The Chron joins volunteers helping those sleeping rough on the streets of Northampton
Mount Pleasant Baptist group take to the streets with survival backpacks targeting homeless people.
HER face is covered in bruises and she hasn’t eaten since last night, but Sandra is in a good mood because she has just been given a sleeping bag.
She grins with a gappy smile: “Getting a sleeping bag is great.
“Someone wee-ed on mine last night,” she stands up and shows me the wet patch she has been sitting on.
Sandra, who has been living on Northampton’s streets for three years, doesn’t mind speaking to me but she doesn’t want her picture taken.
“It would kill my kids for them to see me like this,” says the 42-year-old grandmother.
Sandra was one of the 10 homeless people I met when the Chronicle & Echo accompanied a group of volunteers from ReachOut on Friday night.
Armed with hot drinks, food, a first aid kit, sleeping bags and clothing vouchers, amongst other essentials, the group patrols the town centre late at night looking for homeless people.
Although part of what they do is providing momentary comfort through drinks and a chat, they also try to direct the people they meet to agencies that can help them, and give-out cards featuring the details of organisations like The Hope Centre, NAASH (night shelter) and CAN.
It is organised by a number of churches in the town including: The Salvation Army, St. Giles Church, Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Mount Zion, Emmanuel, Queensgrove, the Catholic churches and Central Vineyard Church, as well as volunteers not connected with any churches.
Keith Dragon, a community worker at The Open Door Centre and one of the volunteers giving up his Friday night, said: “On an average night we see 13 to 15 people in the town centre but any figure is a stab in the dark, someone said to me for every homeless person you see there is probably another nine or 10 out there you don’t.
“I would probably say it’s more like three or four but that may be wrong.
“We concentrate on the town centre, but we know there are a number of squats outside of it, and at least two encampments of people from Eastern Europe.”
The group has a store room at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church which features a range of goods, which have been donated to the cause.
“It helps more to get financial donations because then we can go shopping ourselves. Millets and Best Buys have been really good with sleeping bags, which we need at the moment.
“People are very generous and we always seem to get by,” said Keith.
The group also take out things like panic alarms, sanitiser and torches in their backpacks, and a card to record information about the homeless people they meet, such as the age, gender and location.
“It helps us build-up intelligence of what the situation is, and where people are,” says Keith.
The group we went out with was slightly larger than a normal band of volunteers, from their 30 strong rota, and included: Keith, Jenna Samuel, aged 28, who has been volunteering with various homelessness projects since her teens, Lewiston Myrie, 32, a forklift truck driver from Kings Heath, Joe Moven, a 50-year-old builder from Kingsthorpe and 23-year-old Alex.
I asked them why they chose to give up their Friday night to wander the streets.
“I just wanted to help and to show the people we meet what is out there and point them in the right direction for further help,” said Jenna.
Joe said: “I just want to try and help people to get off the streets.
“It can be quite shocking to see how people are living.
“Sometimes you meet people and they just have such low self esteem and they just want to talk to someone.
“It’s not all people with drink and drugs problems. A lot of people have been business people, and they have lost everything or their marriages have broken down, and you just see how anyone can end up on the streets.”
Alex more than anyone in the group understands the difference they can make.
“When I was on the streets something like this would have been of paramount importance,” said the 23-year-old who has since turned his life around.
“It would have meant something for someone to talk to me and acknowledge that I existed.
“And at 1am or 2am I would have done anything for a hot drink,” he said.
Lewiston, who was experiencing his first night with ReachOut, said: “It is just an opportunity to give something back.”
Our night on the streets:
“ONE of the last funerals we had, was for a girl who used to sleep on cardboard boxes over there. She was only 19,” says Keith, as we started our patrol in The Ridings, were there were no rough sleepers on this occasion.
Next we walked onto St Giles Street, where I met George, whowas well-known to the other group members.
George seemed to foster little hope of ever getting off the streets.
“I feel more accepted on the streets than I did in my home,” said George, who has been homeless since last February.
