Communities again!

Just returned from 24 hours with Crisis for Christmas the Charity that care for the homeless and house them for 7 days over the Christmas period.

 A sea of people with one thing in common - and for many of them that is all they have in common.

But within that week small communities become apparent.

 The alcoholics support each other and many came to the centre together, the Eastern Europeans - each year more and more - stay together as a group with a shared language and culture.

Stories emerge of how each each group find ways to support those in their community.

 The hardest hit are the more recent additions to the street. 

They have yet to build a community and they are often the ones who are suicidal. Who cannot believe that life has brought them to this point. An employer who cannot pay them, a wife or husband who betray or beat them, lives turned upside down in a matter of days and who have no where else to turn.

These are the people who stay with you and you never forget them - always wondering whether they found a way out

We are so dependent on each other. Sometimes communities are tied together by invisible threads only apparent when they break