COVER STORY
A JOURNALIST from Stokeon-trent has published a new book charting the lives of people who have passed away on the streets of the UK. No Fixed Abode follows the journey of investigative journalist Maeve Mcclenaghan as she tries to uncover how and when people have died while they were homeless across the UK.
Jayne Simpson, pictured below, was just 53 when she died in the doorway of a bank on Bridge Street, Stafford. In her new book, Stoke-onTrent born Maeve, interviews Jayne’s family and friends, attends her funeral and inquest and tries to piece together the ways the system failed her. For the book, award-winning journalist Maeve spent years investigating the homeless crisis.
She travelled from Glasgow to Brighton to hear the heartrending stories of people struggling to survive in a crumbling system and to meet some of the courageous people who dedicate their lives to saving them.
The book reveals just how the UK, one of the richest nations in the world, found itself in the midst of a homelessness crisis.
No Fixed Abode aims to give a face and a voice to those whom our society chooses to ignore: a man who froze to death in the garden of the home he used to own, a woman driven to the streets by the death of her son, a campaigner who turned a bus he bought on ebay into a portable shelter.
Maeve hopes that by reading their stories people will come to understand how, with just a little too much misfortune, anyone could find themselves homeless.
More importantly, it will emphasise how the smallest act of kindness can save a life. Maeve, who now lives in Cheshire, said: “Of the many hundreds of deaths I logged during the investigation, Jayne’s stayed with me. “Before Jayne I had assumed people experiencing
homelessness were cut off from friends and family, but as I spent time with Jayne’s mother and met her daughters I learnt just how hard they had fought to help her.
“I also spent time at the Stafford-based House of Bread, where I watched first hand as volunteers battled to support those facing huge hardships.”
Maeve, a journalist working at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and creator and host of podcast The Tip Off, added: “But by learning more of Jayne’s life, attending her funeral and inquest, and digging into the official support she received, I came to realise that the safety net we assume would protect people like her, has been worn away by years of cuts.
“In No Fixed Abode I try to tease out the lessons we can and should learn from Jayne’s deaths, so no-one else shares her sad fate: dying homeless and alone in a doorway.”