Sleeping Rough – Coming in from the cold
In January we were delighted to support Wiltshire Rough Sleeper team with a news report for BBC Points West on the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP). Tracy has lived in our emergency provision for a short while and here she reflects on her story and what it is like sleeping rough.
Tracy lived with her mum in Chippenham for over twenty years, caring for her in later life when her mum developed dementia. At the end of her mother’s life, Tracy found herself without a home. Since she was not listed on her mother’s council tenancy and the property was a three-bedroom house, she had to leave. As Tracy says, this led to a downward spiral that led to sleeping rough which was especially challenging for a woman in her fifties.
“I started out sleeping rough in several different places around Chippenham. Sleeping rough is literally about wearing all your clothes, including your boots, because if you don’t, you’ll wake up and find even those are gone. I was beaten up a couple of times. It was horrible.
Eventually, I went up to the woods on my own to hide away. It’s scary up there anyway, but it was even scarier than not being alone compared to being around other people, to be honest.
Sometimes, I stayed near the swimming pool because the pool would pump out warm air. It was warm, but there was always the risk of people coming out of the pubs drunk. I’d return to find my tent gone and everything with it. It was a nightmare.”
“So eventually, I started speaking to others and I got the support from the rough sleeper team that I needed, and I engaged with the right people I suppose. And then, thank the Lord, I ended up here.”
Did support workers find you, or did you seek them out?
“They found me. I went to the council every now and then and I was also hospitalised three or four times with pneumonia but once I was well again, I was just straight back out sleeping rough on the street. And eventually they found me and put like a silver blanket around me and I suppose I spoke to the rough sleeper team who put me in touch with the right people and kind of went from there to there.”
“I don’t know the words for it to be fair. It’s just such a relief to just have a room and have somewhere warm, a bed. When you’ve been in those conditions and you get somewhere safe, it’s nice. It’s beyond nice.”
Tracy, on surviving the cold and finding supported accommodation
Life after support:
“I’ve gained a little bit of control over my life, but I can see my family although I am only in an emergency room at the moment but I hope to be given a my own room upstairs soon once I sort things out with council and what have you, as I had to get an agreement where I paid back some rent arrears as at the time I didn’t even have my own bank account, so it was a bit of an issue.”
On surviving the cold and finding supported accommodation:
“I don’t know the words for it to be fair. It’s just such a relief to just have a room and have somewhere warm, a bed. When you’ve been in those conditions and you get somewhere safe, it’s nice. It’s beyond nice.”
Help page if sleeping rough or needing help.
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