{"id":655368,"date":"2025-12-26T06:25:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T06:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/655368\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T06:25:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T06:25:26","slug":"someone-tried-to-take-my-trainers-last-night-waking-up-on-the-streets-of-manchester-this-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/655368\/","title":{"rendered":"“Someone tried to take my trainers last night” – Waking up on the streets of Manchester this Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Christmas morning and only a few remain on the streets of Manchester\"AA homeless man sleeps on the doorway of a closed shop in the city centre(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

It’s Christmas morning in Manchester City Centre and the sun has barely risen. Crouched at the entrance of the usually busy entrance to the Arndale is 40-year-old Darren Ginge.<\/p>\n

Outside of another person who is still asleep in the doorway of a shop on Market Street<\/a>, Darren is the only one awake. Despite spending last night on the streets, Darren says he isn’t homeless.<\/p>\n

He tells the M.E.N that he has a flat in Middleton<\/a> but a dispute with his neighbour meant he was locked out and had to tough it out this Christmas<\/a> Eve.<\/p>\n

However, sleeping rough is not something he’s unaccustomed to, he says. Before finding accommodation, he was homeless for years.<\/p>\n

He says that he’s spent his morning collecting what he can find by way of food and drink and thanks to some “friendly people” he was gifted with chocolate sweets and coat.<\/p>\n

“When I was homeless before I got the flat, it was bad times then. But things have changed.<\/p>\n

“I bumped into some friendly people and they gave me some chocolates and another person gave me a jacket to wear.<\/p>\n

\"TentsTents were pitched up in the quiet city centre this Christmas morning (Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

“I was on the streets for seven years, I’ve been in and out of jail in my life, that’s like being on the streets itself.<\/p>\n

“You constantly have to keep restarting, rebuilding everything, it’s almost like you have to rob the earth.<\/p>\n

“But the mad thing is right, in life, if you care about everyone and not just yourself, you’ll get more out of it.”<\/p>\n

Walking across an uncharacteristically empty Exchange Square is Rebecca Weston. Despite the biting cold air of winter, she’s in a good mood.<\/p>\n

She’s just had a full English breakfast at Lifeshare on Sackville Street and she was just gifted brand new gloves, hats, socks and scarves to help her cope with the cold weather<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"RebeccaRebecca West says she’s in contact with her family in Wigan but refuses to return (Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

“They gave me a lot.” She told the M.E.N.<\/p>\n

“That’s all we want, don’t judge a book by its cover. Just speak to us instead of spitting or kicking us. That’s all we want.”<\/p>\n

39-years-old, Rebecca’s roots are in Wigan<\/a>, but a victim of domestic abuse, she has gone down a path which leaves her way from her friends, family and two children on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

“It was cold last night, I slept in a box because its so cold. All I’ve got is a sleeping bag because my tent got taken.<\/p>\n

“Someone tried to take my trainers last night. It’s tough being out here, you have to look after yourself.<\/p>\n

“My family ring me, but I can’t go back because of my ex. I can’t go back yet.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Bruce’s plan for the day was to find something to eat (Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

On Cross Street, a shivering Michael Bruce sits alone. He’s from Salford<\/a>, Little Hulton, but his current place of residence is under a bridge in Manchester and he’s ventured into the city centre today with the hopes of making enough money to get some food.<\/p>\n

“I’m trying.” He told the M.EN. “I’ve been on the streets since 2018, it happened after I lost my daughter.<\/p>\n

“When she died, I died. That’s the only way I can explain it. I have faith a lot of faith and if it wasn’t for that I don’t know where I’d be.<\/p>\n

“There are a lot of people of nice people out here. When these buildings are open, people come out and give you food.<\/p>\n

“Believe it or not, Christmas time is the best time to get food, there’s a lot of communities out here who want to help.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s Christmas morning and only a few remain on the streets of ManchesterA homeless man sleeps on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,35745,393,4884,6332,2465,2768,41991,9548,1290,16,15,1287],"class_list":{"0":"post-655368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-christmas","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-homelessness","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-manchester-weather","15":"tag-market-street","16":"tag-middleton","17":"tag-salford","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-wigan"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115784447199097912","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}