“I had started to feel like a non-person,” says 60 year-old Evelyn* about her experience sleeping on the streets outside Victoria and Waterloo stations for two and a half years. “Before I was down and out,” Evelyn adds, “I used to always give change to the homeless. I never gave it much thought.”

Evelyn worked as a horse trainer “unofficially”, but she found herself unable to work after a fall left her with a shoulder injury and a hairline fracture in one leg. When her mother died 10 years ago, she stayed with friends, but “you can only do that for so long.” Eventually, she “found herself in a shop doorway.”

When Evelyn’s friend told her about the West London Churches shelters, she came for the hot meals and a warm place to sleep, but says she came away with much more. “The volunteers are so caring. They make you feel that there are people who do care,” she says. After coming to the shelter, “I started to feel like I had an identity; that I could have a future.”

Evelyn adds: “I would like to thank all of the volunteers and people behind the scenes who gave their time so generously.”

*not her real name

Local News