Categories: uncategorized
Date: 27 July 2007 19:11:16
I was told today about a guy who has been sleeping rough in our town. Earlier this week he had his tent and belongings stolen. From what I've been told he's a really nice guy who, through no fault of his own, has fallen on hard times.
He is an ex-military person who is divorced/separated from his wife and children and has been sleeping in the area to be near them. The contract he had been working on ended suddenly and he was cast on the scrapheap. Now he is forced to find somewhere else to stay.
The problem is that the nearest emergency shelter is in Cardiff, 20 miles away. In order to secure a place you have to be there by 16:00hrs. How does a homeless person travel 20 miles in about 2 hours without money? There were shelters in Newport, about 10 miles down the valley, but they had no places. How does a homeless person then get back to see his family?
One of the things I've found when I've talked to ex-military personnel in dire straits is that they are still proud men who want to work but don't seem to get the breaks they need. In addition many have problems that they have developed during their time in the Forces. Upon release they are neglected by the system that they once protected and fall through the cracks. This is especially true of proud military men who don't share thoughts or feelings with other people; after all that's not what men do is it?
I don't know what happened to this guy. I'm sure that the organisation he went to were doing everything they could to help, as they had done already. Yet he is another who seems to have been let down by the system that is overstretched, under funded and under staffed.
Maybe there is nothing else that we can do for him at present, except pray for him.....