Facing Harsh Reality Of Homelessness

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday February 5, 2005

I MIGHT have been one of the tut-tutters when the powers-that-be in Atlanta and Barcelona cleared the streets of homeless people and moved them on where they would not be seen by the thousands of visitors who attended the Olympic Games.

In the meantime I regret to say that I seem to have become a NIMBY (not in my backyard).

About 1 pm on January 28, the craft ladies were leaving the Port Kembla Community Hall after their morning meeting and my garden club members were arriving for theirs.

As I approached the front door, I saw what I thought was a heap of dirty rags.

It turned out to be a person of indeterminate sex apparently sound asleep in a sleeping bag with few worldly possessions and some empty food containers.

It is an awful indictment on our society that these people exist the way they do, and a credit to the people that try to help them, but there is nothing I can do about it, and it is something that I don't want to see as I go about my day-to-day affairs.

- P FERGUSON,

Berkeley.