Homeless? Well it's a lifestyle choice ... Isn't it?

A choice? Would you chose?

Beanie cellars is often busy, our friends visit, comment, contribute... They often share thoughts and coffee with Sue over the Blog table. You may remember in our last blog Charlotte talked about attitudes..

HOMELESS - It means different things to different people. 
Sometimes there is empathy, "There but for fortune..."
But often it is 

"Worthless" "Useless" "Con men" "Working the system" "Fakes - they gotta home, begging is just a job for them" "Drunks and Druggies" "Not worth my time"...

Today Team Beanie welcome Dave Kennedy from Huddersfield Change Project 

Again we look at what 'homeless' means.  

Over to Dave...

There have been many occasions in the last year where people have messaged me or the team, or stopped us in the street, and uttered the words "They're not genuine".

Genuine. Rather than try to dissect what constitutes "Genuine" and what doesn't, here is a description, as concise as I possibly can, of what to us constitutes "Homeless".

A homeless person is quite literally someone without a home to call their own. A rough sleeper, like those we have helped at 5am in sleeping bags under bridges, doorways and in car parks in Huddersfield, is homeless.

Someone who sits on the street with a hat by their side and a bag of belongings, is Homeless. This includes if they are going "Home" to a friends house, a relation, to a crack house, to a derelict building or to a tent. It's not a home, it is somewhere to stay. 

If they are known drug addicts, alcoholics, or both, they get our help. Because they're Homeless. We don't give cash out, ever, because we can't be responsible for funding their addictions. It would be partly on our backs if they overdosed using money we gave them. But we can and do and WILL give clothing, food and essential items to them, regardless of whether they are sleeping rough or sofa surfing. They're homeless.

Someone staying at a hostel is homeless. The Hostels are excellent, they have fabulous staff and facilities and we have some excellent ones in Huddersfield. But they're a stop gap, a Halfway House where these people can stay while they are moved on to their own house or flat. But they're still homeless. 

If we see someone sitting in town during the day or evening that we know are staying at a hostel, we help them. 
Because they're Homeless.

It takes time to gain trust

People sit in the streets for all sorts of reasons. After 8 months of daily visits, conversations, trust and friendship-building, we know these people well. We ask around, we research their background, we talk to the other groups. We find out why they're there.

And in those 8 months, out of probably 35 people we have got to know on the streets in our area, 2 of them have turned out to be begging for money to fund a habit and then go home to their own place. Two. Out of 35. And even then, we help them with snacks etc and try to point them in the right direction for some help with their issues.

The other services in place have been excellent.

So have we. Because we've formed a network with the support groups available.

But, the people we deal with, they're Homeless. And, to try and encourage people NOT to ask if they're genuine or not, we use the term "Less fortunate" as well as "Homeless" in our title.

Please, remember, that unless these people have a permanent address, they are Homeless. 

If they are staying somewhere or are in the care and support system, they are still Homeless.

And that's why Huddersfield Change Project, and several other well-known on-street groups like us, are here and are needed.

And, as well as being homeless, these people are human. One of the people we help won't sit out on a Sunday because he is a Christian and he believes in the Lord's day. One of them has bed and breakfast accommodation but needs two other meals a day. One of them is put out on the streets to beg because they're female and the public sympathise more. She returns to a house every evening where she pays £2 a night to stay there. It's not a hotel or a hostel. It's a squat.

Please, think carefully before casting judgement on someone sitting or sleeping on the streets. They're there for a reason. And so are we. If you think they're funding a habit, don't give them money. Give them food, give them support. Give them a smile.

I guarantee they'll all smile back -

Because they're human.

Thank you for reading 💕💕.

Dave Kennedy is the Founder and Co-ordinator of the Huddersfield Change Project.

The Huddersfield Change Project came into being to bring direct support to people sleeping rough or living on the streets of Huddersfield. What started as a twice-weekly visit to the town has turned into a daily Outreach round, bringing drinks, snacks, meals, clothing and essentials to anyone in need. They are non-judgemental and will help anyone in need. 

You can find them on Facebook 

facebook.com/HCPKENNO

Or on Twitter as @HCPKenno

They rely entirely on Public Donations​, and are now bringing support to Manchester as well as Huddersfield, and are looking to work in other towns close by soon.

Thank you Dave, some things that we shouldn't forget.


