Homeless But Hopeful

It was a late tuesday evening, I’m tired, hungry and have just finished a marathon studying session in the library so not in the best of moods neither. I’m rushing to Liverpool street station to catch my train home, if I catch the one due in five minutes I can be home in just over half an hour, if I miss it, then the next one is in 30 mins, have to make that train.  At the pedestrian crossing a guy approaches me sheepishly, he looks homeless and more importantly looks like he is about to make me miss my train. Excuse me, he says, What do you want? I snap back. Well, a job if you have one going please he responds with such humility. My wall broke, I looked at him and realised that this wasn’t just any homeless man, but a man that was hopeful. Hopeful to change his situation should the opportunity arise to do so. At that point I asked him to tell me about himself and it turned out that he used to work in the city, lived beyond his means, fell victim to drug abuse and the rest was history.

After listening to him, I thought to myself, I know people in the city that take drugs, live beyond their means and are up to their neck in debt and all it takes is one event and your situation could drastically change for the worse. It also occurred to me that it would also only take one event to drastically change this man’s life for the better. What if I could actually offer him a job? What if he had a second chance? What if he had a friend or family member to help him? Being on drugs, he has probably lost anyone worth knowing in his life. But what if this man given the chance, could actually change his life which begs the question – Does the society we live offer a conducive environment for such people to pursue that option or are they faced with further constraints that make their situation seem like a life sentence with no chance of parole?  

A shelter room for the homeless in London costs between £10 to £15 per night. Now what a conflicting choice for a homeless guy who by some miracle happened to raise £15 in a day begging for change in a city where people hardly stop to tell you the time or give directions. Do I pay for a room for the night or get some food to eat? Do I buy some alcohol or get some drugs to ease my normal night on the streets? Even if I got offered a job tomorrow, I need an address, but how can I get an address when the only chance of having a place to sleep is when I am placed under arrest? We live in a city with so much but offers so little, limited opportunity for those that have lost their way, how much more of a price must they pay? So this experience of mine opened my eyes, that homelessness in the UK is actually on the rise and the more we do nothing, the more we close our eyes, the standard of living in this country will continue to decline.

The True Economist