Homeless people

This story about a homeless man which the council wants to refer to agencies reminds me of Wellington's Blanketman (Ben Hana). Many people think that homeless people are on the streets because they have nowhere else to go. However agencies who work with thw homeless have a different view.

Like all those the Waikato Times spoke to who work with the homeless, Mr White said many people who live on the streets were there by choice.

Blanketman is one. He`s loaded. He is on the streets by choice revelling in his celebrity status. He gets money thrown at him. He has a healthy bank account. He also has a low budget because he doesnt buy anything except his new i-pod I `m sure I saw him using the other week. And he has a place to live.

And on the subject of homelessness, check out this story of a 70-year-old who lives in a cave just big enough to fit a bed and a toilet… except he doesn’t own a toilet. The cave is about 15 minutes walk from the foreshore car park out the back of Seatoun in Wellington. One wonders why he doesn’t treat himself out to a weekend away, say, at the Taranaki Street Night Shelter. He won’t go there.

You can be sound asleep, somebody tells me there, and someone starts playing around in certain parts and puts their hand up you…. in the dark! I think to myself I’d rather sleep in here and if something does run up my leg, I know it’s only a mouse, and he can’t do much damage.