Couple give students taste of life on streets
ACOUPLE who spent five months sleeping on the streets of Macclesfield have shared their harrowing experiences.
Stewart Hipkiss, 33, and Shelley Hamnett, 35, spoke with students at the King’s School girls’ division to give them a small glimpse of how tough homelessness can be.
It was during a one night sleep out organised by the school in which pupils bedded down at the Fence Avenue Gymnasium on an evening when outside temperatures hit zero.
They were visited by representatives from homelessness charity Cheshire Streetwise as well as Stewart and Shelley, who spent five weeks on the streets in 2019.
Stewart, 33, who has battled drink and drug use and now works as a warehouse operative, said: “Other than the weather and the sheer cold, the worst thing is how you are perceived by others.
“Most just ignore you and even walk over you, but some will attack you for want of something to do.
”I remember a group of young men were hounding us, calling us names like ‘homeless’ and ‘junkie’ and they even stole Shelley’s bag.
“I mean we’ve got nothing and they stole what little we had. We were the lowest of the low in terms of housing priority too so just couldn’t find anything.”
Shelley, 35, is a qualified and experienced beauty therapist and now volunteers for Cheshire Streetwise.
She said: “It was terrible, but we never gave up and Cheshire Streetwise were absolutely and unbelievably fantastic.
“They gave us back our self-belief, our self-confidence and got us back on our feet.
”We’re now sharing a rented room, but when we were on the streets they gave us sleeping bags, showed us where to get hot food and drink and helped us get back into work with education and practical assistance.”
Other members
of
Cheshire Streetwise talked to the group and estimated that between 10 to 20 people sleep on the streets of Macclesfield every single night.
Counsellor Daniel Simpson also described the work of the Winter Homeless Project where local churches take it in turns to open their doors at night and provide food and extra clothing.
And it seemed the message hit the mark.
Speaking afterwards student Zoe Griffiths, 15, said: “I don’t think any of us really appreciate how great we have everything. This was a real eye opener for us.”
And Trinity Mack, 15, added: “We started the night with a mixture of excitement and apprehension but in the dead of night it was just gruelling and unpleasant.”