bubble
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
[quote quote=137264] They can be housed next to me when they’re ready to take that step – at the moment they’re not and need a lot of support.
[/quote]
So if they’re not ready to be housed next to you, where would you have them housed?
What do people think of the mural? https://www.wrexham.gov.uk/english/council/news/arcade_murals.htm
I find it incredibly grey and dull. But perhaps that’s a perfect fit for the people’s market. I look at it and wonder whether coloured paint was too expensive.‘99DylanJones’, don’t you get weary of hearing the same old excuses?
Have you ever noticed how just about any organisation which purports to be dealing with the ‘homeless’ problem in Wrexham (e.g. charities and churches), or any organisation which the public feel should be dealing with it (e.g. council and police), repeatedly claim that they are actively looking at ways of offering support? For example, it’s a complicated problem, these people have complex issues, it won’t be solved overnight, we need to be patient, it’s a small core of troublemakers, they’re looking at how services can be more joined up, and so on. Yet nothing of any real consequence actually happens to remedy the issues. These organisations all just trot out the same excuses – and the church is no different in that regard, yet likes to portray itself as some sort of kind hearted moral authority. The church would be happy for these people to be rehoused, but would not give a moment’s thought for how that would impact the lives of the people they’re rehoused next door to. The church doesn’t want to take them in itself (for understandable reasons), but would quite happily see one of them moved into a home next to mine – or yours.Substance abuse and homelessness are not new issues. And the organisations involved in these issues are not new to dealing with them. They should have foreseen this situation and proactively headed it off instead of waiting for the public to become so outraged at drug abuse in Wrexham that these organisations felt obliged to offer up their platitudes.
Open Minds is a rehab organisation – though they are not a charity and I’ve no idea of their fees. If their own website (http://www.openmindsrehab.com/index.php) is to be believed they have a very high (more than 90%) success rate. They appear to have very reasonable rules – but importantly those rules appear to be rigorously applied. I wonder whether the do-gooders meddling in Wrexham’s ‘homeless’ scene could take on a bit of that approach, without it costing very much. It seems to me that service providers are too keen to excuse the behaviour of their service users and that they are failing to distinguish between sympathising and enabling.
[quote quote=136737] churches opening their doors sounds admirable but would you like to be the caretaker or warden cleaning up the mess each day, and the cost to churches to replace the damage they would inevitably do.
[/quote]
But churches are supposedly brimming with Christian charity. Maybe they could get volunteers from homeless / drug charities to perform the clean up / repairs of the church after the druggies have spent a night there.
I have no expectation that ‘the church’ will do anything significant (I think one had some sort of coffee and a chat event during the day a few months ago) – only that they COULD do something but choose not to. I have a spare room; I too COULD do something but choose not to – but I am not a church espousing Christian values / charity. The fact is that churches are unused space during the night and churches would clearly rather keep it that way than provide a refuge for people who would otherwise have to sleep outside in all manner of weather conditions.A few years ago I would have felt much sympathy for Wrexham’s homeless. But since living very near to 3 properties inhabited by drug addicts, I find it hard to sympathise with them. It took months to get one evicted and I ended up off work sick and moving to get away from the others (one of whom was not evicted for another 18 months – and another was still there and still a problem). And this was despite there being residents from 13 nearby properties all reporting what these druggies were doing.
From a purely selfish perspective, I’m quite happy for the camp to remain at the Groves – simply because it is nowhere near me.
I’d also be quite happy with a drug ghetto – as long as I didn’t have to live near to it, of course. The drug charities could all be located there too, in close proximity to their service users, and the ghetto’s centrepiece could be a magnificent gleaming ‘fix room’.
As for likening Wrexham’s ‘homeless’ people with those from Grenfell Tower; I think that’s appalling. Grenfell survivors lost their homes, all of their possessions – and in many cases their loved ones – in a truly horrendous and terrifying event that was no fault of their own.
Wrexham’s homeless are generally drug addicts, who in many cases lost their homes not because of their addictions per se, but because of their anti-social behaviour and the adverse effects this had on neighbouring homes and families. Many of them already had the kind of accommodation that we are encouraged to believe would help them turn their lives around – and didn’t even have to pay for it because they were entitled to housing benefit. They want us to treat them well while they continue to treat the rest of us like shit. Until you have lived next to it for an extended period of time and seen all the help they are offered whilst they have not the slightest consideration for anyone else, you could not appreciate how awful it is.
I don’t understand why the churches aren’t opening their doors for them to sleep in at night – it wouldn’t cost churches any extra, it’s unused space at night, Christian charity and so on. It’s as if even the churches sense that these aren’t the kind of people you want to have come and stay over …
It’s probably high time we had another petition from Phil Wynn.
[quote quote=136463]I think there still seems to be a myth on some of the threads about Wrexham attracting more homeless and addicts due to services being here. The current profile of those at the Groves and elsewhere is that about 85% have a local connection.
[/quote]
I’m not suggesting addicts move here in their droves from all over the country, but that addicts from relatively nearby towns and villages will congregate here because the services that either help them or make excuses for them (depending on your view) are in Wrexham. e.g. Nen mentioned people coming from Rhyl; I would also suggest places like Ruabon, Llangollen. Oswestry, etc. The services are largely concentrated around the Rhosddu and Grosvenor Road areas. I don’t think that people living in these areas will ever be free of this problem. I don’t live in the Rhosddu or Grosvenor Road areas, but I do visit them and it’s clear that the problem is worse there than in most other areas of Wrexham.
[quote quote=136430]Went to Queens square this morning it was unbelievably intimidating they were everywhere swearing, arguing with each other etc. something has to be done, the town is struggling without all this, it will be a no go area soon and setting up camps for them in the groves school is just going to encourage more to come.
[/quote]
I don’t think this problem will ever leave Wrexham now. Even if all of the current addicts in Wrexham recovered and got rehomed, more would take their place – simply because this is where the service providers are. Why would addicts go somewhere where there are no agencies to feed them and sympathise with them, when they could come here? And now they have a camp right across the road from The Wallich.
Why is this encampment not prohibited under the PSPO? (I just posted this but then my post just disappeared!)
[quote quote=134436]You spat your dummy out like a crying child because you weren’t on the invite list to the event and have slagged it off ever since.
[/quote]
Ordinary members of the public weren’t on the guest list either. She was in this area during the election campaign on at least 2 occasions. She claimed to prefer getting out to meet the people rather than engage in TV debates. She did this to herself.
