Homeless At The Doorsteps Of Hell

I lived with homeless people in London from 1987 to 1990 .
For a three year period I found myself in different situations .
It is a sad thing that most of the homeless people I met where innocent
victims of a system that refused to provide help in most of the cases I
was aware of .

There was always a stream of journalists on the roam around the
homeless community in London . Stories were many as the stars in the
sky but did they really care for those who gave them a front page
heading or photo ?
I doubt it .

Often I watched as they came and went . They drove nice cars and wore
expensive clothes . The fleet street media junkies were hooked on the
homeless headlines .

It was quite evident that all of these newspaper people were healthy
and well fed . I'm sure they had a lovely home to return to at the ens
of their working day . I'm sure they tried to understand the plight of
the poor who were
living like lepers at the doorstep of hell .

The exploitation of the unemployed was tragic . More and more people
were drawn by the London magnet into false hope and security . There
was no work to accommodate everyone . There was not enough
accommodation for the million who were homeless in 1989 around London
.

I began to speak with the growing number of people who walked the
streets of London looking for shelter and a feed .

In 1989 I met Jimmy near Tower Bridge . He told me about a place he had
come across near The Oval Tube Station . Jimmy and a few others had
looked at the site .Originally they were just going to strip it for the
old building had some nice decor . Jimmy and his gang were not really
bad they just were in need of food and warm clothing . The Department
Of Social Security were unable to provide them with an emergency
payment . Most of the charities were exhausted of funds and relied on
the generosity of Londons comfortable society to prop up their bank
accounts ..

Now Jimmy and crew were also worried about the continuing bashings of
homeless people and the cold weather was on its way .
Serious consideration was given into moving about a hundred of the
homeless people from cardboard city into the squat .
The word was passed around and a hundred were chosen from the street to
occupy the old derelict Belgrave Hospital on the edge of Kennington and
Clapham Roads .
I was offered a room in Belgrave in May 1989 .
It was decision time for me because at the time I was a resident of the
Sally Anns at Blackfriars . My stomach was in bits and my nerves were
wrecked
Because I knew if I left the security of The Salvation Army and
something happened that I could not return .
So after some prayer and contemplation I left the safe walls of the
Sally Anns Jimmy and became good friends but I realised that soon he
would have to move on as well as myself .
One Sunday after walking to the Catholic Cathedral in London Jimmy and
I had some prayers and decided to go on a mission of our own .
We planned to visit some of the homeless in the Bullring at Waterloo
and try and provide some moral support .

The first person we met was Barbara who was pregnant and it was
clear
that the time was near for a baby to arrive into the world .
We wanted to be there in case there was any thing we could do to help
.
Most homeless people help each other out . Its like a code of the
street .
That is always the case on the street . So Jimmy and I stayed for a
while and
Watched as the mobile van drove in with free paper cups of hot soup for
the people of cardboard city . Some times things got rough when there
where fists fights for a cup of soup and then things ended up with a
near riot .

I spoke to Ziggy with his dreadlocks and Robert with his drug habit
.
Then there was Duncan with the stigma of running away from the system
and not wanting back in again until he had recovered from why he had
run away in the first place . Originally Duncan was married with two
young kids . He had a nice home and a nice car . His job as a security
guard was well paid but Duncan had a few other things he could not hold
back . He loved fast cars
And the fast life too much . One night he had a little too much to
drink and hit the gas pedal a little too hard . Duncan was pulled over
for drunk driving .
After he lost his licence he lost his job and gradually drank his
savings .
He lost his marriage and hit the skids .

I remember speaking to Dublin Jack who came to the Bullring .
I asked him where he had been sleeping . He told me he had stayed in
the shelter at St Martin in The Fields Church near Trafalgar Square but
after he was locked out one night he ended up in a train in the sidings
at Victoria and that's were he still was . In the middle of our
conversation I was interrupted by a small group of people who called
themselves members of the Jesus Army .
They made an approach to Jimmy and I .
I listened as they began to preach to some of the homeless people in
their cardboard boxes .
"Jesus Loves you brother " Said one of the Jesus Army .
Here they had come dressed in army combat uniforms boots and all
.
One after another they did the rounds of the bullring saying ,

