HOW WE ESCAPED THE STREETS
FORMER ROUGH SLEEPERS TELL STORIES OF HOPE
SLEEPING rough on the streets of Coventry, they were among the most desperate in the city.
Sheltering where they could, the two homeless people lived in constant fear of being attacked and struggled to find money for food.
Pleas for help met dead ends, and they found themselves estranged from the family, friends and support networks they could once count on.
This Christmas, however, they are enjoying warmth, hot food and companionship after the
Salvation Army opened a door when all seemed lost.
The former drifters are rebuilding their lives at the charity’s Gateway centre in Hillfields, a ‘Lifehouse’ designed for some of the city’s most needy people to take the next steps towards work, training and accommodation.
Gemma Rattigan, who once slept in tents by the canal, and a 26-year-old man rekindling his love of music, both sat down for an early Christmas lunch where Wasps’ stars joined Salvation Army staff to serve up a traditional turkey roast at the hostel.
Here they describe how they have escaped the streets and their renewed hopes for the year ahead
Shivering in a freezing tent on a canal bank in Coventry, Gemma Rattigan was kept going only by the thought of her children. The motherof-nine lived in fear of drunks roaming the pathways and on rainy winter nights would wake up soaked through and wheezing from the cold.
The pitiful existence came after she suffered a mental breakdown that led to the loss of her six-bedroom home in Willenhall, with her children going to stay with her mum.
She was reduced to sleeping by the canal in the city centre, bedding down with little more than a sleeping bag and ground mat from a Coventry Foodbank.
In the warmth, over a communal Christmas dinner table at the Salvation Army’s Gateway centre in Hillfields, the 36-year-old remembers the harsh nights.
“It was cold and lonely at night,” she says. “You get drunk people walking past and you hear loads of stories of people’s tents being set on fire. I relied on my benefits but that didn’t last long because you are constantly having to eat out. I remember waking up one night in a storm, and it was literally just my body holding the tent. It was really bad, rain and wind.”
Gemma slept rough in the tent for the first two months after falling homeless before interspersing nights in her flimsy shelter with spells at friends’ houses.
Her attempts to seek help through Coventry City Council came to nothing, but she was immediately given a bed at the Salvation’s Army rough Harnall Lane hostel after the service was recommended to her by a childhood friend she met at a Foodbank.
Having lived a twilight existence for around a year, she found it hard to adjust to life at the Gateway, and after three months drifted back to the tent.
“I had a room but I wasn’t in the right frame of mind at the time, so I went back to rough sleeping,” Gemma says. “Once you’ve been on the street it takes a while to get back to reality.”
But Gemma returned and progressed through the Salvation Army’s ‘wraparound’ support to the point where she was referred on to the Gateway, where residents take further steps towards securing their own accommodation and leading independent lives.
A shiny pair of keys now represent Gemma’s turnaround as the tenant of a flat in Henley Green with Citizen, a social housing provider who own and manage the Gateway building.
Most importantly, she is rebuilding her relationship with her children.
Gemma said: “The Salvation Army introduce you to independent living again and the support is just unreal, you have wraparound support. My life has taken a turn for the better and I have a property thanks to Gateway backing me up and keeping me focussed.
“Eventually I want to go back to work, I’ll do anything, and once my flat’s decorated I can start having my kids back at weekends. I already spend time with them at my mum’s but now I’ve got my own place and I’m doing positive things with my life I can have them at weekends to start with and eventually have them back, that’s the aim.”
Gemma hasn’t completely escaped the streets; she suffers from chest complaints which she attributes to sleeping out in the cold by the canal. But it hasn’t stood in her way.
After arriving at the Gateway in January 2018, she left in September having progressed to the point where can begin living independently again.
Gemma spent her 36th birthday volunteering at a Christmas dinner held for residents at the Gateway, which was joined by Wasps stars Tommy Taylor and Jimmy Gopperth.
Asked what pulled her through those dark times, she replies: “My children, and the Salvation Army.”
Gemma considers them both family now.
“I’ll probably be coming here forever now,” she says of the Gateway.
“I want to give something back because they have helped me a lot.
It was cold and lonely at night. You get drunk people walking past and you hear stories of tents being set on fire. Gemma Rattigan
They were here when no one else was and they are like my family, my extended family. “
A singer whose life broke down to the point where he was sleeping rough outside shops in Coventry city centre has rekindled his passion for music.
The 26-year-old man had been living with his girlfriend in Birmingham, but when his relationship ended, so did every semblance of normality. Struggling with mental health issues, he spent spells crashing at friends’ homes in Coventry before bedding down anywhere he could, including shopping centre walkways.
The trained chef did not even have a sleeping bag, wrapping up in jackets and blankets before turning to a night shelter as winter drew in.
He said: “With my mental health I just wanted to shove myself away and get away from everything.
“It was terrible on the streets, though you met some nice people. It was cold and lonely at night and you didn’t know what would happen to you, you were defenceless.”
Seeking help, he went to the Salvation Army’s Lifehouse centre on Harnall Lane where he was referred to the Winter Night Shelter, which is run by Coventry churches. He was given a bed and a hot meal each night, though he had to leave during the day.
It proved a catalyst and he stayed two months at the shelter up to the point where it closes for the season in March, before being offered a place at the Gateway hostel in Hillfields.
While he no longer camps down in doorways, he still struggles with complex mental health issues including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and PTSD.
“It was a big weight lifted off my shoulders, but I was really nervous when I first came,” he says of his arrival at the Gatehouse. “I didn’t really socialise with many people, but I started to get to know people and do some of the activities.
“It’s helped, I’ve managed to identify a lot of the problems I’ve been having and the support workers have helped a lot. I’ve been getting the help I need finally.”
The Slipknot fan, who asked not to be named, plans to spend Christmas Day at a gala dinner organised by Crisis, a national charity for homeless people.
With the bedrock of the Gateway helping him to get back on his feet, he plays in a band and also wants to resume his work as a chef.
“I’ve got a lot more hope now, before I didn’t feel like I had any at all,” he says.
“I’ve got a bit more push to do what I need to do.
“I want to be a chef again and I also want to get back into music again next year.
“I’m mainly a vocalist, a singer, but I play drums, guitar and a bit of everything really, but I want to concentrate on my vocals and get a bit of that done.”