There are more and more people living on the streets living in the Sunderland area. The problem many link due to the recent economic crisis and loss in jobs, but there are people and organisations who are trying to help those who have nowhere to class as home.
Burns Park Methodist Church on Durham Road and the corner of Beechwood Street do their part in trying to help out the less fortunate. The church hold a ‘drop in’ event on a Sunday evening, which provides the homeless with meals and a chance to meet people and make new friends.
Burns Park Methodist Church where the drop in event is held.
These drop in nights give the people who don’t have the stability of a normal daily lifestyle a bit of a break from their lives and help raise moral. Speaking to Clive, Clive normally spends his nights sleeping rough in and around the city centre. “When I come here I feel warm not just because of being indoors but also because of the love these people show. They take time out of their lives to give me and the others just a brief bite of normality. “
I spoke to Jon, a former office worker whose life turned into a dark spiral through a combination of drinking and gambling. At one point Jon was living in an old abandoned house. “Living in the abandoned house was such a dramatic change, I was living in a nice flat and had what I thought was a good life, but addiction ruined it. I know it’s my fault but I’m in this mess, these people here at the centre are the salt of the earth.”
Not everyone sees the centre as a good thing, some residents of the area have moaned that having a large group of homeless people hanging around on the streets waiting for the ‘drop in’ event to start make the neighbour less appealing and dangerous. “On a Sunday I feel very uneasy walking to the local shop from my house because I have to pass the church and there is always a large group of men lingering around waiting to go into the church. For people who are driving past it can’t give a very good impression on the standard of the neighbourhood.” Beechwood Street resident Rob Parsons.
The event on a Sunday night is seen by many as a positive aspect of society coming together and helping out those who aren’t always guaranteed a warm night’s sleep or even a meal a day.
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