THREE years ago, a mum-of-two stepped out of prison with only the clothes on her back, with no prospects and nowhere to call home.
Having served a short sentence for attacking a man who had previously harassed and attacked her, Ange became a rough sleeper, another statistic in the country’s burgeoning homeless crisis.
Wiltshire has seen a 66 per cent rise in the number of rough sleepers in the past year, compared to a 3 per cent average overall in the UK.
But unlike the old adage, there seems to be no safety in numbers.
Former Ange, now 42, was at the Alabare homeless charity, which provides a day care service for Salisbury’s community, offering hot meals, drinks, advice and a warm, dry space, as well as emergency accommodation, before assisting those who are ready to transition into temporary housing.
Pushing her beloved dog Poppy, aged 17, in a doggie pram, Ange relives the horrors she has been exposed to on the streets.
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“It was really tough. I came out of prison, I only had the clothes I stood up in,” she told The Sun.
“I had no tent and a very sick dog to try and nurse back to life as he hadn’t been looked after well, the housing association didn’t let me keep my flat and all my belongings were gone.
“I’ve lived in Wiltshire for 20 years, so I went to Trowbridge and was sleeping on pavements and under whatever I could, and then in a tent once I was able to get one.
“But I had to move on, or I’d get moved on, every two weeks. My tent was burned down on three occasions, I’d literally go out and come back to find embers, still smouldering with everything gone, no tent, no sleeping bag, so I’d have to start again.
“You’d get men coming up and being lairy, aggressive and smashing up the tent, stealing things, and one on occasion I was in Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury and three drunk squaddies were trying to get in my tent with me inside.
“It was really scary. I didn’t know what they were going to do to me and I was trying to protect the dog but luckily a man passing through came helped me chase them away.
“After that I hid from people, I camped in fields and hid my tent in bushes so I’d feel safer and nobody could find me.
“It’s perilous, really, being a female on the street. It’s just heartbreaking. You’re keeping one eye open, looking after the dog every night, so not really sleeping properly, just cat napping, which also encouraged me to drink a lot at the time, and then I would end up drinking just to go to sleep.
“The reason so many people sleeping rough come to Wiltshire is that it’s known to be a good place for accessing services. You know you’ll get fed, you can get a tent, a sleeping bag and there’s more help.”
Asked about her hopes for the future, Ange said: “I want a forever home for me, somewhere where it’s a base where I can then re-adjust to what I’ve been through and try and cope with that. It’s a lot to process.
“I just want a forever home, so somewhere stable, somewhere that’s just mine. I can shut the door and lock the door and be safe. And I want to build a new life.”
Ange is on her way to getting her life back, after being given a bed at Alabare’s 40-bed emergency accommodation, where residents were enjoying a St Patrick’s day lunch when we left them.
Walking across the city, visitors see an array of independent shops and cafes, pretty architecture and the Poultry Cross, which was a hive of activity with the twice weekly Charter Market taking place.
In Market Walk, there was one man snoozing in a sleeping bag and one site where a pink blanket had been left, besides which kind locals had left flowers, chocolates and bananas for the owner.
Rising attacks
On the other side of the market, we stepped into the darkness of a concrete underground car park beneath the local Sainsbury’s.
There we found a shape moving under a blanket and heard a man moaning and muttering to himself, surrounded by blankets, a trolley and rubbish including beer cans.
We then came across a couple expecting a baby.
Sadly, one of the parents is homeless, while the other lives with her mother.
Jake Wilshire, is 33 and has been homeless since leaving an HMO in Devizes, Wilts, 18 months ago.
He tells a similar story of abuse, picking up a brick nearby which he found had been thrown at his tent nights earlier.
“I’ve been bullied, had bricks thrown at my tent, my things stolen and had my things damaged and broken and it’s taking the mick now. I’m just lucky I wasn’t inside the tent when the brick was thrown this week, I just came back to find it on my pillow,” he said.