You can buy things to support homeless outreach at our 
Twitter site, where we are @beanies_masato
Or via our page at

http://www.masato.co.uk/collections/masato-homeless-support

This article appeared previously on the HCPKenno Facebook site in June 2017
Picture posed by non-homeless model.

HOMELESS ISN'T INVISIBLE...

Or does that depend on where you look?

The lights are on in Beanie Cellars, and the rain is lashing down outside.  So much for flaming June!

But no matter… because the coffee is on, and our guest Blogger Charlotte is here to share some thoughts.

With Layla the guide dog curled around her feet, Charlotte begins -

Homeless Isn’t Invisible?

Hello everyone…

So, last time I was writing here I was living in a hostel. I am lucky enough to say currently I have managed to get a flat from a local housing association. Though it is only just starting to feel like home. I still don’t have carpets or curtains  yet, but I am working on these things.

We had to deal with damp that affected my asthma when we first moved in which was not fun. It resulted in two trips to A&E. Glad that is sorted now!

Even though I am no longer homeless I do not stop seeing the world around me. Having a permanent address does not change what I went through. Or to some extent it doesn't change how people treat me. 

We all know someone who has fallen on hard times. We are all just one, or if we are lucky two, pay checks away from not being able to pay the rent or our mortgage. Lots of things can lead to being homeless. Loss of job, trying to escape an abusive relationship, leaving care, illness or injury, debt, and many more things. 

Very few people chose to be homeless. I know I did not chose to not be able to afford rent and food, or to have to leave university due to being hospitalised.

Homelessness certainly is not invisible.  Every day when you walk through any town you will see people sleeping on the streets or begging. 

Do you look away? OR do you look for them? Check to see if the same ones are in the same places every day? Do you smile at them or offer them water? 

Or, like so many people,  do you pretend these homeless people are not there? You are the ones that decide if you see them. If you chose to look or not, in your heart you still know they are there.

Then there are the homeless who don’t look homeless, the ones you can not easily see. 

But if you walk by your local food bank you will see them. 

Hiding - in plain sight.

On Sundays there is a food hand out near me that due to the volume of people that need it in my city has to be run under a bridge. I know near this bridge are two hostels. But you could walk right past this throng of people and not notice them if you wanted. That will not make them go away though. 

You can pretend these people brought it on themselves, or they are not there. But you know you are lying to yourself. 

We all see them, but most of us do nothing. 

In doing nothing do we say this situation is okay? 

Only by ignoring them are we allowing them to be invisible, it is our choice not a true fact that makes any of us invisible or shunned. 

As you read this the person you talked to at work may be sofa surfing or even living in a hostel. That person that sat next to you at the doctors or on the bus may have nowhere to sleep tonight. 

They, WE - are everywhere.  All human.  All the same. 

Yet we, the luckier ones, we chose who we can and can not speak to based on our address or lack thereof.

So next time you are walking in a big town or city, don’t keep your headphones in or play on your phone. Look around you and count the number of people sleeping rough. See if it is the same everyday. Smile at them and ask if they are okay. In the heat we have had if you have a spare bottle of water hand it to them.

When you are next at work or on the bus look around you. Can you tell who is homeless and who is not? There is no difference. 

Most of us will not be able to tell the difference. Because there is no difference, we are all just human. 

So do not judge them. Do not ignore them, do not let your self believe that this is okay. Take notice and take account for your actions. They are not invisible any more then you are. 

They are no less important then you are.

Homeless isn’t worthless…

Homeless isn’t invisible…

Homeless isn’t a choice.

Thank you Charlotte.  One of the things we hear most often from our homeless friends is that they feel ignored and isolated, less than human.  And that can't be right.

You can follow Charlotte and Layla on Twitter where she is @blindseyeview

If you would like to get more involved, do something to help our homeless friends perhaps, then connect with us on Twitter at @beanies_masato

If you would like to buy something to add to outreach funds checkout

http://www.masato.co.uk/collections/masato-homeless-support

Its all about attitude?

A Volunteer speaks...

Here at Beanies we talk to many people.  They share a coffee with Sue, and share their experiences - what it is like to be homeless, what some of the drivers are, success stories and plans and schemes, as well as some of the heartbreaks, and some stories too graphic to share.

Today the coffee mugs are full, and we talk with a volunteer from a Shelter.  He'd like to remain anonymous, but we will call him Dave.

He begins...

What gets me is the total lack of understanding out there.  People think "it can't happen to me", walk past a homeless guy and don't look, lets pretend it isn't happening.  That I see all the time, but when the "Powers" - the ones who allocate funds and support - when they don't understand... That's when I despair...

