Homeless people are thirty-five times more likely to commit suicide than the rest of us. During the second world war, air raid shelter wardens would not admit vagrants for reasons of hygiene (The London Embankment Mission history, page 4).
Christ Church Spitalfields used their crypt to help homeless people from 1965 - 2000, and the work has since moved out to a building in Shoreditch more suitable for a residential care home.The work founded by wartime Vicar Dick Shepherd at St Martins in the Fields has moved out during their building project, but it should move back in 2008. In a new venture, their Conection Crew employs homeless and unemployed young people to crew events in and around the London area. The work started at St George's Crypt in Leeds in 1930 is still underneath the church, which has been extensively refurbished for the purpose. The Passage in London is modelled on the work of Vincent de Paul (b1580). He "believed in action rather than words and in hands-on service to vulnerable people that was practical and holistic. He took risks, was innovative and worked with all sections of society." St Patrick's Church Hove used to have homeless people sleeping in the church, but in 1993 they created flats and a nighshelter inside the church building, reducing the size of the sanctuary. They have given a bed to over 100,000 people over 25 years. Kingston Churches Action on Homelessness was set up by 55 churches in the Borough of Kingston to address homelessness. They write, "Homeless people are frquently treated as evangelical targets. Remember that the street is their living room." Chess Shelter is a similar scheme in the Chelmsford area. The Jesus Army has a special focus on homeless, ex-prisoners and addicts. So does The Salvation Army. The YMCA helps young homeless people aged under 17, whom they say make up 10% of homeless people. SPAAG (Street People's Action and Awareness Group) is made up of people who have slept rough themselves, and who know the problems of the street first hand. The current situation on London's streets has been exacerbated by a few thousand Eastern Europeans, mainly from Poland, who came here in search of work but found none, following the accession by 8 countries to the EU in 2004. The addition of Romania and Bulgaria in January 2007 may make matters worse.
The Homelessness Act 2002 placed the responsibility to prepare and implement 'homelessness strategies' with individual local authorities; in London, the 32 Boroughs. Westminster City Council, which has the largest number of homeless people of the London Boroughs, is against individuals giving to beggars because it tends to feed the drugs problem; they call it killing with kindness. See the Home Office Drug Strategy and also the government's homelessness strategy.
London has about one fifth of the resident population of England and Wales, but in 2002 it accounted for 54% of the 'one night count' of rough sleepers in England. The average life expectancy for homeless people on London's streets is 42. Around 20,000 people live in accommodation for the homeless in London, and this does not include people in bed and breakfasts and squats. Source St Mungos, one of London's leading homeless charities, with an annual budget of £36m. They are part of the Pan London Providers Group of voluntary sector homelessness organisations (Broadway, CentrePoint, Depaul Trust, Look Ahead Housing and Care, The Novas Group, St Mungos, and Thames Reach Bondway). Broadway's quarterly Rough Sleeping Bulletin gives up to date statistics on numbers sleeping rough in London (1332 in Dec 2005). They operate a Clearing House service for accommodation for rough sleepers, which is used by over thirty charities. Centrepoint was started by a young curate opening a night centre for young people in the basement of a Soho church in 1969. 80% of the young people they helped in 2004 had been forced from home by conflicts, family breakdown or abuse. 70% ended up sleeping rough (annual report 2004-5). The Depaul Trust helps over 3,000 young people every year. It began in London in 1989, but is now nation-wide. Thames Reach Bondway has 300 staff and fifty volunteers. One project is their London Street Rescue Teams (2005 annual review, page 52). The Whitechapel Mission has a list of night shelters in London. So does Homeless Link, who offer training. The London City Mission runs a homeless centre at Waterloo. Housing Justice UNLEASH aims to co-ordinate the church's response to homelessness in London and country-wide. All Souls Langham Place's outreach to homeless people by young people is named Aslan. Their newsletter includes this: "Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, spent a week on the streets for a TV programme. She wrote later: "It was frightening, cold and depressing... I wasn't prepared for the absolute, abject loneliness... The hardest thing to extract from people wasn't money: it was human exchange... People just don't want to see you..." Homeless London has details of 1643 services for homeless people in London, and of 1378 publications and 73 links to relevant websites. Emmaus, in the UK since 1990, is to open its twelth community at South Lambeth in 2007. Their guiding principle is 'serve those worse off than yourself before yourself. Serve the most needy first.' Maytree offer a free four night stay for the suicidal at Holloway, London.
