A few weeks ago (in June) I received messages from my family in England that our oldest brother, Steven who lives in The Netherlands, had become homeless. We didn't know whether it was true or not, my own brother homeless?! I volunteered with Crisis in the UK for several years and my instinct from having done some support work and learning about the homeless, is that he needed to get professional help. He was asking us for money, the messages coming through were that he was sleeping in his car with his dog.
Seriously can this really be true in a rich Western nation like The Netherlands? Surely they look after their citizens, they wouldn't allow someone to be sleeping rough in their car at his age? I know the UK is awful at looking after the homeless, but The Netherlands? Surely they must be much better, it turns out not. They have a huge homelessness issue there too.
Anyway, I was persistent in my suggestion that he should seek a homeless shelter and get professional help. Homelessness is a very complicated and involved scenario. It was a shock to us of course and although we were aware that his marriage had broken up, he definitely had not kept us posted on the events that then followed. We still really don't know how it has all come about.
He turned 70 on the 24th June 2022 which means he must receive a state pension, wouldn't that be enough to pay some rent? Clearly not.
Steven hasn't always been honest with the truth, so there's always been a doubt in the back of my mind whether this was one of his stories or he was actually telling us the truth.
It wasn't until he shared an article from a Dutch online newspaper that I realised it was in fact very true. My heart sank, I had doubted him and it was true after all.
What can I do?
