Chippenham's hope for the homeless (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Chippenham's hope for the homeless

8:00am Saturday 11th February 2012 in News By Tom Mooney

Reporter TOM MOONEY spent a night under the stars with people who have been helped by the Doorway homelessness charity in Chippenham. He recalls the camaraderie he found

BEFORE heading out to sleep rough for the night as part of the Doorway Project sleepout, I had envisaged writing a story about how tough it was sleeping in sub-zero temperatures, in a cardboard box, in a graveyard in January.

And it absolutely was not the most pleasant experience of my life.

But, after speaking to existing and former residents of Doorway, Chippenham’s homelessness charity, I soon realised how insignificant my one night under the stars was compared to their daily struggles.

It is their words which drive home Doorway’s message best of all.

Only a couple of years ago Joe Cowley, 39, was a serving Royal Marine. But after leaving the service and going back to civilian life, things changed very quickly.

“I was at work one day driving a machine and I totally lost it,” he said.

“I didn’t know what was going on in my head and couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

“Some nurses came out and saw me and told me I could have post traumatic stress disorder.”

Unable to work and caught in a destructive cycle, a year ago Joe, originally from Calne, found himself homeless and on the streets of Chippenham. He said: “I was living rough, sleeping every night in one of the parks in Chippenham. I had completely lost my sense of worth.

“People would look at me in the street and they would give you that bad look, like they’re looking down their nose at you.

“That was a horrible feeling. I’m an educated bloke and an ex-Marine and they would just look down at me like that. I felt like I had hit rock bottom.”

Then Joe found out about Doorway and started attending the drop-in centre, where he realised he wasn’t alone.

Father-of-one Joe said: “I can’t even tell you what Doorway have done for me.

“They pulled me back up and made me feel like a person again, like I was worth something.

“I am sure that if it wasn’t for them, I would have ended up dead next to a road or would have taken my own life by now.

“They helped me get back on my feet and have given me my life back. I now have my own flat and I do volunteering for Doorway and for the New Highways charity.

“Homelessness can happen to anyone.

“I spoke to everyone from road sweepers to doctors while I was living rough. That is why the work Doorway does it so important.”