Stories
Imagine actually being homeless. Imagine how hard that would be. Like, seriously. You don’t have a bed, or any food, or a mug of hot chocolate, or your teddy bear. You have 14 pence, a thin cotton blanket, a park bench, and a patched coat. It’s February, and it’s a few degrees south of freezing. No one really cares about your situation - if you ad anyone who cared, anywhere to go to you’d be there with them. But you don’t so you aren’t. People walk past you with looks on their face that tells you that, though they feel sorry for you, they are also disgusted. Some cross the street to avoid you. The police actively chase you away from any actual shelter; any subways that have a centigrade or two higher temperature than outside. Now, imagine how that actually feels. Unless you’ve gone through it, you really can’t. I know I can’t.
Some people who have gone through it, so don’t need to imagine it, have shared their stories. Here they are:
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Clayton Cutter (Leeds)
I was in the RAF from the age of nineteen. I did my training at RAF Halton got posted to RAF Lossiemouth and then went to Norway. Just after September 11th I went to the Gulf for four months. I decided I wanted to join the Police and handed in my resignation to the RAF. When my application was still being processed, I injured my shoulder very badly and they… Read full story
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Cyrus (Leeds)
I have been at Emmaus Leeds since March 2004. I was an angry child and I grew into an angry adult. I was beaten very badly on a regular basis by my father when I was a child. For twenty years I related to people by being aggressive and terrorising them. If someone just looked at me, I’d want to know why. I went to prison quite a lot of… Read full story
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Curly (Leeds)
I came to Emmaus Leeds eight months ago. I was abused as a child. In those days such things were brushed under the carpet. My Dad’s brother was one of the people who abused me. My Dad beat him up and he died five months later. The other person who abused me killed himself. I helped my Dad on our small holding. We had pigs, ducks, poultry and goats. I… Read full story