Sleeping Rough

Our society seems very reluctant to deal with the combined issues of personal poverty and deprivation, fear, bewilderment, pride, substance abuse, mental illness and ignorance which leads to people sleeping rough. I may be mistaken, but I think the widespread phenomenon of rough sleeping is a relatively recent crisis. Certainly, in Scotland in the 1960s and 70s, when I was growing up, I think there were very few rough sleepers.

People walk by.
I walk by too.
We shrug, "what can we do?"

Is giving a "down&out" money a useful act of charity, or merely an incentive to them to continue wasting their life away with the help of Carlsberg Special Brew? Should we allow them to ruin their lives, or should we prevent them; is patronising intervention from us helpful and justifiable, or an infringement of their rights to govern their own destiny?

I don't know.

But I do know that the down and out rough sleepers and Big Issue sellers I have met in Canterbury are often dead within a few months.

What a waste!