Dave paused, and went on

We have watched them come and watched them go and since we opened our doors in the '90s, there have been between three and four thousand people who have spent the night at our shelter. The Single Homeless, the ones rarely in Priority Need.  Some of them have been there many times, some only once and we never saw them again.

The ignorance of some on the 'outside' has been quite revealing when considering even this basic aspect of life in our Shelter. I have heard Councillors and even Officers of the council suggest that the fact that some have come to us on many occasions is somehow our failing.

Such suggestions would be laughable if the people making them were not the ones responsible for allocating resources to help the homeless. As it is, it is just sad and rather frightening. 

People who voice these thoughts display a remarkable lack of insight into the nature of Single Homeless people. 

To us at the Shelter they are not "The Homeless", they are so much more than names on a piece of paper, and certainly deserving of far more respect than they have been given.

Why do people return to the shelter again and again?

People have returned to us because there was nowhere else for them to go as no one else was prepared work with them. Often if we had not, they might have died on our streets as they were doing in the years before this Shelter opened. As many are still doing as support and funding is being withdrawn. 

I have always regarded the fact that we never gave up on someone as being one of our strengths and we have had the privelidge of seeing many break this cycle of homelessness and eventually succeed, but at their pace and not ours.

There is so much more to 'seeing' than just using our eyes. How is it that we can look, so hard at something but so often see something else?

It was David Brandon who said,

“If only I could resist the urge to trace my patterns on your heart I could see you.”

He was talking from the standpoint of people who spend their time hindering whilst convincing themselves that they are actually helping. Basically he was saying that we need to see people as they actually are and not merely as the result of our preconceptions. We so often see only what we want to see rather than what is there.

I mention David Brandon because all too often, people like him, the true architects of effective work with single homeless, are forgotten as the current political views so often dictate what is actually done.

The thing that most gets in the way of helping another is a desire to see the other person as “helped” or as a changed human being. It stops us seeing them as they are as we only look at how we wish them to be.

We WANT them to be better (according to our beliefs of what “better” is) and get frustrated and angry when they are not as we would like them to be; hence there is an increasing tendancy to criminalise the homeless person. We should never forget that we are only a lost job or a few missed mortgage payments away from it. 

Homeless isn't a choice

It could happen to anyone!!!!

We have become so adept at deciding on “what should be” for other people or other institutions that we have lost sight of what actually is.  We are expected to uselessly do efficiently that which should not be done at all.  Box ticking.  Statistic interpretation. Hidden homeless... lost in the Bureaucratic  maze of perfect form filling...

Doing the wrong things in the right way will solve nothing; it is as bad as doing the right things in the wrong way, both increasingly lacking any semblance of compassion.

For as Brandon wrote after firstly stating that compassion was the most important ingredient in a helping relaionship:

“Compassion is being in tune with oneself, the other person and the whole world. It is goodness at its most intuitive and unreflecting. It is a harmony which opens itself and permits the flowing out of love toward others without any reward. It avoids using people as tools. It sees them as complete and without a need to be changed.”

And how this conflicts with current thinking where we talk about “places of change” or even changing people. We seek to change them in order that they comply with our view of what they should be...

“In our hearts we know we frequently offer little assistance to people... We demand that they suit our ideas of them rather than pursue their own pathways of personal growth - interfering rather than intervening...” (Brandon)

The Golden Rule states that we should:

·      Treat others as we would like to be treated or

·      Not treat others in ways we would not like to be treated.

And I would add - stop demonising the people who need our support.  We are all human, we all deserve respect and understanding.

It is simple.
There is nothing intrinsiclly wrong with austerity but austerity without compassion or austerity without following the Golden Rule will do little more than further divide an increasingly fragmented society, breeding little more than xenaphobia.

To live in harmony is to live without fear and if I was to choose between fear and harmony, I know which I should choose.

Thoughtful words.  Thank you Dave.


Here at TeamBeanie we support 6 Partner organisations each year via Twitter where we are @beanies_masato

Our Partners 2017-18 are

@onebigfamilyHTH
@llamauUK
@HoH_MK
@GCMcare
@ObanHopeKitchen
@TheBusShelterDT

we try to share thoughts and information
we try and bust a few myths
we try and sell stuff to help the homeless via our Partner outreach organisations

If you would like to buy the link is here
http://www.masato.co.uk/collections/masato-homeless-support