There are really very few things more relevant to those of us who have had to recover from the experience of homelessness than planning and progression. For anyone who has had to piece their life back together after facing the type of anxiety-inducing chaos caused by living without a safe and secure place to call home, some sort of planned pathway will often be the key foundation stone in building an effective and ultimately sustainable recovery. 

For many of us, the initial part of our journey into homelessness will have involved some sort of chaos and disintegration. It is a period when life feels akin to being trapped in a tunnel where any and all opportunities to escape are either hidden by the darkness or scuppered by the time demanded by front-line survival. 

Very few of us will be able to identify a pathway through recovery without some sort of help, that’s for sure. The provision of metaphorical hands to guide us as we stumble our way towards the light at the end of this proverbial tunnel can make all the difference. While some of us will just need the single simple step of finding a home, most of us will need extra help to deal with other stuff like maintaining a tenancy, paying bills and finding something meaningful to fill our days.  

But apart from the practical side of recovering from homelessness there is an added factor that very few people seem to talk much about. Surely we are going to be more motivated to re-engage with mainstream society if we don’t think that mainstream society is a steaming pile of shite.  

I’m generally a glass totally full type of person, but when I was on the streets that glass was full of piss. I gave up on society and it took me a long time, some old friends, a few new ones, a touch of N.A, some timely counselling and a Housing Association tenancy to put myself on the path to a sustainable recovery.,  

All of these things had to be there for me to find my way back from the margins, but I got to wondering recently if part of my willingness to re-engage had been based on a massive misconception about the state of mainstream society. I believed then, and still did until a few days ago, that we now live in an increasingly progressive and accepting world. What changed my perception so dramatically was a simple question and an even more simple follow up statement from someone half my age.  

The question was this.  

“Do you think this world is a better place than it was when you were a kid?” 

 My answer was swift and unequivocal. 

“Of course it is. It’s a million miles away from the world I grew up in 50 years ago. It’s moved past tolerance to acceptance, and I feel more welcome as someone who used to be seen as unwanted by many because my parents were mixed race. Misogyny, homophobia and racism are not openly accepted in the way they used to be and child abuse is an issue that we no longer sweep under the carpet.”,’  

The simple statement that has such an impact on me was this. 

“‘But you live in London.”’ 

In the blink of a brain cell, I understood that my view of how fair and decent the world is seems to be a certain way, despite being aware that many people in the world live in countries, systems and societies that have become increasingly intolerant over the past 50 years.  

But hot on the heels of this realisation came another; perhaps I’d been looking at this issue through the wrong lens.  

I remember early in my recovery being subconsciously motivated by something positive in the mainstream society I was attempting to rejoin but if I had on some level been aware that the majority of mainstream societies around the world were corrupt and built on wonky arsed political, financial and social systems created to corral us all into our crude fitting folds. So what was it that I found so inspiring and attractive in the cesspit of modern life? In a word, the people.  

It wasn’t my outlook on the state of the world that helped to motivate my recovery, it was the example of some of the amazing people who live in it. Nurses, doctors, bus drivers, firemen, the woman behind the counter at Starbucks, the bloke who sweeps the roads near me who I chat to every day and the rest of the decent people who do their best to look after themselves and their families. What we all have in common is that we are human beings and humans being human are what makes the shittest of systems worth living in.  

I work for a charity that is fuelled by a culture rooted in kindness and inclusion and it encourages the staff and volunteers to behave in a way that is characterised by acceptance and understanding. If we applied this ethos to our society, from educating our kids to the way we interact and develop as people, we could soon start to create a way of life based on kindness, honesty and community.  

The flawed systems and societies we live in have been largely developed at the behest of powerful men and their vested interests. While democratic countries may be doing a little better when it comes to creating progressive societies and systems, they are still very far from being places that represent the people whose blood, sweat and laughter keep the wheels turning and the lights on. 

And so, if you are looking for some motivation to inspire your recovery, try not to look at the big picture. It is very easy to feel alienated from the mainstream with all its historical flaws and systemic failures and you don’t need to believe in it to start re-engaging and taking part. What you will need though is some faith in people because you are one of them and the foundation of any sustainable recovery is a little self belief.