‘Being homeless felt inevitable’: after years in care, I was living in a tent. Who was to blame? – I survived care, criminality and homelessness to become an award-winning journalist – but the system I endured makes such success stories vanishingly rare
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Our care system has always been broken. And it still is.
Sexual abuse has been rampant.
The most needy in society have been repeatedly let down and then punished for the outcomes of other people’s shortcomings.
Reading this, it could so easily have been me. I have adhd. Got kicked out of home more than once.
I really feel for this guy. He still has so much shame.
To which the Tories respond by overseeing cuts to council budgets (and social services as a result) and cuts to education, which will only make such stories even rarer. Those in care are seen as a societal shame, rather than those in need, people seem content with giving them as little as possible and allowing them to fall into a life of crime instead. We then act surprised when they grow up to be career criminals with drug problems, even though that is practically the only opportunity we give many of them.
To most of society he’d be considered to blame. That’s how people are.
I do recommend reading My Name is Why by Lemn Sissay for his take on the care system and its systematic failures. His mother, an Ethiopian exchange student, was effectively tricked into handing over her newborn son to the care service. Until the age of about 17, he was told his name was Norman Greenwood until he finally found his real name on a file. He didn’t even get to see a photo of his mother until he was 21.
Rampant individualism means other people will always blame you.
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That feeling of inevitability is something I’m constantly struggling with much like how this guy is writing, it seems self fulfilling.
I can work hard but it’s always met with burnout and abuse, it’s like society would prefer me and other people be homeless so as to get out the way or disappear.
You can go out your way to ask for help and be treated like a nuisance and abuser yourself.
I can understand why he didn’t feel dread or panic that first night because honestly the streets do seem more welcoming sometimes despite it being one of my worst fears, people are ultimately that much worse especially when indentured into this social system.
How many people like him who didn’t make it out the other end? Certainly does seem inevitabile when we’ve been reduced to the reliance of charity instead of actual established structures from government.