While we’re tucked up in our lovely bed, please give a thought to other people sleeping rough on the streets. We scarcely give a thought to those that are out in the freezing cold with no family or friends to assist them.
They’re not tramps that solicit, steal or borrow, they are really homeless, and need assistance, not in a year’s time, or a month’s time, but right now…
They do not have any possessions, primarily because everything that they did once possess is now gone, and it’s majorly important that we help those in need. We have Children in Need on TV, so why can’t we help those on the streets? Children need some help, however, so do adults that have become hard times for whatever reason, it shouldn’t be an issue, they’re still human beings.
There is no Homeless Shelter in Basildon. Essex, but we genuinely need one because the church is feeding about 25 rough sleepers around the town, and there are more rising numbers of people sleeping rough. There was talk of a dispersal order being brought in, however, that’s no good if there’s nowhere for these people to move onto, there needs to be something put into place.
Nobody was doing anything aside from the church to assist these people till a page was set up on Facebook called “Homeless Help in Basildon and Surrounding Areas”. Now ordinary people are going into town to feed the homeless, and a location has been set up for a Sunday for the homeless to go and get food that many ordinary people have prepared, taking it, and circulating it to the homeless that attend – now that’s what I call team spirit.
Basildon urgently needs a Shelter at night, like in Southend on Sea, where they have the Homeless Action Resource Project, where they can sleep and get assistance applying for a council home or jobs, however, some people don’t accept that there is a homeless problem in Basildon.
We frequently forget that kindness is free, and these volunteers also raised £250 over two weeks to put one well-known homeless man in a hotel for a few nights over the Christmas holiday, and treat him to a meal. He is often spotted sleeping rough in the doorway of Primark, in Basildon town center.
Everyone should give something to their community, and now some of the community has come together, and the word is getting about what they are doing for the homeless. It’s outstanding work that has been done for the homeless, but it’s distressing to think that the council has not housed them, or at least put them into temporary accommodation until homes are found for them.
Even Costa Coffee done their bit for the homeless, and gave one well-known homeless man a Costa Coffee travel mug, it made his day, he was so chuffed, however, it still breaks your heart to know that when you go home, in your nice warm house, these people will be out in the freezing cold with nowhere to go to keep warm.