Homeless UK has a searchable database of over 8,000 services for homeless people across the UK. Click here for information on older homeless people. On average 1,000 people sleep rough on Scotland's streets every night (Bethany Christian Trust press release OCT 2004). The Church Army reckons there are 100,000 homeless families in the UK; they run a project at Marylebone for women.
Drug abusers need a de-tox before they are ready for re-hab. Many re-habs don't also do de-tox; provision is thin. The Nehemiah Project offers residential rehabilitation and move-on accommodation in South London as well as a 4-month programme in Brixton Prison for offenders aged betwen 18 and 45 with substance misuse issues in a Christian residential setting. Talk to Frank offers a postcode service for help with drugs: I found it comprehensive. For information on specific drugs and L. Ron Hubbard's use of sauna and vitamins to help rid the body of toxins and , try Narconon based in Southern California; see also Narconon UK in our country since March 2005. L Ron Hubbard was the founder of scientology; their de-tox work may have a hidden agenda. Detox 5 offers a five day de-tox programme with assistance from moderate sedation in Harrogate. For a list of UK rehabs, visit Yeldall Manor. For an example of a Christian de-tox centre, visit Gilead Foundations in Devon, who have adopted the Genesis process, or Teen Challenge founded by Dave Wilkerson. Life For The World offers training in helping those with addictions, as does Hope UK . For UK alcohol statistics, visit The AA.
Alastair Murray of Unleash told me that in theory, one can be addicted to heroin for fifty years and remain healthy; it's not the drug itself that kills you. Death comes from sharing needles and getting infected, or overdosing by accident on an unusually pure form of the drug, or overdosing when returning to drugs after being off them.
"According to the Home Office, half of all crimes are drug-related and a small number of addicts are responsible for a huge number of crimes - around 664 addicts committed 70,000 offences over a three-month period" (RAPT, Rehabilitation of Addicted Prisoners). "It is important to see the ex-offender as a whole person. Few of us would want to be defined by the worst thing we have ever done" (Oxford Diocese on ex-offenders) The Prison Fellowship was founded in 1979 to help ex-offenders. They report that 70% of the prison population have two or more mental health problems, whereas in the general population that applies to only 5% of men and 2% of women. Was it wise to close all the mental hospitals in 1990, in the so-called Care in the Community initiative? Have the displaced patients ended up in prison? No wonder the prisons are bulging at the seams. The St Giles Trust began as a soup kitchen in Camberwell in 1962 and has blossomed into helping prisoners and homeless people across London and the South East.
In America, the Los Angeles Mission served 3000 meals to homeless people on Good Friday 2006, washing feet and giving out Easter baskets and free shoes. See also The Association of Gospel Rescue Missions US list. A friend sent me this slide show of Mother Teresa, comprising images and quotations. I find it very moving. Click on each screen to move the show forward. Does anybody know who made it?
In all the variety of work being done, I have yet to find what I want to see, namely a church building open 24 hours where street people are the focus.Please let me know if you discover one. In addition, I am interested in developing a Christian understanding of addiction and would appreciate help.
Posted by David Pennant, Woking , UK
1. Bridge Across My Sorrows: The Christina Noble Story, by Christina Noble with Robert Coram, Corgi adult, 1995. After a frightful start in life, including sleeping rough in the park, Christina travelled to Vietnam because of a dream she had about helping the homeless street children there. "Would move a tear from a stone." Contains strong language. The work has become The Christina Noble Foundation. There is also a sequel called Mama Tina. Read about her work with the manhole Children of Mongolia or see it in video. There are 100 million street children in the world, according to Toybox which works in Guatemala and Bolivia with local staff.
2. Stuart, by Alexander Masters. Fourth Estate, 2005, ISBN 0-00-720036-6. Biography of a chaotic homeless person. Contains even stronger language.
3. On a lighter note, my own novel The Piano Teacher, where a homeless ex-offender helps his son save the universe! Just one four letter word, represented by ****
4. Drugscope offers a wealth of downloadable books and information.
5. I enjoyed General Booth's book In Darkest England from the Jesus Army Library. The title springs from Livingstone's exploits 'in darkest Africa'. He quotes Isaiah 58:7 'Take the homelss poor into your house'.
6. No Perfect People Allowed; creating a Come As You Are culture in the church, by John Burke, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 2005. The title says it all. I found it most helpful in thinking about how to make unchurched people feel at home attending a church.
Seven Thoughts for the day about homelessness I recorded for local radio based on my visit to St George's Crypt.