Homelessness In Portsmouth

TUESDAY 28^TH FEBRUARY 2012. Tonight we see TIMOTHY, JAMIE, IAN, PAUL and JIM. We also visited Mill house. JAMIE in a lot of pain tonight.

I went round to pick Courtney up from her house and we headed straight to the Hard (Portsmouth harbour) to meet Linda for 7 pm. We passed Tinny with all intentions of going back to him in a little while. I parked the car and got out to see Linda. There was no homeless people up this end so we decided to go on our round and come back later. Linda had collected some sandwiches and apples, (kindly donated by Highbury College) and we put them in the back of my car ready for delivering this evening. We went and found a place for Linda to park her car then she came in my car with us.

We made our way to Mill house to deliver some bread (kindly donated by a local bakery) as they always give me a lot so rather than waste it, I’ll take it to the hostel to eat with their evening meal.

I introduced Linda to Mark as she may be doing my trip when I go on holiday. I introduced Linda to all of the homeless we met this evening as they will hopefully be seeing a lot more of her and again she will be filling in for me when I am away.

We continued our way to Osborne road where we met Paul, sitting in his usual place outside the bank. Paul was quiet this evening, we gave him soup, sandwiches, bread, crisps etc. and then went to Albert Road.

Jim was sitting outside the Balti house, last time we see him he was in Palmeston road. Jim sleeps rough in Palmeston Road sometimes and begs in Albert road if there is a free pitch, I say free pitch because there are usually pitches for the big issue venders. We had a nice chat with Jim, he is always so polite and thankful, such a nice man. I went back to the car to get Jim some food when a very well dressed man approached me asking if I was a soup kitchen, my reply was a definite no, I explained and so did Linda that we do this off our own backs not for the church. He asked if he could have some soup as he was hungry. I told him that he didn’t look homeless and he said that he isn’t, he explained that he lives in a bedsit but has lost his wallet and was unable to get any food. How could I refuse, I’m such a soft touch at times but if I said no to him then I would feel terrible as he may of lost his wallet.

We fed and watered Jim and made our way back to the Hard to see Tinny and the others. Tinny had gone for the night. We spoke with Timothy and gave him some food and soup, he asked if I had any hotdogs or burgers, I told him that I wasn’t a burger van, we did chuckle about this. I was disappointed about Tinny not being there as I had all intentions of coming back to feed him.

Linda went off to find a lavatory and Courtney and I stayed and spoke with Timothy. Courtney says that he is her favourite and she loves his accent. Courtney has become more confident now and speaks to the guys a lot more, she really enjoys the work we do and is a natural people person.

Linda came running back saying that she has found Jamie collapsed behind the bins, we ran straight over to him and by this time he was on his feet struggling to push his bike. I took the bike off him and Courtney locked it up for him. Jamie sat down and we gave him some food and things. Talking to him he says that he fell over a plant pot a week and a half ago and fell on his chest. He had been down the hospital all day today and had an x-ray but never stayed around to get his results. I said I would take him back down there now but he refused. Jamie asked if he could use my phone to call Chris so I let him. I took Linda back to her car then went back to pick up Jamie took him round to see Chris who was at a friend’s house as Jamie was scared of being alone in case he got any worse.

I told him I will call him tomorrow of which I did.

Courtney and I headed home.