‘I SLEEP ON THE FLOOR WITH THE WINDOWS OPEN’
C
RAIG CHURCHILL was simply known as the homeless man living in a wooden shelter built to keep out the rain and wind on a town high street.
Twelve months ago he was forced to leave that makeshift home outside the entrance to the former Marks and Spencer store on Taff Street in Pontypridd.
The 38-year-old had been in the town for six months, previously setting up camp under the bridge by Treforest.
But after moving to his shelter in the town Craig was issued with a legal notice demanding that he leave the town centre “with immediate effect”.
His sad story of homelessness, which started seven years earlier following a marriage separation, struck a chord with people in Pontypridd who had become familiar with his friendly demeanour.
They brought him food and blankets. Craig was devastated he had to leave.
Now a year has passed, and as we try to find him there are fears over what we might find.
Is he still on the streets? Healthy? Is he even alive?
Now 39, we meet Craig at Prince’s Restaurant in Pontypridd after a plea on social media.
He looks well. Happy. He greets us with a smile. His clothes are clean. He is also noticeably calmer.
A year ago he was visibly angry. That is gone.
He now has a roof over his head and a relationship with his family.
“I was in supported accommodation for between eight to nine months,” he says, before being offered a council flat eight weeks ago. It’s taken him a long time to adapt. “I sleep on the floor with the windows open. I go out still. I go home when I need to.
“People told me to go for it. Here I am and I did it. I don’t know how, to be honest. I’ve surprised a lot of people.”
There is some irony of course that the council has found him accommodation a year after evicting him from the town centre.
“I’m grateful,” he said. “But the way it was done was appalling.
“The way it [the shop] was boarded up – it wasn’t the way it should have been handled.”
Craig still struggles with his mental health. He has anxiety and depression and has battled it since he was 18.
But he is starting to overcome some of his fears while healing old rifts, including rebuilding a relationship with his mother.
“I spent last Christmas outside Marks and Spencer,” he said. “This year I spent it with my mother.”
To add more irony, the catalyst for that was also his eviction from the town centre.
“The enforcement officer had to take a lot of my stuff to my mother’s house.
“That broke the ice between us. “She wasn’t happy with how I was and how I have been, but what mother would disown their son?
“She was happy for me but upset with what she was seeing.
“I have a better relationship with her. I’m going up on Sunday for dinner.”
Family is what brought him to Pontypridd. Craig used to spend a lot of time there with his nan when he was a child.
Last year, as he pulled his trolley of items through Taff Street, people were approaching and asking where he was going and what was happening.
Now people just stop to ask him how he is.
While speaking to us one woman interrupts to give him a hug. The whole town adopted him as one of their own.
“Everybody is so kind. The people are caring and the generosity they