Newcastle homeless charity concerned about anti-rough sleeper backlash

A Newcastle homeless charity is concerned a recent murder trial involving a homeless man will stop people trying to help them.

North East Homeless do outreach work with the homeless community in Newcastle, as well as education for the public through colleges and schools.

They’re concerned the recent news of 23 year old Aaron Barley, who admitted the murder of a woman and her son in the Midlands, will cause a backlash from the public against homeless people.

Barley pleaded guilty to stabbing Tracey Wilkinson and her 13 year old son Pierce to death, after the family had helped him off the streets – feeding and helping him find accommodation and a place to live.

Brian Burridge, who runs North East Homeless, is concerned people will jump to conclusions about all homeless people from this;

“It’s like one step forward, two steps back, of course, people will now think that every homeless person is a potential murderer,

“But we try to focus on safeguarding of our volunteers and our street friends really.

“I think a lot of people think that everyone who’s homeless is a drunk or a drug addict, and I don’t think that’s the case.

“I think there’s a lot of mental health issues on the street, I think there’s a lot of people that just can’t manage.”

Liz Jenkins is a trustee of the charity; she explains they do a lot of work to try to change people’s perceptions of homelessness;

“According to stats, I think they say that we’re all three payslips away from being homeless,

“You find a lot of conversations we have are around relationship breakup and when you have that relationship breakup sometimes you need a couple of thousand pounds for example, for a deposit for a flat that people don’t have – depending on the circumstances they can be just turfed out.”

North East Homeless run feeding outreach programs three times a week across the city – you can find out more about the charity and how to help them via Twitter, Facebook and their website.