That’s the sad situation with Andrew. Andrew is 75 years old, a retired first officer in the British Navy. I met Andrew whilst volunteering during the health and well-being week, organised by Crisis Birmingham Skylight in the week leading up to Christmas 2018.

Andrew is very talented, he started by sharing some funny stories (jokes), which are great and he knows a LOT of them.

He shared a little bit of his story with me.

Being a British Officer in the British Navy meant that he sailed the open seas for many years. He shared just one such journey with me. It was the S.A. Seafarer that stranded off the coast of South Africa on July 1st, 1966. Most people were hoisted off by helicopter and this is when Andrew’s journey began in earnest.

As he was an Officer in the Navy he had a passport that allowed him to stay in South Africa, so in effect he was repatriated there. I know very little of what he did after that, except that eventually he retired into a home in South Africa.

Unfortunately the home closed down, which meant he had to go back to England, which is when his homeless journey started.

Living in a hostel in Birmingham, he doesn’t wish to have his own house now, he can’t deal with the hassle and why does he need any belongings at his age?

He seems content in the hostel, but nevertheless he is still homeless, living with other people who are deemed homeless too.

Should this be his outcome after having served in the British Navy for many years and now left to live out his few years left in the world inside a hostel? Surely there’s something seriously wrong with how we handle our homeless in this country and possible even the rest of the world. How did we manage to get such parity between the rich and the poor?

At Christmastime, there is a lot of guilt and many reports about our homeless situation in the U.K. and then it all goes quiet, and we forget about the plight of the homeless. Not charities like Crisis, they continue with their work, assisting the homeless to get off the street, out of temporary accommodation, provide education to develop new skills or dormant skills, help them into permanent accommodation and into a vital job of work.

And that’s not all, they campaign heavily with the government and members of Parliament to change the law and improve outcomes for these vulnerable citizens in our communities. They have a 10 year plan to end homelessness in the U.K. and you can download a copy here.

Show your support, by talking to anyone who might be homeless, it’s likely there might be several in your own private network, but you won’t even have noticed them, they’re not all on the street.

Thank you!

Michael de Groot