Catch 22!! The best way to describe the situation I feel left in.
Don’t get me wrong to progress from a shop doorway to a room of my own is a real life saver, but the report I’m writing now is my opinion as to why people give up so easy and feel comfortable to just live day by day in a shop doorway.
As I’ve written in my previous reports, there is this ‘duty of care’ saying around to people when they first move in, offering a wide range of support ranging from courses of education to foodbank vouchers.
The help that is really offered is just signposting (in my opinion) so if you ask for them to sign you up to a course, they refer you to your local job centre. This can really cause a few issues in itself, i.e. if you’re on limited capability for work, you lose the enhanced part of your benefits (a Universal Credit work coach has told me this personally). They say that if you’re capable of doing a course for so many hours a week then you’re capable of working for the equal amount of hours.
Food for thought; so, this person spends years in a shop doorway and has no qualifications but an abundance of mental health problems from seeing things whilst homeless that would of tipped your average joe over the edge. This person doesn’t handle or work well under pressure so work really isn’t the right move at present, but he is at the point where he realises he needs some vocational courses under his belt so as to make light work of the situation when it comes to going back to work. In order to do this, he has to sacrifice half of his monthly income.
This in itself is enough to make people feel they’re trapped in a catch 22.
There really is a wide variety of people from different backgrounds and they have very different issues in their lives, ranging from addiction problems to mental health problems to immigration issues.
To be continued……………………
Please click here for part two