65-year-old Gary E. gave up his rental apartment for a new job. But in the end everything turned out differently. Now the man is homeless.
65-year-old Gary E. has worked his whole life – and yet he is now homeless. For the past six weeks he has slept on the seafront in the English town of Ramsgate. “I have always worked hard and paid my taxes and social security,” the Mirror quoted him as saying.
He gave up his rented apartment last October because Gary took a job with accommodation. He was supposed to start working for a woman as a cook and cleaner, but she died.
Now all he has left is his part-time job at the cash register and in the shop at an amusement park. But the money is not enough for an apartment. Depending on the season, he earns between 200 and 700 pounds a month there. He also receives up to 393 pounds in Universal Credit. This is a payment to cover living costs, writes “gov.uk”. You get the money if you have a low income, are unemployed or cannot work.
“It’s heartbreaking. I put on a happy face at work, but I know I have to leave at the end of the day and I have no safe place to sleep,” says Gary, according to the Mirror. The 65-year-old is applying for other jobs and is confident about the future: “I know it’s only temporary. I’m going to find a new job and a place to live and get myself out of this situation – I’m not going to give up.”
There are several ways in which people become homeless. As the European Federation of Homeless Services (FEANTSA) writes, this is often due to a complex interplay of structural, institutional, relational and personal factors. It goes on to say: “These factors are often coupled with a specific triggering event that leads someone directly into homelessness.”
Structural factors include poverty and a lack of affordable housing. Ineffective homeless policies are one of the institutional factors. Relationship factors can also lead to homelessness. These include domestic violence, separation and bereavement, according to the European umbrella organization for homeless assistance. Personal characteristics include addiction or mental health problems.
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