Time with the Thursday troop.
Diane and Russell both started together at the Hub, and after some deliberation agreed it must be all of three years. Diane feels very strongly that it is wrong to condemn people through ignorance and admits to being impatient with those who will not go and find out for themselves, so that is what she did. When she heard what the rough sleepers had to say, she felt nothing but compassion for them and is keen to tell their stories. Watch this space for Diane's contribution in the near future.
Working with rough sleepers has always been an undertaking close to Russell's heart. He emphasises the pleasure to be gained from working at the Hub. He vividly remembers his first impression. "The first day here I was serving the midday meal. At the end, every single person I'd served thanked me personally. They were so polite and appreciative." He also has a fond memory of Whitey, who sadly passed away this winter. "Three times I prayed for Whitey to be given a flat," he relates. "Each time, Whitey would say, 'I'm a pagan and what I see and what I hear is what I believe, but if there is a man up there, I don't want to pee him off.' Even he had to laugh though when he finally got that flat."
When asked if he had come across anything quirky at the Hub he hesitated long enough for Wendy to chip in, "Yes, me!" All the teams are constantly making jokes and the Thursday troop is no exception. Wendy probably knows more about the Dorchester homeless than anyone. One of her earliest memories is of the tramps (as they then were in the 1950s) calling at the convent school in Cornwall Road. "They would pretend to be deaf and dumb but would suddenly be able to say thank you when the nuns gave them food," she laughs. In a more sombre mood she also remembers the old man foraging through the bins in Trinity Street for discarded fish and chips. Wendy's commitment to helping rough sleepers stems from those early memories and has been reinforced by her career as a nurse. She has had first hand experience of the distress caused by increasing drug and alcohol dependence, which she blames on a fragmented sense of community and weakening social cohesion. "If you sit down and talk to the rough sleepers, nine out of ten can tell you what precipitated their downward spiral. None of them are hopeless cases and I don't believe in giving up on anyone. People might think this place must be the most depressing place in the world. It is absolutely not that at all."