Homelessness In Britain

Try to imagine waking up in a cold shop doorway, dirty and hungry. There's nowhere to wash and you have to beg for three hours before you have enough money to buy yourself a cup of tea, there's also nowhere for you to get warm. It's a terrible thought, but its okay because it will never happen to you, or so you may think.

Tom Watts was A wealthy businessman with a devoted wife and two lovely children, he worked in London and often passed homeless people in the street, often chucking them some spare change as he passed, not even giving them a second thought until now. You see, Tom Watts is no longer the big businessman with the big house and the big car, he lived beyond his means and became bankrupt losing his house. Because of all the stress he also lost his wife and children.

Now he sleeps wherever he can, this morning he woke up in the London underground he says " I just take one day at a time, I never know where I'll be one day to the next". Tom's only wage is the 65p he gets from every copy of the Big Issue, which is sold for �1 - a magazine sold by the homeless. Tom can officially earn up to �17 a week before his �38-a-week social security is under threat, he says "The money I earn is not much at all. But if I could just find a place to live I could then go about getting a job and once I'm settled I can go to court, and see about getting to see my kids, but without a place to live it won't happen".

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That's where shelter comes in Tom like hundreds of other homeless people are on the waiting list for temporary housing, it gives people a head start. It's not just a hostel where you have a first come first serve basis, while your in temporary housing shelter help you to find a more permanent placement. They also help you to find a work placement and any legal advice you may need. Shelter was launched in 1966 to bring housing problems to everyone's attention and appeal for money to improve things. In 1970 shelter opened its first housing aid shelter to give people with housing problems or nowhere to live free advice.

Tom sells the Big Issue:

"I just want to see my kids"

Some of the main reasons for people becoming homeless are job loss, break-up with a partner, heavy debts, drug addiction and even mental illness. The majority of people start off moving round sleeping on friends sofas or floors, but before long you realise you've been there for a few weeks or even months and think you're beginning to out stay you're welcome and can't abuse their hospitality any longer and leave.

More than 326,000 people are homeless in Britain, sleeping rough, in hostels or moving from place to place with no home to call there own. Experts believe the problem is extremely bad and is worsening and without the help of charity the problem would rapidly increase.

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