Not only do we need to find homes for the homeless. We need to help them kick the habit of drugs and get them to hospitals where their health can be cared for. Homeless people have a frequency of physical health problems two or three time higher than the general population. Also, more than half of the people sleeping rough on the street have mental health problems, more than half. They can be a danger to themselves and to others, which is why they absolutely need our help.
An alarming thought is that the statistics only count the homeless people who have applied to local authorities for help, so I have no idea how many have not been accounted for who desperately need help.
I have heard about too many cases of homeless people who abuse drugs, which have shocked me and will shock you as well. One of them was a nineteen-year-old called Francis - he wasn’t that sure of his age, just like many other things in his life. His teeth were rotting so badly there were just black shards of them left and he smelled of old faeces and sweat. His own mother had introduced him to drugs when he was just a fifteen-year-old and then dumped him and his brother in a graveyard, leaving him to fend for himself and his brother instead of going to school or going out with friends and leading the life of a normal teenager. Now, three years after his mother abandoned him, he is totally addicted to heroin. He is always looking for a £10 bag. He is always alone.
Another case was Douggie Gray. He was discharged from the army, because he became deaf after an accident. He had nowhere to go so he had to resort to sleeping on the streets. He was too ashamed to call his family and tell them where he was and what he was doing. He didn’t want them to know how far down he had gone. So he started to drink. The sadder he became the more he drank, he was taken to hospital once and he stayed there a week on account of his obsessive drinking. He soon became an aggressive drunk, he ended up in hospital with a broken jaw and was taken to court five times for being drunk and disorderly or begging or fighting.
These are only two of the thousands of cases out there that are in desperate need of our help and of a bit of care. Just a simple haircut can make a difference in these peoples’ lives. A small gesture can have a huge effect, so imagine if we got together and we all gave a little bit of our interest, a little bit of our time, a little bit of help, what a massive difference it would make to these peoples’ lives.
The depressing thing is that about 25% of the people on the streets are aged eighteen to twenty-five. 25% of these people are young and able to study to find jobs, to start careers and new lives, but just don’t have the opportunity for this. We can give them that chance, we are able to give it to them; we can open up opportunities for a new clean, healthy life away from the drugs and alcohol that surround them. I am sure that most of us have children of our own, and we wish the best for our children so why don’t we try and give other children the love that we give to ours, the love their parents never gave them.
