I read this article online this week and ignored the headline, as I said when posting it on Facebook no matter what the actual cause of death was I'm sure none of us want to go out that way. Homelessness is not one dimensional but multi-faceted.
I can remember many nights shivering the night away wondering if I would make it to morning, I remember a friend out for the count in Piccadilly circus with a needle still hanging out of his arm with the world just passing him buy. Another homeless 24 year old dying due to gangrene in his leg, and another beaten to death just for being homeless.
The stories go on and on, year after year. I think for most of us it can be overwhelming at times we are bombarded with pain and suffering day in and day out via the media whether it be near or far. I can remember commenting before that I quite often become numb to it all, almost to the point of not caring, but then a single incident reminds me that I do care, for me this is one of those.
"It should never of happened!" Was the comment left by one Facebook follower on the post. Sometimes the simplest comments are the most powerful.
We like to think that we live in such a wealthy, advanced and educated country but do we really?
St Martins in the Fields, the church in Trafalgar Square London, the Anglican parish church for 10 Downing Street will soon be holding its annual memorial service for all the homeless that have died on the streets in the last 12 months.
Between 2001 - 2009 1731 homeless people died in the UK. That averages 173 a year, 90% male and an average age of just 47, but with many much younger. I wonder how many times I've walked past that drunken bum just crashed out in the street, but was he?
St Martins has had a social care unit in the crypts under the church since the end of the first world war when it opened its doors to offer shelter and support to widows and orphans of the war. Very similar to the birth of Emmaus at the end of the second world war.
Emmaus Sheffield is part of the ever growing world wide movement that is Emmaus International. In the UK Emmaus is a homeless charity with a unique work based accommodation program. Even more uniquely Emmaus has been built on the ethos that as a member of a Emmaus community we have most of our needs met and therefore there are people out there worse off than ourselves and we are in a position to offer help and assistance to them. Emmaus in the UK is ever growing due to the ever increasing homeless problem.
Considering the end of WW1 was 100 years ago what a sad picture of our wealthy, advanced and educated country.
"It should never of happened!"
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