With the news of another death on the streets of Belfast, it is a necessity for all of us to come together and to let those in power know this will not go away and neither will we if the problem persists
In the coming days and weeks action will be taken to ensure that all those on the streets will be looked after as always but in the immediate situation outreach teams in Belfast need to double their efforts across the board.
Last night a meeting was held between all the outreach teams in Belfast, it was indeed a fiery exchange and people’s emotions were clear to see, but this is what was needed to first of all put across the point that there is not enough being done by the government and relative agencies to help curb this crises. We were given lots of statistics and “facts” but we were still left with the feeling that nothing concrete was being done, at least among some of us.
This meeting I hope was the first step towards unity, at least on initiatives in the future between outreach groups and services which will cater for people’s needs to take them off the street, because at the end of the day all of us who volunteer to help the guys and girls have the guys and girls at heart. This is not some sort of abstract situation this is a human crises, in the here and now.
Help 4 Homeless have called on outreach teams to come together and let our voices be heard, but not only that, when we look at recent deaths such as Jimmys, we can see that the headlines may be up for a few days, but they dwindle into the abyss again and again, we must keep the pressure on and keep this situation in the spotlight for I fear if we do not it will end up in the corner again with even more deaths happening on the streets of Belfast.
Details of protests and demonstrations will be set in the very near future, as for now we will be focusing on helping those that need us most on the streets, as the deaths of friends and associates has a major effect on the guys and girls we must be there for them.
The Risen People 