Property News · August 3, 2017

We accepted homelessness while the rich left houses empty. No more


To live in a city in England has meant turning a blind eye to the homeless. Grenfell has changed that“Where does he keep his toothbrush, Mummy?” I always remember my eldest child’s first reaction, when a toddler, to seeing a young man sleeping in a doorway. This was King’s Cross in north London in the mid-80s. Overnight, it seemed that homelessness had become visible. Young people whose benefits had been cut, and who could no longer live independently of their parents, were on the streets. Until then, I had not seen beggars on the streets of London. I had seen them when I was hitching around Europe. The beggars of Lisbon shocked me: Portugal was in a terrible state then, with empty shops and desperately poor people.I had made London my home, so I had to do that thing that everyone does: turn a blind eye to the lost, addicted, abused, ill people everywhere, who cannot be given money in case they spend it on “the wrong things”. We harden ourselves. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…We accepted homelessness while the rich left houses empty. No more

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