“I’m 41 next month, if I don’t get off the streets in the next two or three months, I don’t think I ever will. I think it will become a way of life.”
On the way to Bridge Street, we walk past several people known to the group, before finding two men huddled against a wall at the top of the street.
“I can barely walk,” says Des, a 54-year-old, who takes hot soup from the volunteers.
“My foot just keeps getting worse and it just gets hard to get about.
“I was given a house but it was on the third floor and I couldn’t cope with the stairs,” he says and then peels back his sock to reveal a severely scarred foot, with a deep weeping wound.
Des, who says he is an ex-partrooper, who has been on the streets for years, says other factors also contributed to his situation.
“I ended up on the streets originally because I lost my little girl in a fire, and then I lost my mum.
“I’m homeless, I am not a tramp,” he said.
“That really bothers me, the way people look and speak to you because they think that you are a tramp.
“These guys treat me like a human being.”
Meeting homeless people with medical problems is not uncommon Alex tells me, who is used to seeing people who have neglected their health.
“We have had to call for medical assistance before,” says Keith, “One of the worst times was when we found a guy who was beaten up in his sleeping bag.”
Next we head to Gold Street, where we meet two separate groups of homeless people, where I spoke to an older couple called, Vince and Mary.
“I do get help from CAN,” says Vince.
“But we keep to ourselves and we don’t get much trouble.
“We don’t go to the shelter, as we don’t like it when there are arguments or being arounda lot of people. We find a little patch by ourselves each night, and in the warmer weather it isn’t too bad really.
“We look after each other.”
Next we speak to Sandra, who is with a 28-year-old who called herself Ria.
Ria had been on the streets for several months but did not have a sleeping bag, until ReachOut gave her one.
“I just sleep on cardboard boxes. I don’t have a coat, just this hoodie and my hat.
“We sleep in a garage around the corner or wherever...
“It was nice to get a drink, it warmed me up for a bit, and a sleeping bag is incredible.”
I asked Ria how she ended up on the streets.
“Drugs,” she said, and then turned away.
Next we stop at a garage near St Katherine’s Square, which Keith said had previously been dubbed “cardboard city”.
It is filled with flattened cardboard boxes and around the edges of the three walled building, are discarded needles.
We then headed to a dark alleyway where we found someone’s “home”; a crate filled with clothes, a sleeping bag, a damp notepad and cans.
There were more dark holes with cans and sleeping bags in the area, and tucked under a nightclub’s fire escape we spotted someone curled up asleep.
As the volunteers started to think about heading home, I asked Lewiston, what his first impressions were.
“It’s was a really cold night and it has taken me completely out of my comfort zone,” he said
“I also saw someone I knew from school on the streets.
“I had no idea she was homeless.
“I would never have expected it. When you are young you just never imagine that will be someone’s future.
“Life has many twists and turns but I guess you never expect it to lead to this.”
If you would like to make a donation or learn more about ‘ReachOut’ email Keith at: keith@theopendoorcentre.com or call: 07905 608484.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Comments
There are 4 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
Mad4life
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 01:57 PMThere are a couple of issues with this group: 1. It is generally accepted as bad practice to go and GIVE things to Rough Sleepers. This helps them stay on the street. I think if you asked the experts at the council department, they would be very unhappy with this appraoc. Hence the "killing with kindness appeal" before Christmas. 2. The churches listed as not officaly backing this. Does Streetchurch back this? 3. The Hope CentreCouncilNAASH ran a rough sleepers programme for very cold nights. The people involved have not got involved in that.
peppa pig
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 09:26 AMNIGHT SHELTER, it hasnt been a NIGHT SHELTER for the last 10 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
truthfinder
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 08:31 AMi would agree. What you have talked about is inaccurate and if you presented this to anyone working in this sector they would enlighten you to the true issues with either rough sleepers or (as you failed to report) street beggars, there is a vast difference
mollybeulah
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 09:09 PMIts a shame you dont research your facts properly and report inaccurate infomation.
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