"Jesus loves you. "
I think the fresh faced preachers kind of missed the target a little
.
Most of the homeless people just ignored them .
A van arrived with more members of the Jesus Army . There was more
preaching but their remarks went unheard and also unwanted .
Understanding is what its all about .
Maybe if the Jesus Army had sat down with us and handed over money food
and clothing and then said,
That Jesus loves you things would have been different .
I had to question their presence and said to the leader of the group
,
Jesus showed the way for us to follow . His love and compassion is
understood by action not by words alone . Jesus told us to feed the
hungry and shelter the homeless poor .If you are going to just tell
these people that Jesus loves them without any action to your words
then you have somehow lost the message you want to bring . To get the
message across you must understand where these people are at ".
Jimmy came to my side and joined in .
"Where ever two or more are gathered in my name I am there . "
That evening the Jesus Army invited Jimmy and I back to their
headquarters .
They told us that they were having a revival and we needed to be part
of that .
We asked them were the meeting was and they said in the midlands
.
I looked at Jimmy and he at me .
At first we both hesitated but then something inside us jumped at the
opportunity . Jimmy and I spoke together and after a few moments
And weighed it up . If anything it would get us out of London for a
while .
We both needed a break .

I needed space to find myself again and so we agreed to go with the
Jesus Army . As soon as we got into their van we felt apprehensive
about where we were going . Anyway there was no need to panic .
Later on that night we arrived at a large conference centre . Both of
us
were taken to an office in the building and given a cup of tea and a
plain biscuit . After that we were brought into a massive auditorium
filled with thousands of people standing side by side with their arms
in the air .
Upstairs was the balcony bulging with people and they all erupted in
cheers as a man walked on to the stage . The man on the stage was also
dressed in Army gear . He held a small horse whip in his hand and
marched back and forth across the stage . He spoke of a day to come
when the Jesus Army would have to make their stand to fight the evil in
the world .He spoke of how well equipped the Jesus Army were .They had
the weapons stock piled .
The guns and bombs were all ready and the Jesus Army were well trained
for the job . The audience erupted again in cheering and began to
thunder their praise and chanting to God . I looked at Jimmy and put my
finger up before my lips . I whispered in his ear ,
"Let us get out of here as soon as possible ."
Jimmy nodded in agreement .
"I'm with you " He said .
The meeting went on for about another hour and we were unable to move
during that time . After the gathering Jimmy and I wee taken to another
office were we were questioned in detail by a number of members of the
Jesus Army . They wanted to know our appreciation of their movement and
encouraged us just to speak our mind .
I immediately spoke first and hoped that Jimmy would get my drift
.
I tried hard not to speak out of line and keep all my cards very close
to my chest .

I mean we totally outnumbered and surrounded by members of this
religious Sect who were willing to kill and destroy under the name of
the Jesus Army .
Jimmy and I were miles from nowhere and no one here knew who we were
.
I guessed that somehow they thought we connected to another one of
their movements . I prayed in silence for God to be on my lips and in
the hearts of those to whom I would speak .
Quietly I addressed the evil in the world and also the good in the
world .
I tried to explain our mission in the world as Christians and how we
had to sometimes retreat from the world before planning how to attack
it .
I seemed to get my point across and asked if we could have a few
moments together in prayer . In a quiet place I asked in prayer for our
safe return to London and for Jimmy and I to be able to continue our
work there with the homeless .
Within the hour my prayer was answered .
The people who had brought us there in the first place took us back to
our homeless refuge in London .
Relieved and exhausted Jimmy and I collapsed on our hard mattress back
at Belgrave Hospital were I listened to the snores and roars of the
others residents in our large room .
For an hour I listened to coughs and burps and soon came the early
morning shuffling of feet in and out of the toilet .
Soon an endless stream of men came carrying their buckets for flushing
the loo . After the morning bathroom call ended the sound of people
climbing the stairs from the ground floor canteen back to the dormitory
soon drowned out the din and clatter of the wash up crew .
I looked out the window and heard traffic pass by on Kennington road
.
It was May 1989 when I was one of those who had come to live in the
place that was the derelict Belgrave Children's Hospital .

Barbara had a baby girl and Dawn was born homeless but beautiful
.
That really lifted us all in Belgrave .
Jimmy I said a prayer in thanksgiving .

THE END