Neighbours for the homeless

I have written already about good humanity and UK's half-heartedness to look after its own. Here is another issue.

I was Christmas shopping in Aberdeen yesterday. Having already decided to keep Christmas spending to the absolute minimum, I was keeping my spirits up quite well even while seeing soaking homeless men sitting on the street, and planning the options of which charitable cause in need of support to put to the family on Christmas Day. And the household finances are not healthy so I kept myself happy in the knowledge that me and my other half have a happy home and enjoyed walking warmly in the rain and closely arm in arm with him, even while we were wondering what could be done for those without a roof 24 hours a day apart from provision in the city: the temperature in Aberdeen yesterday was 4 or 5 degrees warmer than the countryside.

We did actually walk past The Big Issue vendor Stevie Johnson outside Marks and Spencer's, and then wondered why we had. We got out our change, went back to buy a copy and started talking to him. He is desperate to move on and get his place, really fed up with his situation, wants a normal life. He is very wary of now turning to alcohol to relieve the boredom of living on the streets. We wish him luck cos it won't be easy. But Stevie's comments on Aberdeen council's recent changes in its policy for the homelessness make me wonder again about how humane we are in the UK.

Aberdeen council no longer wants homeless people begging on the streets, so they have put up begging boxes for people to put money in, rather than straight into hats on the street. My partner and I didn't see these but let's say they are collecting money that the council can use. But the council has closed homeless shelters, for health and safety reasons, and there are less overnight shelters available in the city.

Any reason that justifies reducing floor space under a roof, so that more people are sleeping under the stars, is better for their health seems rather dubious to me. And also, it raises the question, what is the begging box money providing now?

It seems to me that Aberdeen council would have the homeless having less neighbourly interactions, both in their begging and in their shelters. It only takes some lateral thinking to realise that following an out-of-sight-we'll-be-less-hassled policy can only result in a more dogmatic anti-homeless view. Shame on it.