This morning it was reported that Newport council, in a effort to ‘deal’ with it’s homeless, are debating bringing in Public Order prosecutions or even £1000 fines for those ‘caught’ sleeping rough in the city. I think this is absolutely sickening. Firstly that human beings desperately in need of help are treated as some kind of vermin that needs to be swept away and second of all that the lack of thought going into these plans.
Now I admit that, thank god, neither I or anyone I know has ever had any first hand experience of being homeless but it would seem to me that being homeless is probably not a lifestyle choice. People end up homeless for 100s of different reasons: poverty, running from abuse, drug or alcohol addiction or mental illness to name but a few. The powers that be in this country are wringing their hands about the refugee crisis that we have seen across Europe this summer whilst ignoring the problem, as they have done for many years, far closer to home. Whilst I agree that the refugee crisis is a humanitarian disaster and these people desperately need help, their stories are reported daily across the media. What about the stories of those living rough on the streets? Are their circumstances not as newsworthy?
Perhaps because the general consensus is that these unfortunate souls are ‘to blame’ for their situation it makes it easier to treat them as subhuman and look away from them when we pass them in the street. The most popular blame thrown is that they are drug and alcohol addicts and deserve to be on the streets. Opinion varies but I believe that, along with other disorders of the brain, addiction is a genuine illness. My OCD is a form of compulsion which is exactly what substance, alcohol or gambling addictions are, if I was on the street would it be my fault? Or those that have run away from domestic or sexual abuse, are they to blame too? Just as we are learning about the refugees’ individual traumas should we not also apply this to the homeless? Is one human being’s awful situation more valid than another’s just because fleeing from war or oppression is easier to accept than someone desperately in need of the same shelter and medical attention?
A large percentage of homeless are in fact ex-service personnel, often suffering from PTSD leading to addiction or poverty, can we surely not afford them the help they need when they have served and often put their lives on the line for this country? For them the conflict doesn’t end in Iraq or Afghanistan they are still fighting for their lives every day just in a different theatre of war. Do these men and women not deserve dignity and our sympathy?
I know that there are not unlimited funds to help everyone but surely a little more money and attention could be given to not only helping those on the streets but identifying those potentially at risk of ending up homeless? I’m not anti-refugee in any way, shape or form, I just believe that to achieve the equality and humanitarian work that this country prides itself on that whilst we care for those fleeing war we also look after ‘our own’.
Love Jen
XxxX
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