PREGNANT – AND
AS NIGHT falls, Hellen’s boyfriend says his goodbyes and leaves her behind as he goes off to, hopefully, make some money. At eight weeks pregnant, she needs to be taken care of, so he leaves her in the company of another friend, Fletcher, whom he knows will keep an eye out for her.
And she needs the extra support, because as well as being an expectant mother, the 40-year-old is homeless.
The couple have been camped out in a small tent, pitched close to Swansea’s seafront, next to the Civic Centre.
Her boyfriend has gone into the city centre for the evening, with the intention of begging a few coins the couple can use for the most basic of necessities: food.
She cannot do it herself, having been made subject to a police order, banning her from coming into the town to beg for a week.
“Six weeks I’ve been says.
“My partner is out begging. We’ve had the tent slashed, people damaging the cords.
“We’ve been banned from town for a week, for begging. That’s what we all do, but it is Freshers’ Week now, so they are clearing the town for students week. Getting rid of us.
“My boyfriend’s been in hospital for the last three days, but he’s out now and he’s had to go begging for us.”
The couple saved up £80 to pay for their tent, but own little else. They use the Civic Centre facilities occasionally, where they praise the security staff there for the tolerant way in which they are treated, but it’s not somewhere of her own she can use as her pregnancy advances.
“What toilet facilities have we got?” she says.
“I’m a woman. We’ll go in there [the Civic Centre] for a one-off, but if we go in too much, security push us out.
“I’m not too good at the moment. I’m bleeding now.
“I’ve got a midwife, got a doctor, but there’s nothing they can do for me.
“I’ve been living here six weeks, but nine months on the street. And that’s because of domestic violence from another relationship.
“Me and my boyfriend have been trying to get on each other’s claims since August, so that we can get a house together.
“He’s my partner, and we’re engaged to be married and to be honest I’m going to be with him no matter what.
“If that means staying out here, I’ll stay out here. here,” she
“I stay here during the day with my partner and during the night I’m here with Fletch, and my partner goes out begging. He’s just texted me now saying he’s got money, and he’s going to get some food.
“I’ve got to have my partner with me during the day, Fletcher with me during the night, because people do get aggressive.
“It’s not too bad, but we do sometimes get people coming down here when they’re p****d, being aggressive.
“Fletch will zip up the tent and tell me not to come out until they’re gone.
“But then you’ll get other people who’ll come up and give us £2, £3, because they see us here all the time. We move, but our tents don’t.
“People think we are begging for drugs, alcohol, whatever, but we are out here for a living.
“There’s been times we’ve stopped people jumping in the water.”
It isn’t the first time Hellen has been pregnant. She says she has a daughter she saw the other day.
“I was by McDonald’s, and I heard someone and I thought ‘I know that voice’. I turned around and she gave me £2 but told me I’d have to beg the other pound for a bottle.”
Looking out for Hellen Fletcher.
The 57-year-old has deep-vein thrombosis in both legs, and has suffered two heart attacks, and three strokes.
“We survive the best we can, without committing crime, which is hard,” he says.
“I’ve been here 10 weeks in this tent. I’ve come from Port Talbot, where they say they’ll help me with property, but I’ll have to find one first. They tell us to find something on Facebook – but how can you get Facebook here?
“I’ve only got a tent. We’ve got nada. We’re third-class citizens. The police don’t help or anything.”
Emergency shelter is limited. Charity The Wallich has a limited number of beds at its base on The Strand, as do the Missionaries of Charity, and charity Caer Las.
It is one of the reasons that calls have started to be made for the establishment of a “safe zone” in Swansea – an area which can provide sleeping space, a roof and basic toilet facilities.
Earlier this summer, something similar opened in Bristol – a 30-bed 24-hour homeless shelter made possible with £600,000 government funding, which has increased the is friend number of emergency bed spaces in the city from 65 to 107.
It’s an idea being championed in Swansea by Plaid Cymru.
The party’s candidate for Gower is financial broker John Davies, who has for the past six years been working with night shelters in Swansea, and more recently joining weekly soup runs which provide hot food and clothes for the homeless. Pantygwydr Church in Uplands and Bethel Chapel in Sketty are two churches which provide support for the homeless.
“It can be quite intimidating on the streets,” he says. “People are vulnerable, but they get treated in an awful way. They have to hide just to exist.
“It is evident no-one is looking after them. A safe zone would be a place where they are looked after. It could be something like a portable cabin, or a converted shipping container.
“It doesn’t have to be elaborate, just somewhere they know they can get a good night’s sleep, and know they are not going to get beaten up.
“The cost would not have to be huge, and it would save the money spent if people are arrested and have to go through the prison system, when they would come out more agitated.”
Daniel, who first became homeless in 2001 following the death of his father, is enjoying a hot dog courtesy of soup run volunteers, outside The Wallich’s hostel Dinas Fechan on The Strand.
He said: “I’m in a B&B at the minute so I’m all right, but a safe zone would help.
“It would be good from a social aspect as well, because it keeps us together.
“I don’t get grief because I play it safe. I walk around, I’m nice to people, I’m nice to police.
“But you do hear people saying ‘you junky, get a job, I’m not paying for your crack habit, whatever’.
“I’ve been homeless about two years. I just come out of jail. I committed a burglary, drugs and that.
“A safe zone would be handy. I’d say have it near the beach, you could put up tents there. You’d be helping the community and making people aware.”
Another beneficiary of the soup run is Dan. He said: “I got arrested the other week waiting for a chip shop to open on Bryn y Mor Road. Two officers said I was begging, but I didn’t have nothing out in front of me, I was just sitting down.
“Instead of punishing us, why not help us? Because many a time they’ve said they are going to do this, do that, but I’ve seen nothing.
“I’d love a place, like a safe zone. I need a bit of support, a bit of guidance, a bit of help.”
John, who has been sleeping rough for more than 10 years, agreed: “This place really needs shaking up.
“There are more and more places being built for students, but what about us who already live in the community? What we want is like a community club, or a community space.
“There is nothing at the moment for anyone. Some of the police move us on, sometimes they don’t.
“They can move us on, but we’re