Silvio Dante
Active Member
A quick chat to some of the homeless in the UK and you can quite clearly see the majority have significant mental health problems. Speaking from a genuine experience here:Hey, you're the one who mentioned statistics.
You said that one third are mentally ill.
How many have extensive criminal records?
Let me guess... it's not their fault?
One night out a few years ago (I was only 19 years old) walking down the town centre I hear "Got any spare change mate?" and as I looked, it was a girl I used to go out with at school, I shit you not. Within the space of just a few years of leaving school, she was homeless on the street.
When I sat with her and asked what happened, she told me her last permanent residence was the local mental health hospital and that she was discharged onto the street once given a prescription, which she couldn't pick up because she had no fixed address.
She has no criminal record. I went to school with this girl from birth... what did I see over 16 years?
Her mother walked out when she was about 3 years old, so she grew up without a mum, only her dad. In her house was 6 brothers, and no sisters. Her father didn't work... her childhood was chaotic from start to finish with no stable environment to grow up in. As a result she had trouble at school and in the end teachers just branded her a "trouble-maker" and gave up on her. Throughout it all I remained one of her closest friends as she always still had a smile and an attitude that things would get better. I lost touch with her once we all left school.
Was that her fault? Did she wilfully choose to end up homeless on the street?
From that day on my perception of homeless people changed forever. You have no idea if you've never experienced it first hand... especially when you see it happen to somebody you know like a sister (it can happen to anyone) there will always be one or two professional beggars and shysters on the street, but I can assure you, at least here in the UK, the VAST majority of homeless people have been failed by all of us both state institutions that are meant to intervene and provide a safety net, and the ignorant attitude of the general public who stigmatise them further by saying it is a choice or "they're criminals" whilst only offering vitriol instead of a helping hand.
I am not a religious person at all but I have never ever been able to shake the feeling that when my time comes, I will be judged for what I did next. After chatting to the girl for some time, I walked away and said goodbye.
That was probably the most inhumane thing I ever did. I could have picked her off the street there and then and had her come and live with me... what did I do? Nothing.
What do we all collectively do? Nothing. We all think it's somebody elses (or the individuals) problem to deal with, and so the cycle continues.
Anger, rage and the finger of blame is the refuge of the lazy.
Compassion is the hardest discipline to master...