Have You Ever Been Down on Your Luck

A few months ago a friend of mine, Tom, slept rough of the streets of London to raise awareness for Autism. I met up with him a few times, and he told me of the various ways he had been treated while sleeping on the streets. Some people were really lovely to him, while others simply ignored him. Didn’t even acknowledge that he was there, and this was something that really wound him up. How people can just walk by a homeless person without a second glance. I mean for all they knew he was homeless.  I agreed with him that yes one was a shit situation, but not an uncommon one.

I don’t think people in general are mean, or nasty in regards to the homeless. I don’t think that people are ignorant to homelessness in our society; I think that it was simply that Tom wasn’t the first person to stop them that day. You can walk down a street and get stopped three of four times, and when you’ve been stopped one after the other it really alters your perception and how you react to each individual person. I mean I feel horrible to write that, and it seems selfish, but it’s the truth. I’m ashamed to admit that there are times when I’ve walked down the street and I’ve kept my head down and kind of ignored them. It’s a horrible thing to do, and since Tom has had his experience I’ve been more aware of homeless people and of my behaviour towards them. I have never been rude, and I always say “sorry” and at least acknowledge the person. It’s just that people are very wrapped up in their own stuff, and that’s OK, it’s not a crime. We’ve all got stuff going on.

What I don’t understand and what I can’t explain is people being nasty or aggressive towards a homeless person. There is simply no need for it.

I was on my way home from work yesterday and my bus was parked at a stop for a few minutes. I looked out the window, and there was a man lying down outside of a Tesco. He was laying in such a way that he was half blocking the pavement. The majority of people walked around him; most not really registering he was there. While I was watching a woman came out and nearly stood on him. She was talking on her phone, and she bent down and said something to him. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but I naturally assumed she was trying to help him. She wasn’t, and to me she was the vilest person I had ever seen. As she stood back up straight, she kicked him ever so slightly with her foot, and stepped over him. Stepped over him like he was nothing. Just a bump she had to hop across to be on her way. It really was a horrible thing to see the dehumanization of someone to be nothing more than an extension of the curb, and the kick she gave though very slight, just seemed brutal. It was one of those moments when I just sat there and thought, we think we’re so civilised. The truth of it is the way some people act in society we seem like we’ve hardly evolved from cavemen. I would actually bet that cavemen had more respect for life than that woman had for the gentleman on the floor. I mean she was literally kicking him while he was down. I was so shocked by it.

It’s so easy for us to look at homelessness and be judgmental. We don’t know their situation or what’s happened to them to get to where they are. Maybe they are in a situation where they don’t want to help themselves and they want to stay in that situation. But what if that’s not the case? What would you do if you had a series of unfortunate events put you in a situation when every decision you made took you further into a desperate hole that you couldn’t climb out of? What if you had to do things you were ashamed of and you ran from your life and everyone you knew? Or what if people began to turn their back on you because of the things you’d done? If people gave up on you?

We’re not immune to stuff going wrong and when it does go wrong for us we turn to the people we love or trust to help. With their support a lot of the time we are able to deal with these situations. We’re the lucky ones. I think when things are going great for us we forget quickly those days, weeks, months, even years ago what a low point we were at. We forget how things can go from amazing to an absolute shit storm in a blink of an eye, and unfortunately that’s life. Some can cope with it while others struggle more. So shouldn’t the stronger or better situated be able to help others?

I’m not saying that from now on whenever I get stopped in the street by a homeless person I’ll give them money, but I will give them the time of day. Just to acknowledge them and offer them the respect they deserve. They are a part of our society after all, and it’s not something we can ignore much longer. The next time you feel annoyed or irritated by how many times you get stopped by someone asking for change, just think, doesn’t the number of times you get stopped convey the seriousness of the issue of homelessness. Maybe we should be doing more.