Many of us saw the distressing footage recently, which saw rough sleepers’ tents and what was left of their belongings dismantled by council workers and thrown into refuse lorries like so much rubbish.
Onlookers were horrified, those whose belongings were destroyed in the sweep left devastated, as once again they found themselves being kicked in the head and penalised, simply because they don’t have a home.
But it wasn’t just tents that were destroyed there that day. It was what was left of people’s lives. Their precious mementos, photographs and keepsakes… things that meant SO much that they made sure that they kept hold of them: even as everything else in their life fell away. Things that are now broken, lost, gone forever. Things that can never, ever be replaced.
Also destroyed that day was their hope for a better future and a hell of a lot of faith in humanity… and who can blame them? Because the bottom line is; that council workers taking from people who already have nothing, leaving them destitute and broken and completely in despair, should make all of those involved in making that decision hang their heads in shame.
And if that thought doesn’t then this photograph should:
Inside this “pile of rubbish” is a homeless woman. My friend Mark Horvath (founder of Invisible People) came across her recently while he was checking on rough sleepers and handing out socks.
She doesn’t have a tent.
And while a certain former home secretary might be pretty glad about that, the image of this woman all wrapped up in bin bags terrifies me.
Because this time the rubbish trucks came for the tents… but if we buy into the rhetoric that “homelessness is a lifestyle choice” my fear is that one day they may just come back for her…