorted goodies to a warm welcoming meal when the shelter reopens again tonight.
Sadly most of the donated £10 ASDA gift cards given out have been converted to £4 35cl flasks of V-Kat by the local enterprising ‘open all house shopkeeper’ — a kindness of sorts I guess. And a gift once given belongs to the recipient.
Staff will make no judgments and an ear will always be available for those who wish to talk — help where possible will be given.
Elsewhere this yuletide the Big Boys are blasting social media with their shiny “Donate Now” buttons: £17 will get Billy a warm bed for the night. For £25 we will give Sally a Christmas Dinner and extra £5 and we will give her a warm pair of socks.
Some have even clearly used fake pictures of Rough Sleepers to promote their call for your CASH.
Regardless — each picture is pulling on the heart strings of us all — begging as it were for us to be more charitable at this time of year.
In reality they are Crowd Funding — building up their money boxes — none of what is given is truly accountable.
Yes inevitably some of those funds will eventually filter down to those who need it. But it is the counterproductive hypocrisy that hurts everyone in this mean-hearted process.
Every year thousands of us fall for this trick — we are bamboozled in to thinking we are helping where help is most needed — but I really question if we truly are helping or just funding the battle buses for even more failure downstream.
I am willing to bet that a few of you gasped aloud when I pointed out how a local shopkeeper is making 60p in the £1 exchanging £10 gift Tokens for £4 bottles of booze — well is what these big boys do any different?
If you want to help — STOP! — Look downward — see the person at your feet — talk to them — acknowledge they exist — buy them something warm to wear or eat.
Find your local support group and join in — badger your local MP — write to the press — blog, scream, shout or do whatever you can do — join the clarion call that enough is enough.
Rough Sleeping is and has always been a National Concern but it is also a Local Issue — only by looking and dealing at things at the local — community level will we actually find a way to rid ourselves of this ancient curse.
Ridding the City/Shopping Centres of Rough Sleepers or removing their blankets, sleeping bags etc., is not the solution — Getting them off the streets — listening to them — helping them find their own solution is surely the sensible way ahead.
Every story — whilst it may have common themes is so fundamentally different.
Above all else let us please Depoliticise this issue — WE will — but US and THEM never can.