Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
FATHER Peter MacLeod-Miller knows more than most about the issue of homelessness on the Border.
To him, it is not an invisible problem, it’s not the crisis we can’t see. He carries a sleeping bag in his car and more often than not, he comes across someone who needs it.
In the big cities, homelessness is in your face. It’s people on a street corner, with a blanket and maybe a cardboard box, and a sign begging for money. Though it should really be far more confronting, thousands of people may walk past in a day without a second look.
City people are more immune to street sleepers because they have to be – they have to walk past the problem every day.
In regional areas like the Border and North East, our homeless are less confronting. They are out there, but they rarely sleep on street corners or beg for money.
They couch surf, or sleep at the train station, or somewhere away from public view, somewhere they might be able to go to sleep without one eye open.
But Father Peter knows they are there, and so do many others who have the unenviable job of trying to help fix broken people.
Father Peter says a lot of them are dealing with intellectual disabilities and psychiatric problems. Many have come from relationships or childhoods where they have been physically, sexually and mentally abused. For some, the only place they can go back to is a place where that abuse will continue.
Over the past two days, The Border Mail’s Jodie O’Sullivan and Olivia Lambert have revealed the extent of the problem on the Border, and the toll it is taking not just on those who are slipping through the cracks but on those desperately trying to help.
It’s easy to ignore a problem when it doesn’t punch you in the face. And there is no easy fix. But no progress was ever made in solving a problem by pretending that problem didn’t exist.
It’s not just a simple case of more funding. Some problems can be resolved by throwing money at them but the issues around this one are multi-layered, and far too complex.
A good start would be to take a leaf out of Father Peter’s book and extend some understanding and compassion. Every day, there are many people working very hard to help and they deserve their community’s support.