Helping the Homeless in Gloucestershire

Why G3 Walk

The reasons for the G3 Walk Which has now been completed at a total of 375 miles.

Since 1972 I have spent 35 years of on and off working with the homeless. In the mad rush of time it is so easy to forget little things, or even bigger things, when we seek to shape our memories more to our individual perceptions, than actuality.I saw my first beggar in 1972 in Glasgow. An oddity, I saw him with a mixture of curiosity and revulsion. I contrast this with today when they are a common sight in most large towns.

What happened? One thing is Care in the Community. “Care,” that has shifted people from one institution (hospital) to another (prison) or taken the homeless off our streets and put them into prison. (around one third of prisoners who are about to be released report having nowhere to stay. Around 28,500 people are homeless on leaving prison each year). (SEU, 2002) (Crisis Statistics about homelessness.)

The profile of the homeless has undoubtedly changed. They are younger and more drug dependent. (81% of homeless people are addicted to either drugs or drink. Heroin comes top of the league, followed by alcohol (Crisis, Home and Dry? 2002) )

Since the Night Shelter opened in 1996 millions of pounds have been spent nationally on “the drug problem”, and the problem gets worse whilst a whole new industry evolves. Our prisons are full of drug related criminals. Government spokes people claim success with homelessness and drugs whilst the prison population goes through the roof. In any other industry questions regarding financial prudence would be asked. No one really knows what works and yet we keep throwing good money after bad.

We throw money at it and allow agencies within the industry to protect themselves from proper scrutiny under the guise of “preserving confidentiality”. Things got worse, that’s what’s happened. The problems of today are not dealt with but are stored in order that they can be faced by some anonymous person in some equally anonymous tomorrow, a wonderful legacy for our grandchildren.

The problem with Care In the Community is that it is done by “professionals” and we only get involved when something goes wrong and then have a witch-hunt in order to find someone to blame for not caring properly on our behalf.

Some of us have always said that only Care by the community can be effective. Care that has each of us taking the moral responsibility that is truly ours instead of leaving it to others.

B Jones 10/05/07