A reclusive “mad inventor” in Northern Ireland is harnessing the goodwill of the people of Belfast to help the local homeless community, as they face a deadly crisis.
Good Samaritans from across the city have been leaving donations of clothing and toiletries in a set of ‘Kindness Drawers’ which appeared in Victoria Street, in the centre of town, on New Year’s Eve. The drawers are unsupervised and rely on the kindness of strangers to provide essentials to vulnerable people.
People in need can freely collect anything they require from the set of 18 plastic drawers, which are decorated with messages of goodwill, as well as contact details for support services.
Formerly-homeless Belfast man Kris Nixon was approached by the individual behind the guerrilla project, in order to act as his spokesperson. The arrangement allows the inventor of the social experiment to remain anonymous.
“It’s just awesome how people have responded to it,” Kris said of the project. “There’s been no lack of empathy from Belfast people. The people of Belfast are so used to the bad news stories – not just the Troubles, but the constant political unrest here. We’ve lurched from one crisis to another. There’s a housing shortage – everyone knows this.
“Then all of a sudden, after the festive period, this little good news story pops up. And people think, ‘I wasn’t expecting that. It isn’t what I’m used to hearing – and I’ve got the opportunity to help.’ The people of Belfast have really taken to that.”
And it looks as though people are making use of the donations too. “I’ve spoken to different outreach groups in Belfast and they’re seeing service users and rough sleepers talking about it. So, so far it’s going better than we expected,” Kris added.
The appearance of the drawers has coincided with a particularly hard time for homeless people in Belfast, as three rough sleepers have died in the harsh weather since the beginning of the year. A fourth man who had been sleeping rough passed away just after he had found housing.
Reacting on social media, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness said he was “concerned” by the deaths, whilst homeless outreach charities called the situation “nightmarish”.
A spokesperson from Amethyst Outreach said the man who died last week was a regular user of their services. “This is a nightmare,” they added. “I just don’t know what else to say here. This nightmare is never-ending.”
Kris and his family were homeless for two years in his mid-teens after they moved from his native Belfast to Brighton. During their time in England, his mother and her partner were struggling with a drink problem – they “decided that the pub was a preference to paying rent”.
“For the next two years we moved from hostel to half-way house to B&B – anywhere the council can put you. Sometimes you’re there for three months, sometimes you’re there for two nights,” he recalled. “Especially at that age, trying to do GCSEs, it’s a complete screw-up of your system. I’d finish school for the day and I wouldn’t know where I was sleeping that night. I’d have to call my mum and say, am I going to the hostel in Brighton, or are we in a town 15 miles away?”
Kris is now a political activist on issues around poverty in Belfast. He hopes the Kindness Drawers can remove the barriers to accessing help that he experienced – and put power back in the hands of homeless people.
Via - nsp.ngo
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