“It’s worse on a Friday night and Saturday when there’s loads of drunks around giving you abuse just because you’re homeless.”
In a shocking video filmed in Salisbury in January, a sleeping homeless woman in her 50s was savagely kicked in the head in an unprovoked attack at 3am by a passing drunk who was held back by his companions as he tried to land more blows.
This month Aaron Nomicas, 20, from Larkhill, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was handed a six-month sentence in prison for what police described as a ‘shocking and viscous attack’.
Jake said: “It’s disgusting that people behave like that, she’s a human being. He should have got six years, not six months, it’s a joke.”
Horrified locals
Fruit and veg stall owner Bob Downs run Bob’s Farm Fresh at the Salisbury Charter Market every Tuesday and Saturday.
“It’s surprising there has been such a high number in Wiltshire compared to anywhere else in the country.
“There are a lot of homeless people in the town, especially in the car park. You often see the same people and they usually come by the stall most days, so we sort them out with some fruit, they’re no bother.
“The attack that happened to the lady who was kicked in the head was sick. I don’t know what anyone would behave like that to another person. He deserved to go to prison.”
Retired lorry driver Geoffrey Palmer, 75, said: “It is not a surprise to me that there are so many people sleeping rough in Wiltshire, you see lots of them around the town here all the time.
“But I do think a lot of them don’t help themselves. There is help there if they want it, but there are obviously a lot of mental health problems and places which offer food and drinks, but they often prefer to be sleeping out because these places have rules about drugs and alcohol.
“It’s a shame but they have to want to change before they can get better and get off the streets.”
Alabare head of homeless Alex Cattelona said: “I think the reasons for the rise will be varied from family breakdowns, cost of living, increase that we’re all going through now, access to private rented accommodations and mental health concerns.
“One of the things that we have been finding is that we are not having a lot of entrenched rough sleepers in Wiltshire. We get quite a lot of what they call new flow.
“So, they’re people that haven’t been homeless for very long. They’re coming from other counties and other areas to Wiltshire because they know there’s good support here in terms of the drop-in service here and in Chippenham.
“There’s quite good help available for people that want it within Wiltshire, and that is got out on the grapevine within the sort of homelessness community.
“So we are seeing a lot of people that have come from elsewhere to Salisbury because they’ve heard it’s a good place to be homeless because you can get a meal, access to support that’s available like the drop in, but it’s not necessarily that they’ll come straight into our services and get a bed space straight away.
“Some of them don’t necessarily want that but they know that they can get a decent set of help immediately to get them through their day, like hot meals, advice and somewhere warm and dry for most of the day.
“We can get some of the basic needs of people met, as well as that holistic support that we give our residents. Rather than focusing on just getting somebody into a tenancy, we’ll look at their whole life and how they can reach their full potential.”
Reacting to the recent attack on the woman who was kicked in the head, he added: “Any attack of that nature is not nice, it is unnecessary. I think there is a cohort of rough sleepers who are feeling very anxious about safety especially in the nighttime economy, so it’s something we need to address. Every member of the community has a right to feel safe.”
No place for violence
Sgt Joshua Bliss, from South CID, said: “This was a highly impactful case – the victim is incredibly vulnerable and had no way of protecting herself, or escaping from, this vicious and unprovoked attack.
“She was sat in Salisbury city centre with her dog, Lance, minding her own business and simply trying to keep warm.
“The suspect was unknown to the victim and within only two hours of the investigation commencing, CID detectives and Neighbourhood officers identified and located the offender.
“In the victim’s account, she describes the offender as a ‘coward’. This is a sentiment shared by those involved in the investigation who saw the CCTV footage showing the attack.
“This court result should send a clear message – if you are someone who preys on the most vulnerable and defenceless members of our community, we will swiftly track you down and we will bring you to justice.”
If you are homeless or have seen someone sleeping rough, you can find help at https://thestreetlink.org.uk
